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New: Tea for Everyone: Japanese Popular Ceramics for Tea Drinking
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March 8, 2008 - September 7, 2008 (new opening date)
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While displays tend to focus on the tea-drinking activities of the Japanese elite during the 16th-17th centuries, this exhibition presents a later moment in the history of tea when enjoyment of powdered tea (matcha) became widespread among artisans, townspeople, and farmers. On view are tea-leaf storage jars, water jars, tea bowls, tea cups, and tea pots used by people of modest means for sharing tea. Numerous small, provincial kilns active in the 19th century provided attractive, affordable ceramics for preparing and sharing powdered tea. Notably, farmers in northwestern Honshu used large round bowls made at local kilns both for drinking powdered tea and for eating rice. At the same time, another form of tea -- steeped tea in the Chinese style, known in Japan as sencha -- which had been introduced to Japan by a cultural elite, also became an everyday beverage among a wider swath of society.
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New: Japanese Arts of the Edo Period, 1615-1868, Part 2
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March 8, 2008 - September 7, 2008
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The second part of this exhibition also features a selection of paintings, lacquer, and ceramics of the Edo period from the Freer Gallery's extensive permanent collection. These works present a vivid glimpse of the lively metropolis of Edo (modern Tokyo), which grew rapidly around the castle of the Tokugawa shoguns and fostered a new popular urban culture that was distinct from the courtly culture of Kyoto, the traditional artistic center of Japan. Many of the arts we regard today as traditional Japanese expressions flourished in the vibrant culture of the Edo period.
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New: Freer & Whistler: Points of Contact
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February 23, 2008 - Indefinitely
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Some 23 oil paintings represent a choice selection of the more than 1,300 paintings, prints, and drawings by Whistler in the gallery's collection. The works on view were chosen to exemplify both Freer's philosophy of collecting and Whistler's own self-conscious synthesis of western and Asian artistic traditions. Highlights include a sequence of views of the Thames from Whistler's Chelsea residence; an ensemble of Nocturnes (Whistler's term for his paintings of the moonlit urban landscape), and a pair of full-length portraits, including the magnificent Arrangement in Black: Portrait of F.R. Leyland, which depicts the patron of the renowned Peacock Room, adjacent to this exhibition.
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New: Surface Beauty: American Art and Freer's Aesthetic Vision
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February 23, 2008 - Indefinitely
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This exhibition features a group of decorative paintings by American artists Thomas Dewing (1851-1938) and Dwight Tryon (1849-1925) -- whose interest in surface beauty resonated with the work of James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) -- and a selection of ceramics from the Detroit Pewabic Pottery to highlight the importance of surface beauty to Charles Lang Freer's aesthetic philosophy. Freer began collecting American paintings in the early 1890s and while his focus shifted to Asia by the turn of the century, his interest in tonal, textured surfaces remained constant, allowing him to establish "points of contact" between his Asian and American collections.
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New: Tales of the Brush Continued: Chinese Paintings with Literary Themes
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February 9, 2008 - July 27, 2008
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This exhibition features Chinese artists -- as early as the first century to present day -- who have turned to literature for inspiration for their paintings, works on silk and paper, and other objects. By creating a close correlation between text and image, artists over the centuries have depicted famous mythical scenes, interpreted beloved poems and stories, and illustrated significant events in Chinese history. Among the major literary themes on view are the mythical Nymph of the Luo River, the poetic Thoughts on Ancient Sites by Du Fu, the historical tale of Lady Cai Wenji Returns to Han, and the legendary Female Immortal Chang E.
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Arts of the Islamic World
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May 3, 1998 - Indefinitely
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The arts of the Islamic world flourished in a vast geographic area extending from Morocco and Spain to the islands of Southeast Asia. Although distinct in their cultural, artistic, ethnic, and linguistic identities, the people of this region have shared one predominant faith, Islam. The works on view here represent the three principal media for artistic expression in the Islamic world: architecture (both religious and secular), the arts of the book (calligraphy, illustration, illumination, and bookbinding), and the arts of the object (ceramics, metalwork, glass, woodwork, textiles, and ivory).
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Black & White Chinese Ceramics from the 10th-14th Centuries
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December 18, 2004 - Indefinitely
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This exhibition of 43 objects -- mostly tablewares, wine jars, and vases, ranging from everyday goods to those fit for an emperor -- showcases the variety of glossy black-glazed wares, brilliant white porcelains, and eye-catching combinations of both colors on single vessels created during the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1279-1368) dynasties. These striking works (including notable Ding, Cizhou, Jian, and Jizhou wares from the Freer's collection) were produced as a result of important developments in Chinese ceramic technology, including the use of streaked dark glazes and different modes of decoration.
Web: www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/current/BlackandWhite.htm
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The Religious Art of Japan (rotating)
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December 21, 2002 - Indefinitely
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Important works from the Freer's collection of Japanese religious art are exhibited in several thematic rotations over a period of several years.
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Last update: May 7, 2008, 10:58
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