In the Collection Galleries

Comprising 7,000 works and spanning more than 6,000 years, the Chinese collection ranks among the best outside of China and is the foundation of the museum’s world-renowned Avery Brundage Collection. Presented in the Starr Foundation China Galleries, this remarkable collection presents a panorama of masterworks that embody a vast, complex and diverse range of styles, designs and craftsmanship, with strengths in ritual bronzes, jade carvings, Buddhist sculpture, lacquerwares and decorative ceramics. From Neolithic pieces to contemporary creations, more than 1,100 artworks on display illustrate the creativity and richness of Chinese culture, offering a window into China’s past and present.

See what’s currently on view:

• Chinese Jade Treasury
• China to 221 BCE
• China 221 BCE–960 CE
• Chinese Buddhist Art

Comprising 7,000 works and spanning more than 6,000 years, the Chinese collection ranks among the best outside of China and is the foundation of the museum’s world-renowned Avery Brundage Collection. Presented in the Starr Foundation China Galleries, this remarkable collection presents a panorama of masterworks that embody a vast, complex and diverse range of styles, designs and craftsmanship, with strengths in ritual bronzes, jade carvings, Buddhist sculpture, lacquerwares and decorative ceramics. From Neolithic pieces to contemporary creations, more than 1,100 artworks on display illustrate the creativity and richness of Chinese culture, offering a window into China’s past and present.  

See what’s currently on view:

• China 960–1911
• Chinese Painting
• Chinese Imperial Arts 1644–1911
• Chao Shao-an and Chinese Painting since 1900
• Chinese Ceramics (Loggia)

The Sarah and William Hambrecht Contemporary Gallery on the first floor presents a rotating selection of modern and contemporary works from the collection. Comprising works from across Asia and the Asian diaspora, the contemporary collection notably includes media and installation artworks that create immersive encounters, inspire collective participation, and empower you to become a co-creator of your own experiences. As the only curatorial department that is not region-specific, the contemporary art department is uniquely positioned to connect pressing social issues from across the rapidly changing world.

The East West Bank Art Terrace, Fang Family Launchpad, Lawrence and Gorretti Lui Hyde Street Art Wall, Osher Plaza, and other venues throughout the museum also present long-term installations of collected, commissioned, or borrowed contemporary artworks. In addition, you will find modern and contemporary works in the region-specific collection galleries on the second and third floors.

The Himalayan gallery includes art from Tibet, Nepal, Mongolia, Bhutan, and China. The objects in the collection include bronze and lacquer sculptures ranging from the 12th to the 20th century. More than 150 paintings from the same date range rotate twice per year. Our bronzes and paintings were mostly created by and for the practice of Vajrayana or esoteric Buddhism, but elements of Hinduism, Taoism, and Bon are included here as well. In addition, the collection features a full panoply of Buddhist ritual objects; several historically important manuscripts and manuscript covers round out the collection.

See what’s currently on view:

• The Himalayas and the Tibetan Buddhist World

Japan is an archipelago, comprising four major and numerous smaller islands, lying in an arc across the Pacific coast of northeastern Asia. Japan’s closest neighbors are Korea and China, which both greatly inspired Japanese art and culture. For much of its history, the seas protected Japan from invasion and over time foreign ideas were incorporated into a unique cultural setting.

The Japanese collection is second in size only to Chinese among the museum’s collections. Its 5,500 Japanese artworks, on view in the Atsuhiko Tateuchi and Ina Goodwin Tateuchi Japan Galleries, include ceramics, baskets, paintings, and prints ranging from as early as 3000 BCE to the 21st century.

See what’s currently on view:

• Early Japan
• Japanese Buddhist Art
• Japanese Arts of Daily Life
• Japanese Paintings and Screens
• Japanese Porcelain and Prints
• Betty Bogart Contemplative Alcove

The Asian Art Museum has been at the forefront in promoting and collecting Korean art and culture outside of Korea. The museum’s distinctive Korean art collection, presented in the Koret Korea Galleries, encompasses more than 800 objects. It is especially noted for its Goryeo dynasty (918–1392) celadons, as well as rare unglazed stonewares from the Three Kingdoms period (57 BCE–668 CE) and Unified Silla period (668–935). The collection also includes a large group of paintings and bojagi (wrapping cloths), and it has the largest number of mother-of-pearl lacquerwares from the Joseon dynasty (1392–1910) in the United States.

See what’s currently on view:

• Korea through 1392
• Korea 1392–1910
• Korea 1910 to the Present

The 600 objects in this collection represent a wide geographic span — from Afghanistan to Turkey (and including Iran, Uzbekistan, and Iraq) — and date from approximately 2000 BCE to today. Artworks include a range of media such as ceramic vessels, tiles, metalwork, jades, and calligraphies. The strength of the museum’s West Asian collection lies in ancient Persian ceramics and metalwork, as well as in Persian ceramics from the 11th through the 14th centuries.

See what’s currently on view:

• The Persian World and West Asia

From portraits of Indian rulers to embodiments of the spiritual power of Hindu deities to a contemporary artist’s Museum Shop of Fetish Objects, the South Asian collection features artworks created over a period of 2,000 years in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Included are more than 1,900 sculptures, paintings, historical photographs, and decorative art objects of silver, jade, ivory, and other precious materials. The collection is especially rich in sacred sculpture from the ancient kingdom of Gandhara, where Buddhist ideas mingled with those of Greece and Rome, and the great medieval kingdoms of eastern and southern India.

See what’s currently on view:

• South Asia to 600
• Eastern India 600–1600
• Central and Western India 600–1600
• Southern India 600–1600
• South Asia after 1600
• The Sikh Kingdoms

Images of Hindu and Buddhist gods in bronze and stone, paintings of heroic epics, and elaborately decorated luxury goods highlight the collection of arts from Southeast Asia (particularly Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Vietnam). Notable among the 2,000 works are Hindu and Buddhist sculpture of the great ancient kingdoms of Angkor and Java, rare ceramics from 14th-to-16th-century Vietnam and Thailand, an impressive array of theatrical arts including vivid puppets and shadow figures, and one of the country’s most important collections of 19th-century arts of Burma (Myanmar), Siam (Thailand), and Bali.

See what’s currently on view:

• Early Southeast Asia
• Southeast Asia 600–1300
• Southeast Asia 1300–1800
• Southeast Asia after 1800