Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art Opens Woven and Cast on November 7: Late-Imperial Chinese Textiles Meet Contemporary Japanese Metalwork
The Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C., will open Woven and Cast: Chinese Textiles and Japanese Metalwork from the Shirley Z. Johnson Collection on November 7, running through November 28, 2027.
According to the museum's September 30 announcement, the exhibition brings together late-imperial Chinese textiles and contemporary Japanese metalwork, two art forms separated by time, material and place, to explore overlooked similarities: displayed side by side, the textiles and metalworks reveal unexpected commonalities in texture and luminosity. The works come from the collection of philanthropist Shirley Z. Johnson (1940-2021), a lawyer, autism advocate and Washington, D.C. resident who served on the museum's board from 2004 to 2012 and from 2017 to 2021, and who collected 20th- and 21st-century Japanese metalwork alongside Chinese textiles of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the 15th through 19th centuries.
'With this exhibition, we aim for the intentionally unexpected, showcasing the surprising connections that can be found across materials from different histories and artistic traditions,' said Chase Robinson, the museum's director. The exhibition joins the museum's series spotlighting American women collectors in honor of the United States' 250th anniversary.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：中国明代佛教法衣织物（资料图，克利夫兰艺术博物馆藏品）。图片：Cleveland Museum of Art，CC0（Wikimedia Commons）。Photo: A Ming-dynasty Chinese Buddhist ceremonial robe textile (file photo; Cleveland Museum of Art). Credit: Cleveland Museum of Art, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
