II. The Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection:

A Game Changer 

Juan Gris (1887-1927), Still Life With Checked Tablecloth, Paris, spring 1915, 

oil and graphite on canvas, 45 7/8 x 35 1/8 in. (116.5 x 89.2 cm),

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection,

 Purchase, Leonard A. Lauder Gift, 2014 (2014.463)

Photo:  Metropolitan Museum of Art Web site 

Of the four notables of Cubism - Georges Braque (1882–1963), Juan Gris (1887–1927), Fernand Léger (1881–1955) and Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) - Gris and Léger developed the most individualistic Cubist styles.  Unlike Braque and Picasso whose Cubism could be very similar, Gris's and Léger's work are highly distinct.  Gris never relinquished realism; Léger moved away from representation toward total abstraction.  This is plainly seen in the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and now on view in the exhibition, "Cubism:  The Leonard A. Lauder Collection."*

Gris a Spaniard like Picasso, came to Paris in 1906.**  He became friends with Braque, Léger, Picasso and Matisse.   Gris's use of bold color combinations shows his debt to Matisse.   

The paintings Still Life with Checkered Tablecloth and Pears and Grapes on a Table, illustrate the artist's salient characteristics: unconventional coloration, dizzying viewpoints, transposable foregrounds and backgrounds, checkerboard patterns, diagonally placed objects, abrupt cropping, dark shapes and outlines and depictions of things that would be familiar to everyone.  

A first look at the paintings with their bird's-eye perspective may confuse. Once the spectator realizes he/she is looking down at objects on a table, the scenes becomes clear.  

Juan Gris (1887-1927), Pears and Grapes on a Table, Céret, autumn 1913, 

oil on canvas, 21 1/2 x 28 3/4 in. (45.7 x 61 cm),

Promised Gift from the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection

© 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Photo:  Metropolitan Museum of Art Web site 

In Pears and Grapes on a Table, the table laden with items typical of a light snack or meal - a bowl filled with pears, grapes, a goblet, knife, tablecloth and two folded Le Matin newspapers, identified by the masthead lettering and the artist's choice for news.  

The room's checkered flooring appears to meet the edge of the wood table top.  The pattern partly obfuscates a chair set diagonally to the picture frame and cut off acutely at the its top edge.  Everything is flat, two-dimensional. Even the blue rimmed goblet with some shading and a base decoration that can be interpreted as fingers of a hand seems like a paper cut out.

A mysterious quality permeates the scenario.  Everything is in disarray as if something unusual has taken place.  The use of blacks for fruits, silhouettes and the knife may point to an event that was sinister. The rumpled red shawl left on the rattan seat of the orange chair and the chair's position may indicate a person has left in haste - too rushed to take the shawl or push the chair fully away from the table.  

At this time, a pulp fiction series featuring a master criminal and his exploits was popular among the Parisian avant-garde.  Gris was an enthusiastic fan.  Thrillers, cops and robbers, cliffhangers held the artist's interest.  His paintings, such as Pears and Grapes on a Table, may be viewed as visual equivalents to stories of suspense.  

Fernand Léger (1881–1955), Houses under the Trees, 1913,

oil on canvas, 36 1/4 x 28 3/4 in. (92.1 x 73 cm),

Promised Gift from the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection

© 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Photo:  Metropolitan Museum of Art Web site

Unlike the other Cubists, Léger severs the connection to reality outside of the painting.  He employed a geometric vocabulary of cubes, rectangles, cylinders and circles.  Curves were his preference.  A palette of primary and complimentary colors add to the firm plasticity of  the forms. Drawing and geometries give the work a strong rhythmic quality.   The paintings have motion.  Lines and shapes shift providing equivocal meanings.  In Houses under the Trees, the curvilinear elements that designate trees can simultaneously be interpreted as billowing smoke rising from a city landscape or the curvaceous outline of a shapely nude.  Here, the red, blue and white colors may refer to the French national flag.  If the painting had no title - no references to houses or trees - would the subject be recognizable?  

Fernand Léger (1881-1955), The Smoker, 1914,

oil on canvas, 39 1/2 x 32 in. (100.3 x 81.3 cm),

Promised Gift from the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection

© 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Photo:  Metropolitan Museum of Art Web site

This viewer would be hard pressed to make out the subject in many of Léger's works.   Hints help.  In The Smoker, the painting's subject is seen in a three-quarter view from the rear.  A long oval in the upper center of the canvas indicates the back of the head.  The smoker's red pipe is made up of a tubular stem and bucket-like tobacco chamber. White and blue bulbous puffs of smoke rise in the painting's upper left corner.  The smoker's body is a configuration of cylindrical and curvy forms. Combinations of lines, colors and figurations give the painting motion and three-dimensionality.  

Léger's paintings appear to assemble before the viewer's eyes and give the feeling that if one turns around and looks again, the work will be different - the parts would have moved.

Spend time with Leonard A. Lauder's remarkable gift.  Each artwork is of the highest quality and significant.  This is a gift that keeps on giving for Mr. Lauder has placed no restrictions on his generosity which means the Museum can place the works according to curatorial needs. Furthermore, the collection is not finished.  Mr. Lauder plans to continue enlarging the Cubist holdings when art of suitable value comes to the market.  

Go to the Met.  See the exhibit.  Mr. Lauder's passion for Cubism expressed in his collection will surely ignite your own.  

*For "I.  The Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection:

  A Game Changer Part I," go to ArtWithHillary, November, 2014. 

**This is the year Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) died.  In 1907, two major Cézanne exhibitions took place in Paris:  a large-scale show of the artist's watercolors at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune and a memorial retrospective with 56 of his paintings at the Salon d'Automne, the annual Paris exhibition for the advancement of modern art.

Cézanne's powerful influence on the development of Cubism as well as subsequent artistic movements is firmly established. He presented an alternative view of the world - seeing everything in geometries - implying what we perceive through our eyes is not reality. Painting no longer had to be about copying life but could be about giving solid form to underlying structures, seeking the permanent, eternal.  In his work, contradictions seem to make sense. Planes are flattened, foreground and background appear flush while objects and shapes are rendered three-dimensionally maintaining a sculptural quality.  Cézanne initiated more - such as leaving parts of the canvas untouched by paint yet important to the overall totality of that which is depicted.  His paintings freed artists to explore what art could be and they took from him what they wanted.  


Picasso called him, "...my one and only master" and said, "Cézanne was like the father of us all."  The latter quote has also been credited to Matisse.    Léger commented, "The power of Cézanne was such that, to find myself, I had to go to the limits of abstraction.”  While Gris asserted, "Cézanne turned a bottle into a cylinder, but I begin with a cylinder and create an individual (object) of a specific type.

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), Still Life with Jar, Cup, and Apples,

ca. 1877, oil on canvas, 23 7/8 x 29 in. (60.6 x 73.7 cm)

H. O. Havemeyer Collection, 

Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929

Photo:  Metropolitan Museum of Art Web site

Gris's connection with Cézanne's still lifes are obvious.  The artist used similar motifs: table tops with familiar objects and patterns that one can recognize from painting to painting.  There is also the common knife placed slightly off a table's edge and the mussed white tablecloth. 

I urge readers to spend time with Cezanne's work which is well-represented in New York's museums. 

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Cubism:  The Leonard A. Lauder Collection

October 20, 2014 - February 16, 2015

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street), Manhattan

Hours:

Open 7 Days a Week

Sunday–Thursday: 10:00 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

Friday and Saturday: 10:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m.

Closed Thanksgiving Day, December 25, January 1,

and the first Monday in May
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I. The Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection:

A Game Changer 

A man looks at the back of Fernand Leger’s ‘House under the Trees,’ 

which features a portrait of a woman, scrapped by the artist.* 

Photo:  Kevin Hagen for The Wall Street Journal.

One of the finest private collection of cubist artworks is going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  A gift of the art patron and philanthropist Leonard A. Lauder, it will no doubt be a game changer for the Museum as well as those who view it.  

The entire collection, as it exists today, is currently on view in its new home.  The exhibition, "Cubism:  The Leonard A. Lauder Collection," comprises some 81 paintings, drawings, collages and sculptures created by the four principals of Cubism: Georges Braque (1882–1963), Juan Gris (1887–1927), Fernand Léger (1881–1955), and Pablo Picasso (1881–1973).  The artworks, 17 pieces by Braque, 15 by Gris, 15 by Léger and 34 by Picasso, unfold a new way of representation.  For those who think Cubism is too abstruse and impassive, the show will surprise you.  

In general, artwork needs to be seen in person.  This is especially true for Cubism.  Photo imagery simply can not make visible the multiplicity of brushstrokes, diversity of canvas textures, compositional intricacies and color luminosity that characterize Cubist painting. 

On several occasions,  this viewer noted visitors spending exceedingly long times looking at the actual works as opposed to lingering over wall text and labels.  Such a public engagement with art is seldom observed.  

 Two Visitors in front of Fernand Leger (1881 - 1955), The Smoker, 

1914, oil on canvas, 39 1/2 x 32 in. (100.3 x 81.3 cm)
Promised Gift from the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection
© 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Photo:  Ashraya-NY.org Web site

The exhibit is organized by individual artists intermixed with a couple of thematic rooms.  Besides visual delights, viewing imparts a comprehensive understanding of the movement known as Cubism in its Analytic and Synthetic phrases.  It also makes clear the distinct forms of Cubism developed by participating artists.  

Between 1907 and 1908, Braque and Picasso begat Cubism. Landscapes, figures and objects were broken down or fractured into small geometric forms.  These facets were reassembled and laid out on two-dimensional planes.  Modeling, illusions of three-dimensionality, one point perspective in use since the Renaissance were abandoned.  Analytic Cubism "analyzed" things from many points of view.  Palettes were monochromic and muted.  Realistic representation was all but lost - depictions verged on abstraction.  

Braque may have initially been the leader in this new style but Picasso took over as Cubism evolved into its next phrase, Synthetic Cubism.  In 1912, the artists began to add paper and other materials, both real and painted, to their compositions. Bold colors were introduced.  Bits of everyday life like packagings, advertisements, and newspapers mingled with painted imagery. 

Georges Braque (1882–1963), Still Life with Clarinet (Bottle and Clarinet), 

Céret, summer–autumn 1911, oil on canvas, 25 1/2 × 19 3/4 in. (64.8 × 50.2 cm),

Promised Gift from the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection

© 2014 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Photo:  Metropolitan Museum of Art Web site

Between 1909 and 1911, Braque and Picasso worked closely together - each aware of what the other was doing.  At this time, their art looked quite similar.  Their differences, hard to distinguish at first, is the subject of one exhibition room where paintings created by the two are hung side by side.  

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Pedestal Table, Glasses, Cups, Mandolin, 

Paris, spring 1911. oil on canvas, 24 1/4 x 19 1/2 in. (61.6 x 49.5 cm),

Promised Gift from the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection

© 2014 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Photo:  Metropolitan Museum of Art Web site

Wall text points out Braque's use of long, unbroken diagonal lines which transfixed forms spread across the picture's surface.  There is no central point of focus - elements are balanced, evenly dispersed. Rendered with thinly applied paint, the whole imparts a sense of dematerialization.  Picasso's compositions are centered.  Tactile qualities are pronounced.  Pigments are applied with opacity.  Contours are emphasized with shading. Facets appear almost three-dimensional. Compare Braque's Violin: "Mozart Kubelick" with Picasso's The Scallop Shell: "Notre Avenir est dans l'Air" which are displayed in a room concentrated on Cubist color.

Georges Braque (1882-1963), Violin: "Mozart Kubelick",

Paris, spring 1912, 0il on canvas,

18 x 24 in. ( 45.7 x 61 cm)

Promised Gift from the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection

© 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Photo:  New York Times Web site

Pablo Picasso (1881 -1973), The Scallop Shell: "Notre Avenir est dans l'Air”,

Paris, spring 1912, enamel and oil on canvas,

oval, 15 x 21 3/4 in. (38.1 x 55.2 cm)

Promised Gift from the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection

© 2014 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Photo:  New York Times Web site

Both paintings are complex.  Allusions that would have been understood by the artists's own contemporaries are lost today.  The words in Braque's painting, "Mozart" and "Kubelick" refer to a concert that took place in the spring of 1912 in conjunction with a retrospective of works by the artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867). Included in the exhibit  were Ingres's palette and violin.  At the concert, which took place in the art gallery a few days after the exhibit opened, the famed Czech violinist Jan Kubelik** performed Ingres's favorite music on the artist's own violin.  Ingres, who had a special regard for Mozart's oeuvre, had studied music and played the violin regularly. Braque and Picasso greatly admired Ingres and would have had a keen interest in the exhibition.  

Braque deconstructs a violin, the painting's subject, which appears to rest on a table or shelf.  The two words, surrounded by pink, seem as if they are on other realm.  Perhaps they refer to some poster or handbill. Certainly they call attention to the concert event.  The violinist name, Kubelik, includes "kube."  Cubist painters, delighting in word play, often incorporated words with "cube" into their paintings.  As for Braque's misspelling of  "Kubelik,"  it remains a mystery.  

In The Scallop Shell: "Notre Avenir est dans l'Air," Picasso makes reference to the pamphlet, "Our Future is in the Air," which was circulated to promote France's aviation program. Braque and Picasso working closely together towards a new vision likened themselves to the Wright brothers.  The blue, white and red stripes refer to the French national flag - perhaps Picasso's declaration of patriotism to his new home.  The colored bands are painted with ordinary household paint instead of oil paint traditionally associated with fine art.  The use of both oil and house paint - high and low mediums - is another way Cubism brought together the conventional and unconventional.  

The painting's central two shells may hint at a recent trip to Le Havre Picasso took together with Braque or a reminder for the artist of his beloved port city of Barcelona.  Shells had long been symbolic of travelers and pilgrims.  They were sold as tourist souvenirs from port and seaside towns and, as such, would have significance for the artist.  

The letters, "JOU" comes from Le Journal, a daily Paris newspaper - letter stencils making partial words were commonly placed in Cubist works. The Scallop Shell: "Notre Avenir est dans l'Air" has more to impart but let the above suffice for now.  Readers may pursue their decoding on their own. The show's excellent catalogue provides much information and is well-worth looking into.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), The Absinthe Glass, Paris, spring 1914,

painted bronze and perforated tin absinthe spoon,

 8 7/8 x 5 x 2 1/2 in. (22.5 x 12.7 x 6.4 cm)

Promised Gift from the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection

© 2014 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Photo:  New York Times Web site

The collection also includes Picasso's revolutionary sculpture, The Absinthe Glass.  Think of early twentieth-century sculpture:  Auguste Rodin, (see ArtWithHillary, Thinking about the "Thinker"and More, August 2014), highly finished marble portraits and classical figural groups.  

Picasso's sculpture depicts a commonplace item - a glass for the notorious intoxicating drink absinthe complete with sugar cube and spoon.  The glass is seen from multiple vantage points and includes shadows modeled in three-dimensions. Most shocking, the artist includes a real object - a piece of cutlery.  A sculptured sugar cube rests on a genuine perforated trowel-shaped absinthe spoon placed on the rim of a sculpted glass.  

To drink the anise-flavored liquor, cold water is slowly dripped on the sugar cube which causes the sugar to dissolve into the liquid below. Although the beverage is green, the artist avoids this color.  His colors do not describe the subject.  He uses blues, blacks, reds, whites and touches of yellow.  

Painted dots on the sugar, at the base of the glass and on planes in various views denote the confetti that was used in abundance at Mid-Lent and Carnival parades.  Throwing paper confetti at festivities became a craze in the late nineteenth century and its popularity continued into the twentieth century.***  Along celebration routes, the practice caused small round colored paper pieces to cascade on the outdoor cafe customers and their drinks.  The soft paper disks replaced plaster chips in France in 1892 when the latter was banned for causing injuries.  Colorful stippling in Cubist works refer not only to the confetti craze of revelers but also to Pointillism and Divisionism, styles of painting exemplified in the works of Georges Seurat (1859-1891), Paul Signac (1863-1935) and Henri-Edmond Cross (1856-1910).  Cubist dottings, unlike the earlier movements, were not used to define or describe objects but to enhance the picture's formal qualities - enlivens surface with texture and light.  At the same time, the dots acknowledge earlier artistic endeavors and the worthiness of popular culture.   

Two very different artists, Juan Gris and Fernard Léger, round off the Lauder Collection's pioneers of Cubism.   More about these painters next month.

* Recto, Fernand Léger (1881 - 1955), Houses under the Trees, 1913,

    oil on canvas, 36 ¼ x 28 3/4 in. ( 92.1 x 73 cm)

   The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection, 
    Purchase, Leonard A. Lauder Gift, 2014

    © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

    Verso, Houses under the Trees, 1913,

    oil on canvas, 36 ¼ x 28 3/4 in. ( 92.1 x 73 cm)

    Promised Gift from the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection

    © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

    Photo:  Metropolitan Museum of Art Web site

**The distinguished conductor Raphael Kubelik (1914-1996) was Jan Kubelik's son.  

***When paper confetti replaced plaster chips in 1892 at Paris's annual Carnival festivities, 20,000 kilograms (about 20 tons) were sold.  Three years later, the amount purchased increased to 500,000 kilograms (about 500 tons).  See below the Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's advertisement poster for paper "injury-free" confetti made by London paper manufacturer J & E Bella.  

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901), Confetti, 1894,

lithograph, composition: 22 5/8 x 15 5/8 in. (57.4 x 39.7 cm); 

sheet: 22 5/8 × 17 9/16 in. (57.4 × 44.6 cm),

Publisher: J & E Bella, London,

Printer:  Bella & de Malherbe, London and Paris,

Edition: approx. 100

Acquired in honor of Joanne M. Stern 

by the Committee on Prints and Illustrated Books

in appreciation for her contribution as Committee Chair

Museum of Modern Art,  New York

Photo:  Museum of Modern Art Web site

****The Museum of Modern Art work is presently not on view.

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Cubism:  The Leonard A. Lauder Collection

October 20, 2014 - February 16, 2015

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street), Manhattan

Hours:

Open 7 Days a Week

Sunday–Thursday: 10:00 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

Friday and Saturday: 10:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m.

Closed Thanksgiving Day, December 25, January 1,

and the first Monday in May
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Unraveling The Mysteries Of The East (2)

National Museum, New Delhi, India

Photo:  Wkitravel Web site (Picture 1331)

The National Museum, New Delhi, India, is somewhat of a hidden treasure.  This writer knows many repeat visitors to India who are unaware of the asset.  The museum is well worth a visit.  Hundreds of remarkable objects are on view from a collection of over 200,000. Some holdings are of non-Indian origin but the vast majority belong to India's heritage.  They represent some 5,000 years of civilization, from 3,000 B.C. to the present.  

Ganga, 5th century A.D., (Gupta Period), 

Uttar Pradesh, terra-cotta, 

h: 67.7 l: 29.1 w: 15.8 in. (h: 172 l: 74 w: 40 cm)

National Museum, New Delhi, India

Photo:  National Museum Web site

Sculptures in a variety of materials, paintings, textiles, arms and armor, ceramics and manuscripts are just some of the artworks on view.  

Partial view of Chola Gallery, 

National Museum, New Delhi, India

Photo:  Enjoying India Web site, Verseguru (Creative Commons)

Visitors new to the arts of India may find particular galleries more engaging.  One such gallery is a room dedicated to the softly modeled, sensual sculptures of the Gupta period, c. 320 - 550 A.D., considered the classic period of Indian art; or, one devoted to the graceful, elegant and otherworldly bronzes from the Chola dynasty of South India, c. 850 - 1250 A.D. 

  Partial view of Buddhist Gallery with Stupa containing relics of Buddha,

National Museum, New Delhi, India

Photo:  Albany Kid Web site

View of Buddhist Gallery with Stupa containing relics of Buddha,

National Museum, New Delhi, India

Photo:  Hillary Ganton

Don't be surprised to find the Buddhist art gallery filled with saffron robed Buddhist monks.   A small stupa here contains sacred relics of the Buddha.  The shrine attracts thousands of worshippers each year.

Views of Painting Galleries,

National Museum, New Delhi, India

Photo:  National Museum Web site

The museum's miniature painting collection has both depth and breath.  Examples of all the major styles and sub-styles of Indian painting are displayed in a series of well-lit galleries.  The works astound with their exquisite intricacy.  A magnifying glass and small flash light come in handy.  Magnification brings out details that are all but impossible to see with the naked eye. In some finely painted areas, artists are said to have used a brush made with a single hair. The sheen of gold, silver and metallic green (beetle wings) employed for highlights is lost without additional illumination.  Focused or refracted light from oil lamps or candles would have picked up the glint of these materials. Sadly, most of the silver leaf has oxidized to black but this is no deterrent from enjoying these beautiful works.  

If you go to India, don't miss visiting the museum.  When there, be sure to avail yourself of the informative audio guide.  It makes the experience even more pleasurable   

If India is of interest but a trip is not in the future, explore the National Museum's Web site as well as the National Museum's entry on Google Art Project.*  

A view from Victoria Peak, 

looking north over Central, Victoria Harbour and Kowloon (2011)

Photo:  Wikipedia Web site

Travelers often begin their journey to mainland China with a stop in Hong Kong.  Some just visit Hong Kong.  In this city of dazzling vistas and prodigious shopping, the Hong Kong Museum of Art is commonly missed.  Although not a national museum, it had offered an introduction to China's arts.  Thus, this mention.  

The museum is presently beginning a comprehensive renovation.   Alas, the Chinese antiquities section is now closed as well as some galleries devoted to contemporary artworks and educative presentations.   With the hope that the museum will wisely reinstall the collection, the following description is presented. 

Hong Kong Museum of Art,  Main Entrance

Photo:  Hong Kong Extras Web site

Housed in a modern building in Hong Kong's main tourist area, the Hong Kong Museum of Art is easily accessed.   The holdings, about 15,000 artworks, is neither large by some standards nor filled with national treasures.  To give readers a comparison, the Shanghai Museum has more than 1,000,000 objects with at least 120,000 of significant cultural importance.  The Palace Museum in Beijing has in excess of 1,800,000 artifacts, of these approximately 1,600,000 are deemed historically valuable and nationally protected.

Large Bowl with Floral Scrolls Design in Underglaze Red,

Hongwu period (1368 - 1398), Ming dynasty,

h.: 3.9, diameter of mouth: 8 in. (h.:10, diameter of mouth: 20.3 cm)

Hong Kong Museum of Art

Photo:  Wikimedia Commons Web site**

Yet, the Hong Kong Museum of Art's size and quality was not a disadvantage.  The number of objects that were displayed had not overwhelmed.  Works were organized by material and displayed chronologically.  These included ceramics, bronzes, lacquerwares, costumes and furniture.  

Hong Kong Museum of Art, Education Corner***

Hong Kong

Photo:  Wikimedia Commons Web site

The whole museum is scheduled to close sometime in 2015.  When it reopens, a visit to the Hong Kong Museum of Art may once again be a good start to a Chinese adventure.  Until then, it is best not to go here. 

*The National Museum, New Delhi, India, is part of Google Art Project.  Institutions belonging to the project put artworks online in high resolution images and, in some cases, a 360 degree tour of the institution's galleries.  To explore the National Museum, New Delhi, India, on Google Art Project, go to the Art Project's home page, main menu.  Click on "Collections" and type "New Delhi" in search area.  When the drop-down menu appears, click on "National Museum, Delhi."

**This work is in the public domain in the United States.

***Former installation.