Asian Art
Since the 1960s, the Asian collection has developed primarily through the generosity of numerous Arizona collectors and the support of the Museum’s Asian Arts Council, a volunteer support organization. The breadth of Asian cultures is represented in the numerous areas of the collection, including Chinese ceramics, cloisonné enamel, painting and tomb sculpture, Japanese prints and screens, Indian sculpture and miniature paintings, and Buddhist art from Tibet, Nepal, India, China, Japan, Sri Lanka and Java.
The Asian collection boasts the Museum’s oldest artifact, a Chinese Neolithic pot dating from about 3000 BC. Recently the collection has received significant gifts of modern and contemporary Asian art, which are being highlighted in specially-focused exhibitions in the Asian gallery’s bi-annual rotation of objects on view.
Other treasures of the collection include cricket cages (for a special little pet!), Vietnamese ceramics excavated from a deep-sea shipwreck five hundred years ago, and a group of Japanese ceremonial armor and accessories that includes a certified tokubetsu (excellent grade) complete, unrestored ensemble.
Select Exhibition History
Various Galleries
Through September 14, 2008
When Gold Blossoms: Indian Jewelry from the Susan L. Beningson Collection
Orme Lewis Gallery
February 16, 2008 - May 11, 2008
Views of Edo Japan: Prints from the Robert Louis Mueller Family Collection
Graphics Gallery
April 28, 2007 - August 12, 2007
Demonic Divine in Himalayan Art
Art of Asia & Graphic Galleries
September 23, 2006 - December 17, 2006
Secret World of the Forbidden City
South Wing
November 10, 2001 - April 7, 2002
Left: Covered Ovoid Jar, Large Meiping Bottle, Ewer with Dished Mouth, Unknown, Chinese, 9th century, 12th century, late 4th or early 5th century. Stoneware. Collection of Phoenix Art Museum, Gift of Stephen and Gail Rineberg. Center: Three Beauties amid Cherry Blossoms from a series of the Four Seasons, Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, 1891. Collection of Phoenix Art Museum, Museum purchase with funds provided by the Asian Arts Council on honor of G. Miriam Kinner. Right: Buddhist Shrine (pirit mandapaya), Unknown, Sri Lanka. Painted wood with fabric curtains. Collection of Phoenix Art Museum, Gift of Asian Arts Council.