Asian Art. Paintings

Oh, GAWD... a whole continent to discuss... my head hurts... I would spend weeks at a time, each day spent in a different gallery of the Asian art wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

I love great wads of it. And it's weird, because I love Asian abstract art, when European abstract art drives me batty.

I love Islamic art, I love the intricacy, I love the colours. This, to me, is beautiful abstract art, where the geometry and the symmetry, all wrapped up with writing (text as art = classic) just amazes me. I love Persian carpets, as well. I love the complexity of the designs, combined again with perfect symetry, and abstraction of flowers.

I love Indian art, especially the scuplture, especially the way that they portray females as sensual yet powerful figures. I love the religious paintings, and oh the mandalas, mandalas are so beautiful, so intricate, so complex...

I notice a theme, again and again, that so much of my favourite Asian art is religious in nature- I don't know if this is because I am attracted to religious art, or because religion has been a far more integral part of daily life on a scale that hasn't been seen in western Europe since the middle ages.

Chinese art always seemed to me a bit fiddly diddly and well... twee. Bits and bobs of it I like, can't think of exact details right now. Japanese woodcuts, again, absolutely gorgeous, the colours, oh the colours, some of the few watercolours that I can actually stand. I usually think of watercolours as fey or wimpy, but Japanese watercolours are utterly stunning. Anime, of course... I don't know much about Japanese modern art (outside of Amano, of course) but the little I've seen is amazing.

OK, I'll stop gushing now. That's what I miss most about living in NYC... the Metropolitan Museum of Art, especially the Asian wing.

Kate gave a really good sense of the initial areas of appreciation, so I'll just add that exquisite Persian art is a thing of the gods. I'd also have to nominate the architecture you can find in Spain that's from the period of Islamic rule -- the Alhambra, now that's something worth visiting from the look of it, and I will get there one day. Shadow-theater from Indonesia and other countries of the area -- fascinating, lovely.

WHo can answer this in one thread? I will make only one observation. I like the fact that Allot of Japanese and Chinese Paintings have this illustration quality tahht I really admire. Its like they were more interested in 2- d than the fleshing -out of the Europeans. Its easy to see how the modern reverence for Anime has its roots in Japanese painting of the 19th century.

Clear stylistic connections at heart between older styles and current anime as well, you're right there Mike. I just love how the modern world and technological advance essentially transformed the whole motherfucker of a design concept into the godhead it is.

I said painting.
That said i adore the colors of Persian Mintures and for similar reasons Indain Moghul Minitures.
I adore the length and unfolding details in Ming Landscapes . They are so delicate and etheral.
Edo prints from Japan
As well as alot of the superflat stuff

Hokusai and Japanese calligraphy. Other stuff too but those are the main things I know much about - I need a good book (several) about Asian art.

Kate if you want to see top qual Asian (& African) art in London then Russell Square is the place to be. The British Museum may be a hodgepodge of Empire but it does have some great stuff in it (especially the new African Gallery). Then nip over to the Brunei Gallery (ten yards from where I work) where we have some great Persian stuff on at the moment. There's a really interesting diary exhibition of a Persian princess from the nineteenth century who is about the only woman from her background to describe the massive changes in the world at the time. Very interesting.

OK, I hereby declare that next week shall be my Art Week, during which I shall go visit every single gallery which has been reccommended to me in the past few months- Tate Modern, British Museum (though every time I try to go in there, the dead air puts me immediately to sleep) and now this Brunei Gallery of which you speak. If I do not do this, then you are all allowed to pinch me.