[Tlc] Ceramics in Mainland Southeast Asia--Exhibition at Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

[Cort, Louise]

Dear colleagues,

Please allow me to share with you information about a new exhibition and
online catalogue project relating to ceramics in Mainland Southeast
Asia. 

 

The exhibition "Taking Shape: Ceramics in Southeast Asia" opened at the
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., on
1 April 2007. It will be on view through 2010 and can also be enjoyed on
our web site, www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/current/TakingShape.htm
<http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/current/TakingShape.htm> .

 

The exhibition presents 200 diverse and visually striking pots, jars,
bottles and bowls  from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma
(Myanmar), and southern China, within a narrative that focuses on the
interplay of earthenware and stoneware ceramics within the region, the
cross-fertilization of ideas about ceramic use, form, glaze, and
decoration, and the dispersal of ceramics through local, regional, and
international trade. 

 

Mainland Southeast Asia is one of the few areas of the world hosting
parallel traditions of both earthenware and stoneware technologies. The
exhibition includes a short video showing earthenware and stoneware
production processes (also viewable online) and samples of earthenware
cooking pots and stoneware mortars to handle. 

 

"Taking Shape" draws on a group of nearly 800 ceramics donated to the
Sackler by brothers Osborne and Victor Hauge and their wives Gratia and
Takako. The Hauges collected types of pottery that few other collectors
paid attention to, such as cooking pots from the central highlands of
Vietnam and storage jars from Laos and Thailand. Many were types of
wares that had not yet been identified when the Hauges found them in the
1960s and early 1970s. The collection's incomparable variety and depth
will allow the museum to chart new territory in public programs and
scholarly projects.

 

One project currently in preparation is an innovative Web-based
catalogue of the Hauge collection and related materials in the adjacent
Freer Gallery of Art. The dynamic and interactive site will invite user
commentary and will grow and evolve as new discoveries and research are
incorporated. The site will make information on the museum's Southeast
Asian ceramics available around the world as at the same time as it
solicits information "from the field" and becomes, we hope, a sort of
gathering place for people interested in the varied dimensions of
meaning of ceramics in Mainland Southeast Asia. We hope it will serve as
a resource for teaching. The site will include a steadily-growing
library of specially-commissioned essays, translations of key texts from
Japanese, Thai, and other languages, and reprints of hard-to-find
publications. It will also offer a extensive bibliography. 

 

The Web-based catalogue will launch in late spring. We will celebrate
the launch with a lecture presented by Australian archaeologist Don Hein
concerning his long-term work on the Sawankhalok kiln complex in
north-central Thailand. The lecture will take place at the Freer Gallery
on Sunday 1 June at 2 PM. Details will be forthcoming. 

 

The full collection may be studied by advance appointment. Please
contact Louise Cort, Curator for Ceramics, cortlo at si.edu
<mailto:cortlo at si.edu> .

 

The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, located at 1050 Independence Ave. S.W.,
is on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.. Hours for the Sackler and
the adjacent Freer Gallery of Art are from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. every
day, except Dec. 25, and admission is free. The galleries are located
near the Smithsonian Metrorail station on the Blue and Orange lines. 

 

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