Looking at Art

Contemporary Korean ceramic artists Sung Min, Kwon Shin, Kim jin Kyoung, and Park Nae Heon discuss their works.

View this work in its entirety during Out of Character: Decoding Chinese Calligraphy (at the Asian Art Museum from October 5, 2012–January 13, 2013). The Character of Characters, 2012, by Xu Bing (Chinese, born 1955). Five-channel video animation installation. Acquisition made possible by The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation, R2012.54.

Hear the inscriptions on this rare drinking cup in white jade from the Timurid period (1370-1507) read aloud. The first inscription is in Arabic and the second is in Persian.

Michael Knight, Senior Curator of Chinese Art at the Asian Art Museum, and Jerry Yang, Collector and Co-founder of Yahoo!, discuss collecting Chinese calligraphy in conjunction with the exhibition, Out of Character: Decoding Chinese Calligraphy (on view at the Asian Art Museum from October 5, 2012–February 13, 2013).

Dr. Sanford Tom explores Huangshan (or the Yellow Mountain), which is often considered the most beautiful as well as the strangest mountain in China.

Javellana, S.J., Professor of Art, Ateneo de Manila University speaks about art and Christianity from a historical perspective. He also explore some of the artworks presented in the exhibition at the University of San Francisco called Galleons and Globalization: California Mission Arts and the Pacific Rim (on view August 20- December 19, 2010).

Jeffrey Durham, Associate Curator of Himalayan Art, discusses a painting of the Buddha Vairochana in the exhibition, Enter the Mandala.

Learn more about the oldest known dated Buddha produced in China and how it may have looked when it was created.

In all lacquer objects, regardless of when they were produced, a resinous sap coating preserves the core material and allows for decoration. The material for lacquering is extracted from lacquer trees (Toxicodendron vernicifluum; formerly Rhus verniciflua), which is the same genus as poison oak. Learn more in this award winning documentary on Japanese lacquer.

The painting of the temple offering at the start of this video, on view at the Asian Art Museum during the Bali exhibition, is by Miguel Covarrubias. It is among the many offerings he must have seen as he traveled around the island of Bali. Offerings such as these are still an important part of ceremonial life in Bali to this day. Miguel Covarrubias, a Mexican artist famous in 1920s and 30s New York City for illustrating the covers of magazines like Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, made his first trip to Bali in 1930 with his wife Rose.