hour interview covering her childhood in New England and 

 the period from 1938 on when she was associated with The 

 Magazine A ntiques. 



Changes 



William C. Agee, Professor of Art History, Hunter College, 

 became the new Chairman of the New York Advisory Com- 

 mittee, succeeding Milton Brown. Eric Hausmann was ap- 

 pointed to the development staff succeeding Sandra Repp. 



Arthur M. Sackler Gallery 



Milo C. Beach, Director 



The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is devoted to expanding public 

 knowledge of the arts and cultures of Asia through exhibition, 

 research, and education programs. Founded on a gift of nearly 

 1,000 works of Asian art from Dr Arthur M. Sackler (1913- 

 87), the gallery opened in 1987. Its collection has grown be- 

 yond the original donation through gift, purchase, and 

 transfer, and its calendar features important thematic loan ex- 

 hibitions, which are enhanced through a varied schedule of 

 free public programs, scholarly activities, and special events. 

 This year, the staff worked to establish and adiust operational 

 procedures and budgeting in consideration of its responsibili- 

 ties for two fully operational galleries, the Arthur M. Sackler 

 Gallery and the Freer Gallery of Art. 



"Contemporary Porcelain from Japan," an exhibition of 30 

 innovative and dramatically varied porcelain vessels by 30 

 Japanese artists, celebrated The Japan Foundation's gift of 

 these masterworks to the Sackler Gallery. The exhibition, 

 which was presenred in cooperation with the Embassy of 

 Japan, The Japan Foundation, and the Kokusai Bunka Kyokai 

 (International Cultural Association), emphasized the crafting 

 of porcelain as a living art and included a videotape showing 

 the makers at work and gallery text that highlighted their 

 commentary on the creative process. This exhibition was ex- 

 tremely popular with the public, as revealed in a focus group 

 held in June. Aspects that drew particular comment, such as 

 the video program in the exhibition, the music from the video 

 that could be heard throughout the galleries, and the touch- 

 able porcelain shards that were donated to the exhibition by 

 the porcelain artists, would be considered for use in future 

 exhibitions. 



The full-color journal, Asian Art & Culture, formerly 

 known as Asian Art, began its seventh year with a new name; 

 a new board of advisors, including artists, writers and schol- 

 ars; and a new design. Published three times a year by the 

 Sackler Gallery and Oxford University Press, the |Ournal ex- 

 amines new interpretations of the arts, literature and history 

 of Asia as they relate to cultural, social, and religious life. In 

 its first three issues under the new format, the journal dealt 



with art and architecture in Vietnam (winter), performing arts 

 in Asia (summer), and humor in Asian art (autumn). 



The gallery's first example of Korean art, a 14th-century 

 painting of Ji-jiang, the bodhisattva (enlightened being) re- 

 vered by Buddhists for his merciful deliverance of living be- 

 ings from the world of suffering, was placed on exhibition 

 this year. The painting, a hanging scroll executed in ink, 

 color, and silk, had been presented to the gallery as an anony- 

 mous gift. Following cleaning and conservation in the East 

 Asian paining conservation studio, the painting was placed on 

 display and featured in the July/August issue of the Calendar. 



The Sackler Gallery and the Freer Gallery of Art organized 

 a symposium, "Artists and Traditions: New Studies of Indian 

 Paintings," in connection with a small Sackler Gallery exhibi- 

 tion, "A Mughal Hunt," that examined how a scholar uses evi- 

 dence from other paintings ro identify the subject, artist, and 

 origin of a work of art. The symposium was made possible by 

 the generosity of Leon B. Polsky and Cynthia Hazen Polsky. 



A week-long symposium in Lahore, Pakistan, culminated a 

 three-year project to document the evolution of urbanism and 

 garden design under the Mughals, a dynasty of Mongol and 

 Turkic origin that ruled most of present-day north India and 

 Pakistan for two hundred years beginning in the early twenti- 

 eth century. The project was conducted jointly by the Sackler 

 Gallery; the School of Architecture and Planning, Lahore Uni- 

 versity of Engineering and Technology; and the Department 

 of Archaeology of the Government of Pakistan, with funding 

 provided by the Smithsonian Foreign Currency Program. 



Funds provided by The Friends of Asian Arts at the Freer 

 and Sackler Galleries enabled the gallery to acquire its first ex- 

 ample of calligraphy from Japan, a hanging scroll by the 17th- 

 century Buddhist monk baku Ksen. Born in China, Ksen 

 emigrated to live and work in Kyoto at the principal temple 

 of the baku school in Japan. The artist's close association with 

 the elite patronage of the emperor and the shogun situates the 

 scroll in a coherent relationship to examples of painting and 

 lacquerware in the Sackler Gallery collection. 



The Gallery's first major exhibition presenting the arts of 

 Korea found an enthusiastic audience among Korean- 

 American and many other visitors during its three-month 

 stay. "Korean Arts of the Eighteenth Century: Splendor & 

 Simplicity" was enriched through a variety of public pro- 

 grams, including noontime videos on Korean culture, lec- 

 tures, tours given by Korean-speaking docents, and a 

 commissioned dance concert based on the exhibition by the 

 second-generation Korean-American artist, Dana Tai-Soon 

 Burgess, founding director and choreographer of the Moving 

 Forward Dance Company. He used the exhibition to inspire 

 his five-part work, "Searching for the Sun and Moon," which 

 he and members of Moving Forward performed at three pub- 

 lic concerts held in the Meyer Auditorium. 



The performances were a part of the gallery's ongoing at- 

 tempts to express the richness of Asian cultures by linking 

 arts in many media through both contemporary and tradi- 

 tional interpretations. Presentation of "Searching for the Sun 



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