Divine Forms & Earthly Delights: Reimagining Asian Art

Following an absence of many years, The Reading Public Museum will install a new exhibition of Asian Art, titled Divine Forms & Earthly Delights: Reimagining Asian Art, in its World Cultures Gallery this February. With a focus on a group of exceptional works of art from Asia drawn from the permanent collection, the newly installed gallery will feature close to one hundred works including paintings, sculptures, ritual objects, ceramics, manuscripts, carvings, metalwork, and decorative arts.

Collecting Asian art has been part of The Museum’s practice from its earliest days. This newly installed gallery will present examples of the wide range of themes, materials, and historical periods from China, Japan, Thailand, and Tibet. RPM’s collection of Asian Art spans more than 2,500 years and includes a group of twelve Japanese temple guardian figures from the sixteenth century, a rare ritual jade cup with poetic inscription from the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799), a group of Tang and Han Dynasty tomb figures, a stunning standing Chinese bodhisattva Guanyin from the fourteenth century, a fine Japanese painting of Jizo Bosatsu on Lotus from the early fifteenth century, a bronze tripod ritual wine vessel (jue) from the twelfth century BCE, and a group of elaborately carved Chinese rhinoceros horn libation cups. Other key highlights include a Jain Svetambara Tirthankara in Meditation, a monumental carved ivory tusk with hundreds of figures from the workshop of Hoaching from the 1850s-60s, and a jade disc from the third century BCE. A group of Japanese woodblock prints will also be included in the reimagined gallery.

The re-installation is made possible, in part, by a generous grant from the Carpenter Foundation. The works will be on view through June 1, 2025.