Yale Art Gallery Visit #1

Yale Art Gallery – Asian Art

            At the start of my trip it, the air was misty and fresh, the aftermath of a long needed rain fall. I plodded down the streets of New Haven in the company of my boyfriend, Dave. Together we endeavored to explore the Asian Art section of the Yale Art Gallery. We went up in the elevator, which every time I enter, surprises me with its size.

            The Yale Art Gallery’s mission is to perpetuate understanding and love for art and how art can and does affect societies. They strive to achieve active learning about art and to stimulate the creative process through this gained knowledge. The Gallery was founded in 1832, when a gentleman by the name of John Trumbull donated more than 100 paintings to Yale College. The Gallery’s main building though was built in 1953 and was one of the very first designed by Louis Kahn.

            The collection of Asian Art impressed me, but what captivated me the most was all of the work done with ceramics. Taking ceramics classes has given me a new understanding of how challenging creating such masterful pieces would be. I was continually astonished with the extreme level of detail and care that went into the various different pieces. The illustrations that were on them held a level of craftsmanship that I greatly appreciate and admire.

            The piece that caught my eye was a bronze owl, I was initially captivated by it because of its appealing design work, after further inspection of it and its name plank I discovered that it was a wine vessel, this amused me. I was instantly captivated by this owl by its regal appearance and intricate design work begged for further examination. The owl, to me, seemed to sit with such pride, his beak held high and proud for all to see. His ‘ears’ stuck up straight as if daring on lookers to oppose his majesticness, and wings tucked firmly to his sides contented with his lot in life. His wings and breast are, carved perhaps the information does not say if he is cast or hand carved, inlayed with beautiful swirling designs, with intricate patterns that connect each to the next. This owl-shaped wine vessel was created sometime between the 13^th-11^th century B.C.E. It was during the Chinese, Shang dynasty, in the Anyang phase. During the Anyang phase the use of bronze vessels was mainly related with ritual purposes; so there is a prevalence of wine container bronzes, as zuns and gus, and of bronzes for cooking food, as lis and fangdings cauldrons. Zun, wine container in bronze with relief decorations of dragons and tigers, Shang dynasty (Sinophilia, paragraph 7 and 8, http://www.sinophilia.org/china/artestoria2.htm ). Unfortunately there isn’t a name for who created this, but biased on how old this piece is it would have been difficult to obtain a name.  

            All in all I greatly enjoyed my trip; it was fascinating to see so many wonderfully crafted pieces of ceramic, bronze, ivory, and several other materials. I greatly enjoyed viewing the paintings and examining the assortment of sculptures, and dishes. Over all I loved exploring the exhibit it was fascinating and beautiful around every corner, and by the time we left the gallery the sky had cleared up, and I spent another couple hours wandering in and out of shops and admiring the architecture of the building, and pointing out gargoyle’s lurking above our heads.