An exhibition at Honolulu Museum of Art is shaped around a recent major gift from one of the museum’s benefactors, allowing them to explore a fascinating period in Japanese art, comprising paintings, ceramics and lacquerware produced between the 1870s and… Continue reading
The latest exhibition at the British Museum, China’s Hidden Century, considers the rapid change that took place in China during the late 19th century and early 20th century under the Qing dynasty. From the end of the 18th century, successive… Continue reading
There is an interesting description of life in mid-19th century Ceylon, published in the New York Times in 1878, entitled Ceylon’s Spicy Breezes, filed by their special correspondent from Kandy, the cultural capital at the heart of the island. It… Continue reading
Fukuda Kodojin – Landscapes Fukuda Kodojin (1865-1944) was among a handful of scholar-artists who continued the tradition of literati painting (nanga) after 1900. Kodojin’s painting style is characterised by bizarre mountain forms rendered in vivid colour or monochromatic ink that… Continue reading
It is believed that Japonisme has its beginnings in the workshop of a printer in Paris, when, in the 1856, the painter and printmaker Félix Braquemond (1833-1914) came across, by chance, examples of Japanese manga (kacho-ga) by Hokusai that had… Continue reading
The mystic writings of the Persian poet known as Rumi (1207-1273) are generally considered to be the supreme expression of Sufism, the mystical trend in Islamic thought and culture. Rumi was born in 1207 in Vakhsh in present-day Tajikistan, to… Continue reading
Chinese Bird and Flower Paintings China’s artists have for centuries linked flora and fauna with auspicious meanings and scholarly virtues. There are flowers and plants associated with the four seasons and twelve months that convey a sense of time passing… Continue reading
The Hong Kong Palace Museum has received over 900,000 visitors since it opened its doors in July 2022. Its success undoubtedly comes from the ongoing fascination of the public with life in the Forbidden City and the lives and tastes… Continue reading
Japonisme is a widely acknowledged term, generally associated with the creation in the West as the Japanese influence on art and design from the 19th century onwards. Surprisingly, one field has so far been overlooked when it comes to the… Continue reading
The Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore is presenting its latest installation in the Fashion and Textiles Gallery of garments and cloths from India. Indian textiles have been traded to South East Asia for nearly 2,000 years and were highly prized… Continue reading