Pacific Asia Museum

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

Opens This Friday

Pacific Asia Museum is proud to present a variety of exhibitions throughout the year. The following are currently on view:

46 N. Los Robles: A History of the Pasadena Art Museum
Auspicious Beauty: Korean Folk Painting
Meiji: Japan Rediscovered
Obstacleism: Paintings by Farr Ligvani
The Art of Pacific Asia

46 N. Los Robles: A History of the Pasadena Art Museum

Figure Cup iii: Copyright Ken Price and Gemini G.E.L.

November 18, 2011-April 8, 2012

Since 1924, the Chinese-inspiried building at 46 N. Los Robles Avenue in Pasadena has been a Southern California landmark and a focal point of Pasadena's cultural life. It has housed a succession of institutions that introduced the region to an unparalleled variety of art. Between 1945 and 1969, it was home to the Pasadena Art Museum, one of the most important museums for modern and contemporary art in the United States. 46 N. Los Robles: A History of the Pasadena Art Museum will, for the first time, trace the entire development of the Pasadena Art Museum, focusing on its years in the Grace Nicholson Building on North Los Robles Avenue, currently the home of Pacific Asia Museum. The exhibition will present more than 40 important modern and contemporary works shown at the Pasadena Art Museum in its groundbreaking exhibitions, including paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, and documentation of performances. It will also feature installations photographs of the exhibitions and audio and video interviews with Pasadena Art Museum directors, curators, artists, and board members looking back at this extraordinary institution and time.

Artists featured in this exhibition include Peter Alexander, John Altoon, Alexander Archipenko, Walter Askin, Larry Bell, Wallace Berman, William Brice, Hans Burkhardt, Vija Celmins, John Chamberlain, Joseph Cornell, Richard Diebenkorn, Marcel Duchamp, Leonard Edmondson, Lyonel Feininger, Llyn Foulkes, George Herms, Robert Irwin, Alexei Jawlensky, Ynez Johnston, Wassily Kandinsky, Craig Kauffman, Ed Kienholz, Paul Klee, John Mason, Claes Oldenburg, Ken Price, Edward Ruscha, Kurt Schwitters, Edmund Teske, Peter Voulkos, Andy Warhol, and Emerson Woelffer.

The exhibition is guest-curated by Jay Belloli as part of the Getty Pacific Standard Time initiative and is supported by Bank of America, the Pasadena Art Alliance, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division, Judy McCready, and Ann and Olin Barrett.

46 N. Los Robles: A History of the Pasadena Art Museum is part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980. This unprecedented collaboration, initiated by the Getty, brings together more than sixty cultural institutions from across Southern California for six months to tell the story of the birth of th L.A. art scene. Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty. The presenting sponsor is Bank of America.

Auspicious Beauty: Korean Folk Painting

Yong-Do (Painting of a Dragon), Korea, Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). Ink and color on paper.
Loaned by Robert Nicolais

October 7, 2011-March 25, 2012

Korean folk painting during the Joseon dynasty reveals some of the essential values of Korean society and usually illustrates auspicious subjects such as scholars' items, birds and flowers, and mythical animals. Auspicious Beauty will illustrate these themes and discuss the patrons who commissioned the works. The exhibition will present a selection from the museum's collection, including a recent acquisition of an eight-panel screen of flowers, and select objects from local collectors.

Curated by Yeonsoo Chee and supported by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

Related Events:

Storytime
October 1, 10:30 a.m.
In prepation for Auspicious Beauty: Korean Folk Painting, we feature tales from Korea as part of our ongoing Silk Road Storytime series for families. Includes a craft, snack, balloon and admission to the galleries. Free for members or $10 per family.
Korean Arts Council mixer
October 7, 3 p.m.
Enjoy the first day of Auspicious Beauty: Korean Folk Painting as well as a curatorial exploration of two key Korean items in the special exhibition 40 Years of Building the Pacific Asia Museum Collection as part of the Art & Coffee series. After, chat over coffee with others interested in the art and culture of Korea and learn how to get involved in this exciting new museum council.
Free Family Festival: Celebrating Korean Arts and Culture
October 23, 12p.m.-4 p.m.
Enjoy free admission to all the galleries including featured exhibition Auspicious Beauty: Korean Folk Painting, plus performances, hands-on crafts, demonstrations, and fun activities as we celebrate Korean arts and culture! Co-sponsored by the Museum’s Korean Arts Council.
Curator’s Tour
January 28, 2 p.m.
Exhibition curator Yeonsoo Chee leads a tour of Auspicious Beauty: Korean Folk Painting for visitors.
Lecture and Demo
February 5, 2 p.m.
Keesoon Sung, President of the Korean Folk Painting Association, speaks on the history and current practive of Korean folk painting and gives a live demonstration of its techniques. In Korean and English.

Meiji: Japan Rediscovered

Woman with Fan,
Rakusai

March 31, 2011 - February 26, 2012
In the Toshie and Frank Mosher Gallery of Japanese Art

Meiji: Japan Rediscovered explores the vibrant connection between Japan and the West during the Meiji period (1868-1912). Meiji is one of the most dynamic eras in Japanese political and cultural history, as Japanese artists in all fields rediscovered and re-imagined their own history in response to the “opening” of the country to Europe and America. Recently, scholars and collectors alike have renewed appreciation for export arts created during this era. The technical virtuosity of these art objects speaks to the formation of a new national identity and the emergence of a vibrant economy at the turn of the 20th century.

The Meiji exhibition focuses on the rich production of art for export, using little seen objects from the Museum’s collection to illustrate new developments in oil painting, woodblock prints, cloisonné, ivory, metalwork, textiles, picture books and ceramics. Also on view are period photographs made primarily for American travelers which point to the prominence of Western tourists and consumers as the audience for this art. The highlight of the exhibition is a stunning single panel screen with a design of a flower basket in the form of a phoenix boat, constructed out of wood, lacquer, ivory, bone, horn, and mother-of-pearl.

The subjects that recur in these works — Japanese landscape epitomized by Mt. Fuji as well as Japanese femininity as distilled in the depiction of women in these works — signal a refashioning of Japanese "tradition" that resonated domestically in Japan even as it was disseminated abroad. The scale of these works, from intimate to grand, reflect the changes that were happening throughout the entire Japanese culture, from domestic interiors to international exhibition halls.

Meiji (1868-1912) was a critical moment of transculturation — of profound mutual engagement — between Japan and Euro-America. It was the era of Euro-America’s re-engagement with Japan after 250 years of relative disconnection. This rediscovery set off the "Japan idea" in American art and culture as well as Japonisme in Europe. In presenting itself to Euro-America through export art, Japanese artists, entrepreneurs, government officials and art critics “rediscovered Japan” as the country absorbed international influences. Meiji marked the beginning of a dynamic conversation between Japan and the West that has continued to the present.

Guest curated by Ken Brown.

Obstacleism: Paintings by Farr Ligvani

New Ancient, by Farr Ligvani. 2009, Mixed media on board. Courtesy of the artist

January 13 - February 26, 2012 Contemporary Gallery

Born in Tehran and educated in California, Ligvani focuses his art on ideas of life and evolution. As the artist wrestled with obstacles, his approach to them changed. He chose to view these impediments as a chance to pause and think more deeply about his immediate condition, thereby opening a door to a more profound understanding of life. Obstacles can lead us to the balance between any two opposing forces by providing a space for reconciliation, self-editing and change. Reflecting upon this realization, Ligvani coined the term ‘Obstacleism’. In his practice, he uses abstraction to visualize these ideas. Line, the fundamental element in his work, functions as a visual trace of his psychological journey. Circles and other geometric shapes formed by a matrix of lines are the artist’s encoded descriptions of obstacles in life. Continuously shifting patterns against modulating hues further embody the concept of ‘Obstacleism,’ alluding to the creative potential between opposing phenomena. The resulting subtle but visually rich canvases exude a meditative quality, offering the viewer a moment of contemplation in full and sometimes fraught lives.

Art of Pacific Asia

The Art of Pacific Asia

In the new Orientation Gallery

Pacific Asia Museum is pleased to present a new permanent gallery featuring The Art of Pacific Asia. The Museum’s collection features Asian and Pacific Islander artworks spanning 5,000 years, which range from fine and decorative art to popular and folk arts. These objects reflect centuries of trade, creative endeavors, and cultural practices. Visitors to Pacific Asia Museum are invited to explore the collections, recognizing that societies develop as part of an interrelated world culture, and that each object in the collection has a story to tell. The Art of Pacific Asia introduces the geography, materials and meaning behind the art which visitors will enjoy throughout all the galleries at Pacific Asia Museum.

The Art of Pacific Asia has four distinct sections: Geography; Materials and Techniques; Religious Art; and Ceremony and Celebration. The objects presented in these sections are intended as tools for understanding the Pacific Asia Museum collection.

Geography
The objects of Pacific Asia Museum’s collection come to Pasadena from across Asia and the islands of the Pacific Ocean. The map within the Geography Section uses national borders of today, but throughout history these artificial divisions have changed dramatically.

Materials and Techniques
Throughout the museum, you will see objects created over 5,000 years of human history, from across half the planet. When confronted with such a range of objects it can be easy to overlook a most basic similarity, that is, material. Whether made of raw natural products like ivory, stone and wood or materials requiring processing like paper, lacquer, or textile, all the objects of Pacific Asia Museum reflect the universality of human creativity. Over time, the items on display will be changed in order to showcase the wide range of materials housed in the museum’s collection, as well as to minimize damage to light-sensitive objects.

Religious Art
Religion in Asia and the Pacific Islands is extremely diverse and closely linked to the arts. The continent of Asia is the birthplace of many religions and all of the world’s major religious traditions are practiced there. Indigenous religious practices have co-existed with these other religions for millennia. Much of the art in the Pacific Asia Museum was produced to support religious practices, whether to decorate places of worship, function as ritual implements, or provide worshippers with images to revere in home settings or as they traveled. Each object has a unique history, and is a window into a set of cultural understandings, interpretations, and beliefs. Over time, objects on display will rotate to focus on the different religious practices represented in the Pacific Asia Museum collection.

Ceremony and Celebration
In human cultures, religious and secular ceremonies are performed to mark special occasions, such as rites of passage including birth, death, or marriage. Whether for a communal or personal event, ceremonies are usually accompanied by music, dance, feasts and entertainment, and one’s dress plays an important role. Often, the finest textiles are reserved for ceremonies and celebrations, and specific style, color, or motifs function as visual cues to the nature of a ceremony, as well as the social status of a person or people involved. Music has several different functions in ceremonies: it is a way to communicate with deities; it inspires worshippers; it signals different stages of ceremonies; or it simply enhances the festivity of occasions. Accordingly, special attention has been paid to the making and adornment of musical instruments. Over time, items on display will rotate to feature other elements of ceremony and celebration.

This gallery and exhibition are made possible in part by the generous support of the Ahmanson Foundation, the Ayrshire Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.