FREER GALLERY OF ART/ARTHUR M. SACKLER GALLERY

Smithsonian Institution, P. O. Box 37012, MRC 707, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

Julian Raby, Director 

FREER GALLERY OF ART

The Freer Gallery, a gift to the nation by Detroit industrialist Charles Lang Freer (1854–1919), opened to the public in 1923. Housing one of the most distinguished collections of Asian art in the world as well as an important collection of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century American art, the gallery’s cultural treasures are presented as keys to understanding the civilizations that produced them.

The Freer Gallery collections comprise some 5,200 examples of Chinese art; 3,500 Japanese examples; 500 works from Korea; 13,300 works from the Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean that include Gospels and biblical material; and 3,450 works from South and Southeast Asia. In addition, there are about 1,550 works of American art collected by Charles Lang Freer, including 1,279 works by James McNeill Whistler, the most comprehensive holdings in existence.

The gallery houses particularly distinguished collections of ancient Chinese bronzes and jades, painting and calligraphy, and ceramics; Korean ceramics of the Koryo dynasty; Japanese screens, paintings, sculpture, and ceramics; and Islamic manuscripts, painting, calligraphy, metalwork, ceramics, and glass from the Persian, Arab, and Turkish cultural spheres. Ancient Iranian metalwork is outstanding, as is a small collection of ancient Egyptian glass. The South and Southeast Asian collections include an important group of Mughal paintings as well as sculpture, ceramics, and Hindu painting. In addition to works by Whistler, the American painting collection includes works by other Americans, including Dwight W. Tryon, Thomas W. Dewing, and Abbott H. Thayer.

Publications and Lectures

The Freer Gallery cosponsors with the Department of the History of Art, University of Michigan, the annual scholarly journal Ars Orientalis. Throughout its history, the gallery has produced a variety of publications, including the Oriental Studies series. The Freer Gallery of Art Occasional Papers series publishes research on Asian art from a variety of perspectives, embracing both art historical investigations and studies in conservation and scientific research. The gallery’s publication program also includes catalogues of the permanent collection, scholarly exhibition catalogues, and symposium proceedings. The gallery sponsors an annual series of illustrated public lectures on Asian art as well as frequent curatorial lectures within the exhibition galleries.

Through conservation and scientific research, the department contributes to the overall efforts of the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery to achieve the highest standards for the collection, preservation, study, and exhibition of Asian art. A permanent staff of twelve works hand-in-hand with a large, changing group of short-term employees, fellows, interns, and visiting scholars. The principle aims of the conservation staff are the care and treatment of the collection, and the preparation of objects for exhibition. Ancillary efforts are made in the areas of technical and applied research, conservation training, and professional outreach efforts such as lectures to public and professional audiences, involvement in professional conservation organizations, and collaborative work with other bureaus of the Smithsonian Institution. Scientific research in the Freer and Sackler focuses primarily on the study of the physical nature of works of art from Asian cultures. Ancillary research efforts address specific questions concerning the technical and material nature of art objects in the collections and the conservation of the collections. Additional information about the department’s programs, research facilities, and fellowship and internship opportunities can be found at the following web site: http://www.asia.si.edu/aboutus/dcsr.htm

The research library originated with Charles Lang Freer’s personal library and is one of the branch libraries in the Smithsonian Institution Libraries system. The library supports the research, exhibition, and educational programs of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, and it serves outside researchers and the general public in the study of Asian art and culture and of American art of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Half of the 80,000-volume library holdings are in East Asian languages. There are more than eight hundred volumes of rare books; topics range from the Ming and Qing Dynasties of China, to woodblock printed books from Japan, to Western travel books on Asia. In 1995, the library was selected to be the official U.S. repository of art exhibition and collection catalogues published in Japan, and to date has received over 4,000 volumes. These catalogues are available via interlibrary loan service.

The library is open to the public Monday through Friday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm; no appointment is necessary. Its on-line catalog, which can display Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters, is accessible through the Internet: http://www.sackler-freer-library.si.edu/

The Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives is a manuscript and photograph repository dedicated to furthering the study of Asian and Middle Eastern art and culture as well as turn-of-the-century American art. The Archives’ mission is to collect, preserve, organize, describe, and make available documentary materials that support the holdings and activities of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Forming an exceptional set of resources for investigation and analysis are letters, writings and journals, scrapbooks, clippings, drawings and sketchbooks, financial material, rubbings, and squeezes of inscriptions. The collections are also rich in photographs, ranging from rare salt prints of the 1850s to contemporary Ilfochromes of the 1990s. The Archives houses over one hundred and forty collections, amounting to over one thousand linear feet, with materials dating from the early nineteenth century to the present. Useful information about using the Archives and a growing number of electronic finding aids are available on the Archives’ website at http://www.asia.si.edu/visitor/archives.htm.

Visual Resources

The Visual Resources Center is available to museum staff for image-related activities. Slides and photographs of objects in the Freer and Sackler galleries, objects from other museums and collections, and documentary images of Asian and Near Eastern architecture, culture, and history are maintained. Slide production facilities, projectors, imaging workstations, and scanning equipment are accessible to staff, interns and fellows.

ARTHUR M. SACKLER GALLERY

The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, established in July 1982, received its initial collections through the gift of approximately one thousand objects from the collections of Dr. Arthur M. Sackler (1913–87). The gallery’s primary goals are the advancement of scholarly knowledge and public appreciation of the arts of Asia.

The Sackler Gallery collections include Chinese jades dating from Neolithic times (ca. 5000–1500 B.C.E.) into the nineteenth century; Chinese bronzes from the Shang (ca. 1700–1050 B.C.E.) through the Han (206 B.C.E.–C.E. 220) dynasties; Chinese paintings and calligraphy; Chinese lacquer; ancient Near Eastern ceramics and metalwork; and stone, wood, and clay sculpture from South and Southeast Asia. The Vever Collection of Persian and Indian manuscripts, paintings, calligraphies, illuminations, and bookbindings was acquired by purchase in 1986. Other important additions have been Japanese works of art, including twentieth century photographs, prints and ceramics; and art from South Asia, China, and Tibet. In 1999 the Gallery was given an important collection of Chinese art formed by Dr. Paul Singer, numbering over four thousand objects. The continuing acquisitions program is aimed at developing Gallery collections to reflect the full range of Asian art.

The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery publications program includes the journal Artibus Asiae, published in cooperation with the Rietberg Museum in Zurich; scholarly symposia proceedings; and illustrated catalogues accompanying most major exhibitions. The international exhibitions program also includes an education component that produces related lectures, concerts, films, and published teaching materials for classroom use. In addition to a series of public lectures on Asian art, the Gallery sponsors special lectures and occasional scholarly seminars and symposia on more specialized topics.

Please refer to the section under Freer Gallery of Art.

The research library, shared by the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, supports the research, exhibition, and educational programs of the two museums. Please refer to the entry under Freer Gallery of Art.

Please refer to the entry under Freer Gallery of Art.

RESEARCH STAFF

CHANG, Joseph, Associate Curator for Chinese Art. B.A. (1978) Fu Jen Catholic University; M.A. (1982), M.Phil. (1985), Ph.D. (1995) University of Kansas. Research specialties: Chinese painting, calligraphy, and seals.

CORT, Louise Allison, Curator for Ceramics. B.A. (1966) Simmons College; B. Litt. (1969) St. Hugh's College, Oxford University. Research specialties: Historical and contemporary ceramics of Japan, Southeast Asia, and South Asia; Japanese textiles; Japanese baskets; other craft traditions of Japan, Southeast Asia and South Asia.

DIAMOND, Debra, Associate Curator South and Southeast Asian Art; Coordinating Curator Contemporary Asia Art. B.F.A. (1981) Parsons Scholl of Design; M.A. (1991) Hunter College; Ph.D. (2000) Columbia University. Research specialties: South Asian Art; Yoga; Contemporary Asian Art.

DOUGLAS, Janet G., Conservation Scientist. B.A. (1978) James Madison University; M.A. (1980) Bryn Mawr College. Research specialties: Technical studies on works of art and archaeology using scientific methods, inorganic materials such as stone, jade and metal.

FARHAD, Massumeh, Chief Curator and Curator of Islamic Art. B.A. (1977) Wellesley College, M.A. (1983), Ph.D. (1987) Harvard University. Research specialties: Islamic Art, Persian painting.

GLAZER, Lee, Associate Curator of American Art. Ph.D. (1996) University of Pennsylvania. Research specialties: 19th- and early 20th- century American painting and visual/material culture; Whistler and Aestheticism in an international context.

GUNTER, Ann Clyburn, Head of Scholarly Publications and Programs and Curator of Ancient Near Eastern Art. A.B. (1973) Bryn Mawr College; M.A. (1975), Ph.D. (1980) Columbia University. Research specialties: Ancient Near Eastern Art; artistic relations between Ancient Greece and the Near East.

MCCARTHY, Blythe E., Conservation Scientist. S.B. (1987), S.M. (1988) Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Ph.D. (1996) Johns Hopkins University. Research specialties: Technical studies of artifacts composed of inorganic materials, especially Asian glass and ceramics; materials characterization and non-destructive analysis methods.

ULAK, James T., Deputy Director and Curator for Japanese Art. B.A. (1968) Maryknoll College; M.Div. (1976) Maryknoll School of Theology; Ph.D. (1994) Case Western Reserve University. Research specialties: Japanese narrative painting of the 14th and 15th centuries.

WILSON, J. Keith, Associate Director and Curator of Ancient China. B.A. (1978) Williams College; M.A. (1983) University of Michigan; M.F.A. (1985) Princeton University ; Research Fellow (1985-86) Institute of Oriental Culture, Tokyo University. Research specialties: Chinese jades of the Neolithic through Han periods as well as bronzes of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, with particular interest in inscribed examples; Buddhist sculpture of the Six Dynasties period and Sui and Tang dynasties; Korean art of all periods.

WINTER, John, Conservation Scientist. B.A. (1958) Cambridge University; Ph.D. (1961) University of Manchester. Research specialties: Research on works of art and archaeological artifacts using scientific methods, especially applied to East Asian paintings.

YONEMURA, Ann, Senior Associate Curator for Japanese Art. B.A. (1969) Wellesley College; M.A. (1973) Princeton University. Research specialties: Japanese painting, calligraphy, prints, and lacquer.

AFFILIATED RESEARCH STAFF

ALLEE, Stephen D., Research Specialist: Chinese Literature and History. B.A. (1975) George Washington University; M.A. (1986) University of Washington. Research specialties: Chinese painting and calligraphy.

BOSWORTH, Jenifer, Exhibitions Conservator. B.A. (1992) Cornell University; M.A.(1999) University of Durham, England. Research specialties: Conservation topics in the following specialties: exhibitions, ethnographic objects.

CHASE, Ellen, Objects Conservator. B.A. (1988) Williams College; M.A. (1993) New York University. Research specialties: Conservation of inorganic and organic materials with a focus on ceramics.

HARE, W. Andrew, Supervisory East Asian Painting Conservator. B.A. (1985) Oberlin College. Research specialties: Conservation of Japanese and Chinese paintings.

JETT, Paul R., Head, Department of Conservation and Scientific Research. B.A. (1976) University of New Mexico; M.A.C. (1981) Queen's University. Research specialties: Technical studies of sculpture and ancient metalwork.

SLUSSER, Mary, Research Associate. B.A. (1942) University of Michigan; Graduate Studies (1942-1945) Institute of Fine Arts, New York University; Graduate Studies (1946-1947) Harvard University; Ph.D. (1950) Columbia University. Research specialties: Nepal and Himalayan related subjects in culture and art.

SMITH, Martha, Paper Conservator. B.A. (1996) University of Maryland University College. Research specialties: James McNeill Whistler prints, drawings, watercolors and pastels; Islamic book materials and techniques.

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