Video Resource

Art from Asia

Subject

Duration

94 minutes (total)

Language

Request a DVD

This DVD comprises four programs made in conjunction with special exhibitions on the art and cultures of China, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Japan; three of the programs look at ancient art. They explore an array of subjects: architecture, landscape gardening, archaeology, music, poetry, storytelling, and sculpture. This film is available to be licensed to affiliates.

The Art from Asia DVD compilation includes the following titles:

  • Beyond the Yellow River: Recent Discoveries from Ancient China
    Complementing the exhibition The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People's Republic of China, the film focuses on important archaeological discoveries of the last 40 years that have provided new insight into Chinese culture from 5000 BCE to the 10th century CE. Examples of sculpture, ritual implements, decorative arts, jade burial suits, and monumental bronzes are presented, along with archival footage of archaeological sites. The program is narrated by Amy Tan, with additional commentary by specialists.
    20 minutes
     
  • Art of Indonesia
    Weaving together Old Javanese poetry, sculpture, stunning landscapes, music, and performances by traditional artists, this film—shot on location in Java and Bali—introduces viewers to the myths and symbols that have permeated Indonesian culture for more than a thousand years.
    28 minutes
     
  • Sacred Art of Angkor
    Cambodia's sculpture and temples are noted for their beauty and monumental scale. This film provides a historical overview and architectural context for Cambodian sculpture, ranging from massive sandstone carvings representing gods and mythological guardians to small, refined bronzes used for ritual purposes.
    18 minutes
     
  • Daimyo
    The dual way of the Daimyo culture of feudal Japan combined the arts of war and the arts of the pen. This film examines the paradox of the warrior/aesthete through a survey of Daimyo arts—namely, architecture, landscape gardening, poetry, calligraphy, painting, the tea ceremony, Noh theater, and kendo (swordsmanship). Daimyo's unique blend of martial and aesthetic excellence was central to the shaping of Japanese culture, and its effects are present even today.
    28 minutes

All programs are closed captioned.

You may also like

Educational Resource:  Beyond the Frame: Dorothea Lange

We look slightly down onto a crush of pedestrians, horse-drawn carriages, wagons, and streetcars enclosed by a row of densely spaced buildings and skyscrapers opposite us in this horizontal painting. The street in front of us is alive with action but the overall color palette is subdued with burgundy red, grays, and black, punctuated by bright spots of harvest yellow, shamrock green, apple red, and white. Most of the people wear long dark coats and black hats but a few in particular draw the eye. For instance, in a patch of sunlight in the lower right corner, three women wearing light blue, scarlet-red, or emerald-green dresses stand out from the crowd. The sunlight also highlights a white spot on the ground, probably snow, amid the crowd to our right. Beyond the band of people in the street close to us, more people fill in the space around carriages, wagons, and trolleys, and a large horse-drawn cart piled with large yellow blocks, perhaps hay, at the center of the composition. A little in the distance to our left, a few bare trees stand around a patch of white ground. Beyond that, in the top half of the painting, city buildings are blocked in with rectangles of muted red, gray, and tan. Shorter buildings, about six to ten stories high, cluster in front of the taller buildings that reach off the top edge of the painting. The band of skyscrapers is broken only by a gray patch of sky visible in a gap between the buildings to our right of center, along the top of the canvas. White smoke rises from a few chimneys and billboards and advertisements are painted onto the fronts of some of the buildings. The paint is loosely applied, so many of the people and objects are created with only a few swipes of the brush, which makes many of the details indistinct. The artist signed the work with pine-green paint near the lower left corner: “Geo Bellows.”

Educational Resource:  Exploring Identity through Modern Art

How do artists draw on memories and experiences to create art that reflects their identities? How does an artist’s connection to place spark inspiration? Through guided looking, sketching, and writing activities, students will consider how artists explore identity through their art.

Educational Resource:  Breaking the Rules

What is modern about modern art? Students investigate how artists "break the rules" when they depart from realistic representation, use innovative techniques, and engage the viewer as a partner in creating meaning-making.