Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art’s Post

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This summer, catch classic Hong Kong movies ranging from the sublime (masterpieces from Wong Kar Wai and Ann Hui) to the ridiculous (Bruce Lee clones). https://s.si.edu/3xVVmgy #SmithsonianAsianArt "July Rhapsody" trailer courtesy of Cheng Cheng Films LLC

Why do the top and bottom halves of this painting look so different? American artist James McNeill Whistler positions four European women dressed in kimono on his Chelsea balcony overlooking the Thames. One plays the shamisen, a Japanese instrument, while another reclines in front of a sake set. In the upper half, the slag heaps of Battersea create an urban counterpoint to Mount Fuji, a natural landmark frequently represented in the Japanese prints Whistler collected. The painting’s uneasy merger of white bodies and Asian objects, idyll and industry, beauty and ugliness, underscores the artist’s daring experimentation in combining seemingly disparate visual and economic systems within a single composition. Take a closer look at the details when “Ruffled Feathers: Creating Whistler’s Peacock Room” opens July 13, 2024 in Gallery 11. https://s.si.edu/3VCDJds Part of our #AmericanArt collection. #SmithsonianAsianArt Image: Variations in Flesh Colour and Green - The Balcony, James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), 1864-1870; additions 1870-1879, United States, Oil on wood panel, 61.4 × 48.5 cm (24 3/16 × 19 1/8 in), National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Freer Collection, Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1892.23a-b

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Look closely. What do you see? American painters such as Thomas Wilmer Dewing perpetuated views of New England landscapes as timeless and static, yet our new exhibition “Shifting Boundaries” explores what paintings can show about changes to this region. In “The Lute,” Dewing places female figures within lush natural settings based on the verdant meadows he encountered near his summer home in Cornish, New Hampshire. For the exhibition “Shifting Boundaries,” we partnered with Jerome Foster of Waic Up, who looks at this painting with fresh eyes. Jerome says, “As a member of Generation Z viewing this seemingly tranquil painting, I instantly feel a sense of anxiety rather than calm. The harmonious interaction of figures within the lush green background depicts an idealized relationship with nature—one of balance, respect, and coexistence. "The reality of our environmental impact, however, is often dissonant and exploitative, a tension that the corporate practice of greenwashing obscures by seducing consumers with illusions of sustainability. Yet, I feel a note of hopefulness when I imagine the gathered figures as leaders and changemakers aware of the power in coming together for a common purpose.” Explore a century of human impact on New England land and water, the erasure of indigenous histories, and the environmental changes that are altering this region today in “Shifting Boundaries: Perspectives on American Landscapes,” opening July 13, 2024 in Gallery 10. https://s.si.edu/4bOALsS Part of our #AmericanArt collection. #SmithsonianAsianArt Image: The Lute, Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851–1938), 1904, United States, Oil on wood panel, 91.5 x 122.1 cm (36 x 48 1/16 in), National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Freer Collection, Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1913.34a-b

Meet these goddesses and more in the online exhibition “Wisdom of the Goddess," with 25 Hindu and Buddhist artworks and resources to explore: https://s.si.edu/3RLBALg #SmithsonianAsianArt Images: The Goddess Uma, 10th century, Cambodia, Sandstone, 124.2 x 37.5 x 24.3 cm (48 7/8 x 14 3/4 x 9 9/16 in), National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Arthur M. Sackler Collection, Gift of Arthur M. Sackler, S1987.909 Tara (one of the Famed Twenty-one Tara Emanations), Second half of 17th century, Central Tibet, Gilt copper alloy, turquoise, enamel, and coral, 48.3 x 31.8 cm (19 x 12 1/2 in), National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Arthur M. Sackler Collection, The Alice S. Kandell Collection, S2011.12a-c Saraswati, folio from a Goddess series, Attributed to Wajid (active late 17th century), ca. 1680-1700, Sawar, Rajasthan state, India, Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 15.9 × 24.4 cm (6 1/4 × 9 5/8 in), National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection — funds provided by the Friends of the National Museum of Asian Art, S2018.1.40

If you're in town for the #4thofJuly, we will be open daily from 10:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Join us to tour the world of American artist James McNeill Whistler, see his paintings and the objects that inspired him. See the full schedule here: https://s.si.edu/3QjCe2h

Join us on a #CosmicJourney to celebrate #Chandra25 on #SolsticeSaturday June 22! https://s.si.edu/3Vud0Ru Until then, enjoy this oil lamp from East Java, Indonesia—also a technological innovation at the time of its creation in the fourteenth century. Cast in bronze and hung from a chain of interlocking loops, the scaly body of the divine serpent (naga) arches dramatically, its head held upright, supporting a petal-shaped dish that would have carried oil. When the dish was filled with oil, and the wick ignited, the flame would have created hours of light inside a temple or shrine. Just like the Chandra X-ray telescope allows us to see invisible light from other regions of the universe, this innovative oil lamp in the shape of a naga connected people with a world beyond. Image: Naga oil lamp 14th century, Java, Indonesia, Copper alloy, 33 × 17.2 × 6.5 cm (13 × 6 3/4 × 2 9/16 in) without chain, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of Ann and Gilbert Kinney, S2023.9.1

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