Asian Art

Yoshitomo Nara, One Foot in the Groove, 2012. Courtesy Private collection. © Yoshitomo Nara, courtesy Yoshitomo Nara Foundation. Review

Yoshitomo Nara’s Playful Art in London

A major retrospective at London’s Hayward Gallery invites visitors into the quietly unsettling world of Yoshitomo Nara—the first UK solo show at...

Ania Kaczynska 16 June 2025

Long Read

Khon—The Art of Thai Dance

As an art form, Thai dance has been honed over many centuries. It is one of the great wonders of the human imagination. We can enter a theater, enjoy...

Marina Kochetkova 16 June 2025

Plate with Arabic Inscription, ca 975-1000, painted and glazed earthenware, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Plate with Arabic Inscription

Plate with Arabic Inscription is a masterpiece of 10th-century Islamic art. It combines minimalism, abstraction, and morality into a beautiful and...

James W Singer 13 June 2025

Asian Art

Chola Bronzes: Devotion in Metal

The bronze sculptures of the Chola period are among the most refined and enduring achievements of Indian statuary. Created between the 9th and 13th...

Maya M. Tola 12 June 2025

yoko ono Women Artists

Yoko Ono—A Multifaceted Artist of Peace

Visual artist, singer-songwriter, writer, and filmmaker, Yoko Ono cannot be reduced to the role of the wife of the English musician John Lennon...

Montaine Dumont 29 May 2025

Architecture

Humayun’s Tomb: The First Mughal Architectural Masterpiece

In the heart of Delhi, surrounded by the city’s dense traffic and modern sprawl, stands Humayun’s Tomb, or Maqbara-i Humayun, a quiet...

Maya M. Tola 26 May 2025

North American Art

Chiura Obata: Alien Enemy and Great American Painter

Chiura Obata applied Japanese training and technique to picturesque California landscapes with stunning results. Interned during World War II because...

Theodore Carter 19 May 2025

Baroque

At the Crossroads of East and West: What Qing-Dynasty Export Porcelain Tells Us About Global Artistic Exchanges

Mount Olympus, Homeric Troy, Renaissance Venice, Golden Age Delft. At the outset, Western art history hardly bears any connections with its Eastern...

Guest Author 15 May 2025

indian partition Asian Art

Pritika Chowdhry: Evoking the History of the Indian Partition

The narrative of the Indian partition lingers in the secluded corners of memory and experience. The partition of India and Pakistan, and later...

Urvi Chheda 12 May 2025

Asian Art

Artistic Patronage of Akbar the Great

Abu’l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar, later known as Akbar the Great, was born into uncertain circumstances in 1542, during a period of exile for...

Maya M. Tola 5 May 2025

The Adoration of Cosmic Vishnu, ca. 1710 - 1725, Mankot, India, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Asian Art

Avatars of Vishnu: 10 Incarnations of the Eastern God

Vishnu has been worshipped for over 2000 years as the supreme protector of the Hindu triumvirate, along with Shiva and Brahmin. His role in the...

Maya M. Tola 21 April 2025

Li Di, Red and White Cotton Roses, Southern Song dynasty, 1197, color on silk, Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Japan. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Red and White Cotton Roses by Li Di

Red and White Cotton Roses is considered Li Di’s lifetime masterpiece and a masterwork of Chinese...

James W Singer 20 April 2025