New York, 14 November 2012
In its November issue, Asian Art magazine published an article about the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s full re-installation of its collection of Chinese ceramics. The adjective “stale” was used to describe the old installation, unchanged for over 30 years. The collection begun in 1879 when the museum purchased around 1,000 pieces, now completed with recently acquired pieces.
The collection will be entirely reorganised according to new guidelines: the aim is no more to show a “monocultural display” of Chinese ceramics, but to include ceramics from Japan, Southeast Asia, Korea, the Islamic world, Europe and the Americas to show the influence Chinese ceramics had on the art of ceramics throughout the world, from 8th to 21st Century. The rearrangement of the installation will also focus on showing how Chinese ceramics themselves were influenced by foreign creations, particularly from the Middle East.
In his article, Martin Barnes Lorber offers a full account of what each new section will entail of. His conclusion to the article stresses how very much needed such a re-installation was, and how productive and enriching it will be to the museum’s visitors, to whom this entirely new, dynamic approach will undoubtedly appeal.