ADORNMENT FOR ETERNITY
CHINESE JEWELRY THROUGH THE AGES
Gold hairpin (detail) from the Song dynasty (960 - 1279)
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Status and rank: you are what you wear. Earrings, mirrors, combs, belt
sets, hairpins, pendants and diadems exauisitelv crafted from old. silver.
bronze jade and other sumptuous materials. This is the first major exhibition
to trace the evolution of Chines personal adornment from the Shang period
(ca.1500-1050 B.C. to the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1368- 1644). During the early
phases of China's history, jewelry and related objects served as status
symbols. In later periods, they were marks of beauty and wealth. Many of
these objects have since been unearthed from Chinese tombs, where
they were intended to accompany the dead in the afterlife as adornments
for eternity. All 113 objects in this exhibition are drawn from the privately
held Mengdiexuan Collection from Hong Kong. The Richmond showing of the
exhibition is supported by a grant from the Weedon Foundation. The national
tour of the exhibition and its catalog were made possible in part by generous
donations from the Joseph and Loretta Law Foundation, the Woods Publishing
Company, Celeste and John Fleming, Marv Ellen and Toder Anderson and the
Rirhfeltl Hotel Management, Inc. Additional funding is from the Denver
Metropolitan Area Scientific and Cultural Facilities District.
- ORGANIZER: Denver Art Museum
CURATORS: Julia M. White, former associate curator of Asian art,
Denver Art Museum,
now curator, Honolulu Academy of Arts; Emma C. Bunker, independent scholar
and
research consultant, Denver Art Museum
VMFA COORDINATOR: Dr. Joseph M. Dye III, E. Rhodes and Leona B.
Carpenter
Curator of Asiatic Art
ITINERARY: Denver Art Museum (Oct. 15, 1994-Sept. 3, 1995); Eskenazi,
Ltd., Oriental
Art Gallery, London (Oct. 10-Dec. 16, 1995); Seattle Art Museum (Jan. 13-July
14,
1996); China Institute, NYC (Feb. l-July 1, 1997); VIRGINIA MUSEUM
;
Honolulu Academy of Fine Arts (Feb. l-May 1, 1998)
CATALOG: Essays by White and Bunker, with contributions by Chen
Peifen; 214 pages;
113 color plates; map, line drawings, reference photographs. Softcover
$84.
ADMISSION: fee TBA
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