Past Exhibitions: 2004

Stories from the Past: Narrative in Asian Art

January 24–August 8, 2004

The Pandawas being banished after losing the dice game to Kauravas (detail)
Balinese, ca. 1930
Ink and color on cotton
Museum purchase, 1976/2.19

How does an artist translate a well-known tale into visual form? That is the question addressed by this exhibition, which will draw from the Museum's collections to show how artists from Persia, India, China and Japan have solved this endlessly fascinating problem. Works on view will include paintings, sculpture, prints and rubbings that create pictorial versions of some of the best-loved classics of Asian literature, including The Tale of Genji, a classical Japanese romance; the Shahnama, the national epic of Persia; and the Ramayana, the stirring Hindu tale of conflict between good and evil.

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