Objects We Love: Preparatory Drawing of the Bodhisattva Maitreya
Objects We Love: Freer Beaker
Objects We Love: Kōetsu Utaibon
Objects We Love: Folding screens mounted with poems from the anthology, Shin kokinshu
Objects We Love: Royal Pen Case with Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar enthroned
Matsushima: Remembering the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
Objects We Love: Harvesting knife with mask and felines
Objects We Love: Round covered box with design of three flowers
Objects We Love: Porcelain Cup with enamels over colorless glaze
"Fireworks at Ike-no-Hata" by Kobayashi Kiyochika
#HappyFourthofJuly! 🎆 Animation of "Fireworks at Ike-no-Hata" by Kobayashi Kiyochika in our #JapaneseArt collection courtesy of Smithsonian.
Out & about? Please stay safe and maintain social distancing. "COVID-19! How Can I Protect Myself and Others?" guide via Smithsonian Science Education Center, available in 15 languages: https://ssec.si.edu/covid-19
Look closer at this #WoodblockPrint via #OpenFS: https://asia.si.edu/object/S2003.8.1197/
Framing a Masterpiece
Take two minutes to learn a bit about the work of a museum exhibit specialist! ✨
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In this video, we go behind-the-scenes with #FreerSackler exhibit specialist, John Piper. 🛠
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You’ll hear from John about his role in bringing our exhibitions to life as you watch him recreate a frame designed by American artist James McNeill Whistler. 🖼
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Learn more about Whistler's thoughts on framing his artwork on our site: https://asia.si.edu/exhibition/framing-a-masterpiece/
#Smithsonian #AmericanArt #JamesMcNeillWhistler #Frames
There are just TWO WEEKS until we celebrate the arts and culture of Korea during Found in Translation: #ArtandSeoul!
Along with our friends Korean Cultural Center in Washington, DC, Nu Androids, TOKiMONSTA, #CHIKOFRC, #JEXKO, and more, we can’t wait to welcome you to the #FreerSackler on Friday, November 22!
Learn more about the event and grab your 🎟 here:
www.asia.si.edu/foundintranslation
Women’s Voices in Persian Poetry
What role have female writers played in the evolution of Persian literature? One of the earliest Persian poets was Rabe’eh, who lived over a thousand years ago, and since then, women have played a critical role in the formation of Persian poetry. In conjunction with the exhibition My Iran, we celebrate female perspectives with writer Azar Nafisi, poet Fatemeh Shams, and scholar and translator of Persian literature Dick Davis. Chief curator Massumeh Farhad serves as moderator.
#Smithsonian #FreerSackler #FSMyIran #PersianPoetry #PersianLiterature #PersianWomen #WomenAuthors #FemalePoets #Poetry
Dancing the Paths to Buddhism: Sophiline Arts Ensemble
Learn about Buddhism through dance with award-winning Cambodian choreographer Sophiline Cheam-Shapiro, along with principal dancers from her Sophiline Arts Ensemble in Phnom Penh. Watch as the ensemble performs four traditional and contemporary dances based on themes of Cambodian Buddhism, dramatizing Buddhist practices of the Noble Eightfold Path and the concepts of right blessings, conduct, speech, and mindfulness. Joining her for this performance are dancers Mot Pharan, Rin Sreyleak, Sao Phirom, and Sot Sovanndy.
This performance is presented in conjunction with “Encountering the Buddha: Art and Practice across Asia”. Lead Sponsor: The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation
#Smithsonian #FreerSackler #AsianArt #Cambodia #CambodianDance #Buddhism #EncounteringtheBuddha #Buddha #Dance #EightfoldPath
Unfortunate Destiny: Animals in the Indian Buddhist Imagination
Unfortunate Destiny: Animals in the Indian Buddhist Imagination
How are animals imagined and depicted in early Buddhist literature from India? Should they be seen as convenient objects for human exploitation and abuse—or as fellow travelers in the round of rebirth, worthy of human kindness and compassion? This talk focuses on the role and imagery of animals in early Buddhist literature and illuminates how Buddhist authors used animals to explore what it means to be human.
Reiko Ohnuma is professor and chair in the Department of Religion at Dartmouth College. Her research focuses on South Asian Buddhism, and she is the author of Head, Eyes, Flesh, and Blood: Giving Away the Body in Indian Buddhist Literature (Columbia, 2007); Ties That Bind: Maternal Imagery and Discourse in Indian Buddhism (Oxford, 2012); and Unfortunate Destiny: Animals in the Indian Buddhist Imagination (Oxford, 2017).
This event is the fifth of our six-part “Encounters with Buddhism” series (https://www.facebook.com/events/656651328172651/).
#Smithsonian #FreerSackler #EncounteringtheBuddha #EncounterswithBuddhism #Buddhism #Lecture #AsianArt #ArtMuseum #Animals
Popular Music from Java: Keroncong
Indonesian music stars Endah Laras (vocals) and Danis Sugiyanto (violin) join the American keroncong ensemble Rumput for an evening of traditional Indonesian string band music that traces its roots to the arrival of Portuguese sailors and freed slaves to the archipelago in the sixteenth century. Keroncong’s mellow, jaunty tunes feature vocals, violin, flute, guitar, cello, string bass, and the ukulele-like instruments called cak and cuk. The Rumput band toured Indonesia in 2017 and 2018.
This evening’s concert, part of “Performing Indonesia,” is presented in cooperation with the Embassy of Indonesia.
#Keroncong #IndonesiaUSA70th #Java #Music #JavaneseMusic #Indonesia #MusikKeroncong #EndahLaras #DanisSugiyanto #RumputBand #Jawa #Musik #KeroncongdiAmerika #FreerSackler #MeyerAuditorium #Ukulele #AndyMcGraw
Objects of Faith and Mystery: Hidden Aspects of Korean Religious Images
Relics and other sacred objects have been placed inside Korean Buddhist sculptures since the Goryeo period (918–1392). This lecture addresses the secret dedication rituals that transform religious images into holy bodies ready for worship. This practice, linked to Buddhist scriptures and belief in the principle of the Five Directions, continues to the present day in Korea.
Jeong Eunwoo received her MA and PhD degrees in Buddhist art history at Hongik University in Seoul. She is currently professor of archaeology and art history at Dong-A University in Busan. A member of the Cultural Heritage Committee of Korea and president of the Association of Art History, she previously served as a director of the Seokdang museum at Dong-A University and chairman of the Korean Society of Art History. She actively studies Buddhist art history and has published numerous papers as well as several books, including “A Study of Buddhist Sculptures in the late Goryeo Dynasty” and “A Smile of Buddhist Sculpture” (both in Korean).
This event is the third of our six-part “Encounters with Buddhism” series (https://www.facebook.com/events/656651328172651/).
#Smithsonian #FreerSackler #EncounteringtheBuddha #EncounterswithBuddhism #Buddhism #Lecture #AsianArt #ArtMuseum #Science #Culture #Sculpture #ReligiousRituals #FiveDirections #KoreanArt #KoreanSculpture #GoryeoDynasty
Seeing through Mindfulness
Believed to be inherently healing and empowering, should the practice of mindfulness, or seeing experience without bias, be taught to all? By examining the translation of the Buddhist concept of sati as mindfulness, and by exploring therapeutic modalities, such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and recent neurological studies of the meditating brain, this talk shows that the concept of mindfulness is variable and difficult to characterize. It looks at how our modern concept of mindfulness is actually an implicit and culturally specific set of values that makes universal claims. Join Erik Braun as he probes the origins of recent views of mindfulness.
Erik Braun is an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. His recent publications include Buddhism, Meditation, and Science, coedited with David McMahan, and The Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadaw, which was a cowinner of the Toshihide Numata Book Prize in Buddhism in 2014. His research focuses on Burmese Buddhism in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, Pāli literature, and globalizing forms of meditative practice.
This event is the second of our six-part “Encounters with Buddhism” series (https://www.facebook.com/events/656651328172651/).
#Smithsonian #FreerSackler #EncounteringtheBuddha #EncounterswithBuddhism #Buddhism #Lecture #AsianArt #ArtMuseum #Mindfulness #Meditation #Neurology #Science #Culture
Buddhism: Some Major Misconceptions
What are the many misconceptions about Buddhism, and why do we believe them? In this lecture, Donald Lopez explores these misunderstandings to show that dispelling such confusion makes Buddhism far more interesting than we might imagine.
Donald S. Lopez is the Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan. His most recent books include Seeing the Sacred in Samsara: An Illustrated Guide to the Eighty-four Mahasiddhas and the forthcoming Two Buddhas Seated Side by Side: A Guide to the Lotus Sutra (with Jackie Stone).
This event is the first of our six-part “Encounters with Buddhism” series (https://www.facebook.com/events/656651328172651/).
#Smithsonian #FreerSackler #EncounteringtheBuddha #EncounterswithBuddhism #Buddhism #Lecture #AsianArt #ArtMuseum
Flutist Ravi Kulur and Spilling Ink: Ragas in Sound and Movement
Flutist Ravi Kulur and Spilling Ink: Ragas in Sound and Movement
Watch and listen live now as Indian flutist Ravi Kulur, who tours regularly with six-time Grammy nominee Anoushka Shankar, combines Indian classical music, dance, and poetry to explore the ragas (melodic modes) represented in four seventeenth-century paintings on view in the Freer Gallery. Joining him are Bangalore-based vocalist Nandakumar Unnikrishnan and percussionist Kartik Vydhatri (on mridangam), along with dancers Vijay Palaparty and Nalini Prakash from local Indian dance company, Spilling Ink and poet Satya Palaparty. This event is made possible, in part, through a grant from the Smithsonian’s Year of Music.
#Smithsonian #FreerSackler #AsianArt #SmithsonianMusic #IndianMusic #IndianClassicalMusic #Ragamala #Poetry #Flute #RaviKulur #Mridangam #Music #LiveMusic #Bharatanatyam #IndianDance #SpillingInk #Dance #WashingtonDC
Curator's Cut: Something Different
Only a few days left to experience the sumptuous beauty of our exhibition, "Empresses of China's Forbidden City, 1644-1912" before it closes this Sunday, June 23 at the #FreerSackler! Our final editions of Curator's Cut focus on one of the most intriguing and different artworks in the show, a trompe l'oeil painting featuring a young Qing Dynasty emperor. Learn more about this piece with co-curators Jan Stuart and Daisy Yiyou Wang, and stay tuned for the final video! #FSEmpresses
Curator's Cut: An Imperial Love Story
In this edition of Curator's Cut, we learn about the affection of the Qianlong emperor for Empress Xiaoxian. It's not often that history can tell us about the emotional intensity of a relationship, but we're lucky to have the evidence! Watch the full video to learn all about it and then get yourself to the #FreerSackler to see "Empresses of China's Forbidden City, 1644-1912" before it closes this Sunday, June 23! #FSEmpresses
#Smithsonian #ChineseArt #ChineseHistory #QingDynasty #ForbiddenCity #QingEmpresses #China #AsianArt #ArtHistory #Scroll #Painting #Poem #Poetry #Emperor #Empress
Entertainment for an Empress: Shanghai Kunqu Troupe
Entertainment for an Empress: Shanghai Kunqu Troupe
Watch two colorful scenes from classical Chinese music-dramas, accompanied by a seven-piece traditional orchestra live in the #FreerSackler’s pavilion!
Up first is “The Matchmaking” from “The Butterfly Dream”, in which Taoist philosopher Chuang-tzu returns from his travels in search of wisdom and tests his wife’s fidelity by faking his own death. Next up is “Fleeing Down the Mountain” from “Records of an Evil Sea”. Watch as a young Buddhist monk escapes monastic life only to meet a nun along the way fleeing her own monastery.
#FSEmpresses #ChineseOpera #ChineseMusic #ChineseArt #AsianArt #Smithsonian #Kunqu #LiveMusic #Buddhism #Taoism
Legend of the Jade Hairpin: Shanghai Kunqu Troupe
Legend of the Jade Hairpin: Shanghai Kunqu Troupe
Live now in the Meyer Auditorium at the #FreerSackler: Watch as China’s leading kunqu troupe performs the classical Chinese music-drama “Legend of the Jade Hairpin”, complete with live music by a seven-piece traditional ensemble. Written in the sixteenth century, this performance follows a love story about a young scholar and a Taoist nun who are betrothed as children, separated by warfare, and unknowingly reunited at a monastery.
#FSEmpresses #ChineseOpera #ChineseMusic #ChineseArt #AsianArt #Smithsonian #Kunqu #LiveMusic
#FSEmpresses: Curator's Cut - Fun with Hats
Let’s have “Fun with Hats”! In this first video of a series on #FSEmpresses: Curator’s Cut, learn special details about objects featured in our current exhibit, “Empresses of China’s Forbidden City, 1644-1912”. Hear directly from co-curators Jan Stuart (Smithsonian's Freer Sackler) and Daisy Yiyou Wang (Peabody Essex Museum) about how this festive headdress with phoenixes and peonies might have been worn by an empress during the #QingDynasty.
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Festive headdress with phoenixes and peonies
China, Qing dynasty, probably second half of 19th century. Metal with gilding, kingfisher feather, jadeite, tourmaline, coral, pearls, and glass; frame: metal wires with silk floss and satin. H x W x D: 15.2 × 29.2 × 27.9 cm (6 × 11 1/2 × 11 in) Lent by Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, gift of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., 1937, 37.125A-D.
#FreerSackler #Smithsonian #Hats #Kingfisher #Birds #Fashion #ArtHistory #ChineseArt #Curator
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