Sackler at 25

Goryeo Buddhist Paintings: A Closer Look

Now numbering less than 150 worldwide, Buddhist paintings created during the late Goryeo dynasty in Korea illustrate hopes for peace and good fortune in this world and for salvation in the afterlife. These fourteenth-century images, commissioned as a show of religious merit and produced on an intimate scale appropriate for private devotional use, epitomize a golden age in Korean Buddhist art.

Goryeo Buddhist Paintings: A Closer Look presents three rare icons from the Freer and Sackler collections that never before have been displayed together. Rendered in rich mineral pigments augmented with gold, the silk surfaces of these complex paintings have darkened with age. In this exhibition, the three works are joined by photographic details taken by Buddhist painting specialist Chung Woothak, which show the masterly brushwork and superimposed patterns that are difficult to distinguish in the now-darkened originals. The photographs also reveal the materials and techniques that typify this special type of Buddhist icon.

Japan Spring

Two major Japanese exhibitions of artists whose works reflect the vitality and interests of nineteenth-century Edo (now Tokyo) open at the Sackler in March 2012, coinciding with the National Cherry Blossom Festival and centennial celebration of Tokyo's gift of cherry trees to Washington.

Masters of Mercy: Buddha's Amazing Disciples

Kano Kazunobu's (1816–1863) phantasmagoric paintings reflect a popular theme in Edo art: the lives and deeds of the Buddha's legendary 500 disciples. This exhibition features selections from Kazunobu's 100-painting series created between 1854 and 1863 for the important Pure Land Buddhist temple Zōjōji, located in the heart of Edo. Little-known and never before displayed outside Japan, Kazunobu's epic series brilliantly imagines Buddha's disciples at work in the world, engaged in activities ranging from miraculous acts of compassion to such everyday activities as washing clothes and caring for animals. The series was on view for the first time to the modern general public in a widely hailed exhibition held at the Edo-Tokyo Museum in Tokyo last spring.

Hokusai: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji

The most acclaimed print series by Japan’s most famous artist, Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji by Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) contains images of worldwide renown, including Beneath the Wave off Kanagawa, better known as The Great Wave. First published for the New Year of 1831, the series was a landmark in Japanese print publishing, incorporating innovative compositions, techniques, and coloration and establishing landscape as a new subject. As part of the Japan Spring celebration, the Sackler presents examples of all 46 prints in the series—which was continued under its original title due to the great popularity of Hokusai’s designs—including several rare, early printings featuring unusual coloration. The exhibition lends context to these iconic designs and explores the artistic methods and meaning behind Hokusai’s depictions of Mount Fuji.

Perspectives: Ai Weiwei

This exhibition features prolific Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's monumental installation Fragments (2005). Noting the abundance of antique wood on the market, Ai had a number of pieces transported from Guangdong to his studio in Beijing to create a series of objects and installations. Fragments is a culmination of that body of work. Working with a team of skilled carpenters, Ai turned pillars and beams of ironwood (or tieli) salvaged from several dismantled Qing dynasty temples into a large-scale, seemingly chaotic work, which he calls an "irrational structure." Yet examined more closely, one discovers that the installation is an elaborate system of masterful joinery and delicate balance relations. Seen from above, the entire complex is anchored by poles marking out the borders of a map of China. Through his simultaneously destructive and creative process, Ai highlights the bewildering reality that we live in the midst of a world undergoing rapid spatial and social transformations. Perspectives: Ai Weiwei is presented concurrently with a retrospective of Ai Weiwei’s works at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Nomads and Networks: The Ancient Art and Culture of Kazakhstan

Nomads and Networks is the first U.S. exhibition to present a comprehensive overview of the ancient nomadic culture of Kazakhstan, which roamed the Altai and Tianshan regions of eastern Kazakhstan from roughly the sixth through the first century BCE. The objects in the show come from every important museum in Kazakhstan.

Shadow Sites: Recent Work by Jananne al-Ani

Inspired by archival archaeological and aerial photographs, as well as contemporary news reportage, al-Ani has created a new body of video works that examines enduring representations of the Middle Eastern landscape. The exhibition is a highlight of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery’s 25th anniversary celebration in 2012.

Worlds Within Worlds: Imperial Paintings from India and Iran

India’s Mughal emperors, who reigned over a vast and wealthy empire that extended from Kabul over most of the South Asian subcontinent between the sixteenth and the nineteenth century, were passionate about lavish manuscripts and paintings. Between 1556 and 1650, the greatest Mughal patrons—the emperors Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan—formed grand workshops that brought together and nurtured India’s leading painters, calligraphers and illuminators.

The exhibition brings together sixty of the finest folios and paintings from the Freer|Sackler collection, which form one of the world’s most important repositories of Mughal and Persian painting.

Roads of Arabia: Archaeology and History of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

An eye-opening look at the largely unknown ancient past of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, this exhibition draws on recently discovered archaeological material never before seen in the United States. Roads of Arabia features objects excavated from several sites throughout the Arabian Peninsula, tracing the impact of ancient trade and routes and pilgrimage roads stretching from Yemen in the south to Iraq, Syria and Mediterranean cultures in the north. Elegant alabaster bowls and fragile glassware, heavy gold earrings and Hellenistic bronze statues testify to a lively mercantile and cultural interchange among distant civilizations.

Benefit Gala

Join Director Julian Raby to celebrate twenty-five years of achievement at a spectacular evening of art, music, and fine cuisine under the patronage of Mrs. Arthur M. Sackler. Save the date for the most dazzling Sackler gala yet, as we pay tribute to the past but also look ahead as we plan for our exciting future.

Japan Spring Opening Day Celebration

Celebrate the arrival of Japan Spring on the National Mall with bento boxes and tea, available for purchase in the Sackler Pavilion from 11 am – 2 pm. A Hokusai-inspired family activity and a demonstration of the dramatic art of kabuki will begin at 2 pm.
Japanese cuisine provided by Kushi.