Drawing on the knowledge and experience of scholars, collectors, Museum staff, and gallery owners, Friends of Asian Art presents programs that explore various aspects of traditional and contemporary art from several Asian countries. The Museum’s collection of Asian art is highlighted, as well as special exhibitions, art from other institutions and galleries, artists, current scholarship, and contemporary art.
Please note that general Museum membership (at any level) is a prerequisite for joining Friends of Asian Art.
For more information, please contact Judy Morillo at jmorillo@mfa.org or call 617-369-3222.
Membership Levels
Single $150 ($45 is tax deductible)
Double $250 ($40 is tax deductible)
Connoisseur $500 ($290 is tax deductible)
Members’ guest fee per event $30
To join this group, print out and complete this membership form and mail it with payment to:
Mr. Terry Lighte
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
465 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115-5523
Events
Please join us for the following events, which are offered exclusively to Friends of Asian Art:
Thursday, September 8, 2011, 6–8 pm
“SOME”: A Japanese Perspective on Contemporary Dyed Works of Art
Japan Decorative Arts Gallery 177
Join Fukumoto Shigeki, professor at the Osaka University of Arts, for a reception in the Japan Decorative Arts Gallery 177, followed by a lecture in the Former Trustees Room. While Japan has long been recognized for the sophistication of its resist dyed textiles of varying and well established techniques, most of these famous traditions were historically associated with fine kimono until the late 20th century. At this time, Fukumoto Shigeki and other innovative artists began to explore textile dyeing in the production of works of art. Through an illustrated talk, Kyoto’s internationally renowned artist and educator, Fukumoto Shigeki, presents the unique evolution of resist dyed textile art (some) in contemporary Japan and its 20th century ascent into the avant garde.
Thursday, October 13, 2011, 6–8 pm
A History of the Chinese Jade Collection in the British Museum and How Science is Helping to Reevaluate It
Former Trustee Room
For more than 250 years, the British Museum has been open to the public and actively collecting. The Chinese collections started as a small part of the whole, but have continued to grow in importance and size, especially from the late 19th century onwards. Today the Museum’s Chinese collections number in the area of some 25,000—approximately 1,000 of these being jades and hard stone objects. In this talk, Carol Michaelson, curator of Chinese Art at the British Museum, describes how the collection was acquired over the years, with reference to important jades in the Museum’s holding and major collectors and various activities that were influential in its formation.
Thursday, December 8, 2011, 6–8 pm
India, on the Road and in the Gallery
South & Southeast Asian Gallery 176
With our South Asian collection going on view once again in a renovated space this December, it is time to get reacquainted with the Museum’s best Indian sculptures. Laura Weinstein, Ananda Coomaraswamy Curator of South Asian and Islamic Art, leads members on a virtual tour through India, stopping at sites where some of the MFA’s most important objects were created. John and Carol Rutherfurd, who travel frequently in India, serve as co-guides and share what visiting these places is like today, and—using objects in their own collection—expand the view of Indian sculptural traditions. The event begins with a reception in the South and Southeast Asian Gallery 176 and then moves to the Riley Seminar Room for the lecture.
Thursday, February 9, 2012, 6–8 pm
Collecting Chinese Ceramics in America: J.P. Morgan and Charles Lang Freer
Japan Decorative Arts Gallery 177
J.P. Morgan and Charles Lang Freer were contemporaries who enjoyed successful business careers and acquired great wealth in America’s “Gilded Age” during the late 19th century. Both men withdrew from business around 1900 and concentrated on art collecting for the remaining years of their lives. Although their motivations and ambitions as early American collectors of Chinese art were similar, their aesthetic preferences and methods of collecting Chinese ceramics produced quite different results. In this lecture, James J. Lally, president of J.J. Lally & Co. Oriental Art, reviews their careers as collectors to reveal information about the early days of Chinese ceramic collecting in America, and to provide a framework for discussing the collecting of Chinese ceramics today. Members will enjoy a reception in the Japan Decorative Arts Gallery 177, followed by a lecture in Riley Seminar Room.
Thursday, April 19, 2012, 6–8 pm
Netherlandish Prints Meet Persian Calligraphy: An Album Made for an Ottoman Sultan
Riley Seminar Room
Emine Fetvaci, Assistant Professor in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Boston University, speaks about her recent research into a seventeenth-century album made for the Ottoman Sultan Ahmed I, which brings together calligraphies of Persian mystical poetry, Ottoman paintings, and Dutch prints with Christian and mythological subject matter. Her talk will examine the intersection of the sacred and the secular in the album, and discuss the paintings, prints and calligraphies in the context of cross-cultural exchange.
Thursday, May 10, 2012, 6–8 pm
Japanese Photography: Contemporary With an Eye to the Past
Alfond Auditorium
Anne Wilkes Tucker, Gus and Lyndall Wortham Curator of Photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has been one of the authoritative voices in the United States for Japanese photography. In 2003, she organized the highly celebrated exhibition “A History of Japanese Photography” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and co-authored its award-winning catalogue. She has also contributed to a volume of photographs by Shibata Toshio, known for his images of civil-engineering projects imposed upon the natural landscape. In her lecture, Tucker provides a brief overview of Japanese photography and shares her insights about the works of photographers Shibata, Tomatsu Shomei, Moriyama Daido, Sugimoto Hiroshi, and Hatakeyama Naoya.
This is a joint event with Friends of Photography.
