THE BRITISH MUSEUM is an encyclopaedic museum dedicated to human history and culture and is known for exhibiting artefacts from ancient cultures. It is perhaps less well known that the museum also displays and collects the works of living artists.… Continue reading
IN HIS ESSAY In Praise of Shadows, Jun’ichiro Tanizaki considers the shifts in Japanese culture in the 20th century, noting with displeasure the influence of Western ideas and practices on the aesthetics of Japan. The introduction of electric lights is especially… Continue reading
THAT FABLED HIGHWAY, the Silk Road, crossed some of the most inhospitable territory on earth for at least 2,000 years. From China’s bleak northwestern borders, the oldest and most historically important trade route wound over deserts and mountains, laden camels… Continue reading
THERE IS A new generation of contemporary art collector in China with collections as much defined by international artists as they are by the Chinese artist whose names we are all familiar with. They are young, highly educated, wealthy and… Continue reading
PHILANTHROPIST AND art fanatic Feroze Gujral eases into a conversation about her projects and the Gujral Foundation with an affable ease. In this ambassadorial role, Gujral epitomises a new kind of entrepreneurial spirit that is progressively galvanising the arts in… Continue reading
IN 1968, AMID an economic boom, many in Japan registered widespread discontent over social inequalities. At the same time, the country was roiled by protests against the Vietnam War and the upcoming renewal of a treaty extending American occupation. This exhibition, which includes Japanese… Continue reading
MUCH OF Ai Weiwei’s extraordinary life is already common knowledge. His father, Ai Qing, is considered to be one of China’s greatest modern poets. Denounced as a dissident during Chairman Mao’s Anti-Rightist campaign of the 1950s, Ai Qing moved with… Continue reading
The inspiration for this major exhibition on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Cleveland Museum of Art was the December 2013 acquisition of works from the Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Ralph Benkaim Collection of Mughal and Deccan Paintings.… Continue reading
The Institut du Monde Arabe has designed a wonderful exhibition in five parts that retraces the history of gardens of the Orient from earliest antiquity to the most contemporary innovations, from the Iberian Peninsula to the Indian subcontinent. The intstitue… Continue reading
On my visit to Huang Rui’s Huantie studio on the northern outskirts of Beijing late last year, the artist without whom contemporary art in China would not be what it is today made a startling revelation. ‘I am thinking about… Continue reading