2011-2012 Schedule of Events

October

Saturday, October 1st, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Bus trip to the Brooklyn Museum and a tour of the exhibition, Vishnu: Hinduism’s Blue-Skinned Savior by Joan Cummins, the Lisa and Bernard Selz Curator of Asian Art and to the Newark Museum and the Tibetan Collection Centennial Exhibition

Organized by Henry Harrison


Sunday, October 30th, 2:30 p.m.

A Silk Road Story: Blue and White Ceramics Encircle The Globe
A lecture by Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, Japanese Art History, Boston University and Associate in Research at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University

Dr. ten Grotenhuis will also show a video of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble’s multi-media performance celebrating the global circulation of blue and white ceramics. She is active on the Board of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project.

Location: Wellesley Community Center

Organized by Abigail Homer


November

Sunday, November 20th, 2:30 p.m.

Momoyama Dream: The Visual Imagination of Nanban Screens
A lecture on Japanese images of the European presence in Japan following the initial arrival of the Nanban (Southern Barbarians) in 1543, by Matthew McKelway, Ph.D., Atsumi Associate Professor, Columbia University

Location: Wellesley Community Center

Organized by Henry Harrison



December

Saturday, December 3rd, 7a.m. to 9 p.m.

Bus trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a tour of the Islamic collections in the newly re-opened Galleries for the Art of Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia, by Walter Denny, Ph.D., Professor of Art History, University of Massachusetts Amherst and Senior Consultant to the Department of Islamic Art, Metropolitan Museum.

Two other major exhibitions of Asian art will be open at the Met at the same time:
Storytelling in Japanese Painting and
“Wonder of the Age”: Master Painters of India, 1100-1900.

Organized by Abigail Homer


January

Sunday, January 22nd, 2:30 p.m.

Hare’s Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers: Chinese Dark-Glazed Wares of the Tang and Song Dynasties

A lecture by Robert D. Mowry, Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art and Head of the Department of Asian Art, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University, and Senior Lecturer on Chinese and Korean Art, Department of the History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University

Location: the home of Dorothy Braude Edinburg

Organized by Steve Gaskin

February


Sunday, February 5th, 2:30 p.m.

Issues of Politics, Museums, Archeology and Art

A lecture by Robert E. Murochick, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Archeology and Anthropologyand Director, International Center for East Asian Archeology and Cultural History, Boston University. Professor Murochick will discuss a number of case studies relating to East Asian cultural issues: the changing nature of the relationship between the Palace Museum Taipei and the National Palace Museum, Beijing and the “bronze drum wars” between Vietnam and China, as examples.


Location: Wellesley Community Center

Organized by Henry Harrison


March

Saturday, March 17th or Wednesday, March 21st, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Bus trip to the attractions of Asian Art Week, New York, including a tour of the auction house Bonhams by former Peabody Essex Museum curator Bruce MacLaren

Organized by Marilyn Hamburger and Henry Harrison


April

Sunday, April 22nd , 2:30 p.m.

A lecture by Marc F. Wilson, Director/CEO Emeritus of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Mr. Wilson will come from Kansas City to speak about the building of the Nelson’s esteemed Asian collections by the legendary Laurence Sickman, himself, and the department each served as Chief Curator for many years. Having been at Nelson-Atkins since 1967, he knows the collections and their masterpieces intimately and will focus on the art historical and cultural contexts of the objects he chooses to highlight, as well as tell the stories behind their acquisition for the Nelson.

The history of the Asian collections at Nelson-Atkins has a strong Boston area connection. Laurence Sickman had been a student at Harvard of the equally legendary Langdon Warner, and it was under the auspices of Professor Warner’s agreement with the trustees of the Nelson that Mr Sickman took up residence in China in the early 1930s and started the collections in Kansas City.

Location: to be announced

Organized by Henry Harrison


June

Sunday, June 3rd, 2:30 p.m.

The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army

A lecture by Jane Portal, Matsutaro Shoriki Chair of the Department of the Art of Asia, Oceania and Africa, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

This presentation will update the research on the tomb of Emperor Qin Shihuangdi, about which Jane organized a major loan show for the British Museum in 2007 and produced a catalogue of the same title, published by Harvard University Press.

Location: to be announced

Organized by Steve Gaskin