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December Issue
2009
Ackland Art
Museum in Chapel Hill, NC, Features Works from the Silk Road
Ackland Art Museum in Chapel Hill, NC, will present the exhibit, Along the Silk Road: Art and Cultural Exchange, on view from Dec. 19 through June 5, 2010.
The trade routes known
collectively as the Silk Road not only allowed merchants throughout
Asia and Europe to exchange goods such as Chinese silk,
Byzantine gold, and Indian spices but they also introduced
people in disparate parts of the continent to new beliefs, systems
of government, literary genres, musical styles, and visual forms.
In turn, these exchanges shaped each region's art, language, religion,
economics, and politics.
Drawing from the Ackland's celebrated collection of Asian art,
the special exhibition Along the Silk Road: Art and Cultural
Exchange features over sixty objects which were created along
these storied corridors of trade. Individually and in groups,
these objects dating from the first through the sixteenth
centuries reflect the broad scope of cultural exchange which
occurred along the Silk Road. Newly acquired Chinese ceramics,
a rarely seen sixteenth-century Russian painting, vibrant Roman
glass from the first three centuries of the millennium, and Greek
coins are only a few of the objects which have either never been
seen in the Museum, or have not been exhibited in many years.
These will join several longtime Ackland favorites, including
the Thai Head of Buddha (fifteenth century), the Mosque Lintel
with Calligraphy (1570), and the Indian sculpture of a Yakshi
(second century).
Installed in three Museum galleries, Along the Silk Road
highlights the significance of trade-related cross-cultural contact
with works of art created and traded in numerous parts of Asia
and Europe from China and India to points west (Iran, Syria,
Italy, and France), north through Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tibet,
Nepal, on to Russia, and south and east to Burma, Thailand, and
Japan.
Director of Academic Programs Carolyn Allmendinger, curator of
the exhibition, collaborated with a number of UNC-Chapel Hill
faculty members and students to shape the form and content of
Along the Silk Road. Specialists in Asian history, art,
languages, literature, religion, and geography suggested connections
between objects and ideas, ways to understand the works of art
as evidence of historical trends, and posed questions and issues
for visitors to consider. Brand new research will continue throughout
the course of the exhibition as scholars continue to examine the
objects on view, approaching the exhibition itself as an ongoing
research project. New findings and perspectives will appear as
additional wall labels installed periodically.
"This exhibition gives us the opportunity to bring together
two of the Ackland's greatest resources: our University collaborators
and our Asian art collection," said Allmendinger.
Along the Silk Road uses the relationships between objects
from geographically distinct regions to illustrate the considerable
cultural exchange that occurred along the Silk Road. For example,
a second-century funerary relief sculpture from Palmyra (in Syria)
and a Buddhist narrative relief sculpture (seen above) from Gandhara
(in Pakistan and Afghanistan) both share specific visual characteristics
details of drapery folds, ornamental garlands, and decorative
columns that suggest the artists were familiar with Roman
art. Similarly, centuries later, a sixteenth-century lintel from
a mosque in India bears inscriptions in Arabic and Persian, a
cultural mix indicative of the diverse linguistic, religious,
and political traditions deeply embedded in that region and due
in large part to the influence of the Silk Road.
"The works in this exhibition suggest that the modern notion
of globalization has strong historical precedence," said
Ackland Director Emily Kass. "Alone, these objects are great
works of art, but together they speak to an important time of
multicultural interaction and influence."
In addition to the works of art on display, Along the Silk
Road will use contemporary maps produced by University scholars
and period maps drawn from the Rare Book Collection at the Wilson
Library to illustrate the paths along which these works traveled.
Text panels and related materials explore the objects' visual
characteristics and connect them with other forms of historical
evidence. Music, food, textiles, and literature are just some
of the themes that will be explored in public programs related
to the exhibition.
The Ackland Art Museum is located on the historic campus of The
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As an academic unit
of the University, the Ackland serves broad local, state, and
national constituencies. The Ackland Collection consists of more
than 15,500 works of art, featuring significant collections of
European masterworks, twentieth-century and contemporary art,
North Carolina's premier collections of Asian art and works of
art on paper (drawings, prints, and photographs), as well as African
art and North Carolina pottery and folk art.
For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery
listings, call the Museum at 919/966-5736 or visit (www.ackland.org).
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