February 1–May 26, 2013

Marking the 100th anniversary of the first gifts of Asian art from the preeminent collector Charles Lang Freer, COLLECTING ART OF ASIA will highlight transformative moments, people, and gifts in the history of collecting and displaying Asian art at Smith College Museum of Art. The exhibition, spanning two floors of the Museum, will include Chinese, Japanese, Korean, South and Southeast Asian art from the permanent collection of SCMA, as well as promised gifts. The galleries will feature: traditional art; prints from 1950 to the present; contemporary painting, sculpture, and installation; and video art. Freer’s close association with painter and Smith professor Dwight Tryon will be examined in the exhibition and in the accompanying illustrated publication with highlights of SCMA’s Asian holdings.

This project is made possible by the generous support of the Louisa Stude Sarofim 1995 Charitable Trust and The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston, both through the initiative of Louisa Stude Sarofim ‘58, and the General Art Fund. Additional support for educational programming is provided by the Carlyn Steiner ‘67 and George Steiner Endowed Fund, in honor of Joan Smith Koch. 

Image Credit: Yue Minjun. Chinese, born 1962. The Grassland Series Woodcut 1 (Diving Figure), 2008 Woodcut on medium weight lightly textured cream wove paper. Gift of Pace Editions Incorporated and Ethan Cohen Fine Arts courtesy of Ann and Richard Solomon (Ann Weinbaum, class of 1959) and Ethan Cohen Photograph by Petegorsky/Gipe.