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MAJOR ASIA SOCIETY EXHIBITION
EXAMINES THE ART AND LEGACY OF GAMES IN ASIA
ASIAN GAMES: THE ART OF CONTEST
October 14, 2004 – January 16, 2005
Media Preview: Tuesday, October 12 at 9:30
a.m.
Folding chess board, India; late 17th century Padouk, rosewood
veneer, ivory and ebony inlay, brass, silver. 53.1 x 52.1 x
12.7 cm
Peabody Essex Museum |
Presenting stunning works spanning 2,000 years, a major exhibition
at Asia Society examines the art and legacy of games in Asia. Using
paintings, prints, and decorative arts that depict people playing
games as well as the paraphernalia of games, Asian Games: The
Art of Contest is the first major exhibition to explore Asia
as a source of chess, Parcheesi, Ludo, Snakes and Ladders, playing
cards, polo and other games. Featuring key loans from China, Japan,
the United Kingdom and Germany, the exhibition examines the role
of games as social activity and as indices of cultural values in
the diverse societies of Asia. The exhibition will be on view to
the public at Asia Society and Museum from October 14, 2004 through
January 16, 2005.
“Many of the games that we take for granted today have their
origins in ancient Asian societies,” notes Asia Society Museum
Director Melissa Chiu. “What we see in this exhibition is
that games have been as significant as trade and religion in transmitting
cultural forms and ideas. In tracing their spread across different
societies, we also see how certain games retained unique qualities
that reflect the cultural aspirations and values of their players.”
“Without games, people would be unendurably bored,”
notes exhibition curator Colin Mackenzie, Middlebury College Museum
of Art. “Yet the role of games in society has been largely
neglected by cultural historians. By exploring the evolution and
social functions of games in Asia and their transfer to other regions,
Asian Games illuminates important yet unfamiliar aspects
of Asian culture and their ongoing legacy.”
The Exhibition
In traditional societies, games were enjoyed by kings and commoners,
men and women, young and old. Game sets and paraphernalia were treasured
possessions and status symbols, finely crafted and elaborately decorated.
Images of games and game-playing pervade literature and the visual
arts throughout the ages. Artists have been fascinated by the drama
and excitement of games and the range of emotions that are revealed
by the players of games.
Asian Games: The Art of Contest has a broad chronological
and geographical reach and is comprised of approximately 200 works
of art of the highest quality. Included in the exhibition are spectacular
examples of game sets dating from the 12th to early 20th century,
Persian and Indian court paintings and illuminated manuscripts of
the 14th to 18th century and Chinese and Japanese scroll paintings,
screens and ceramics that depict game-playing. Select earlier examples
of games dating back as early as 200 B.C.E. are included.
Inlaid bronze die, China, Han Dynasty
(206 B.C. - A.D. 220) Bronze inlaid with gold, silver, turquoise,
agate and rock crystal. Diameter 1 3/8 inches (3.5 cm)
Anonymous Loan
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Perhaps the most remarkable exhibition loan is the only complete
set of the ancient Chinese game of liubo, on loan from
China and never before exhibited in the United States. A “craze”
for over 500 years, liubo was intimately connected with
divination and its board is thought to have represented a schematic
diagram of the cosmos. This set, finely crafted in lacquered work,
complete with pieces, tallies and an eighteen-sided dice, was found
in the tomb of a Han dynasty aristocrat who died around 168 B.C.E.
Attempts are currently being made to work out the rules of this
game and a prototype playable reconstruction will be included in
a special interactive area.
Asian Games is organized so as to suggest the impact of
particular games as well as the cultural values of their players.
Emphasis is given to games that have cross-cultural relevance and
have inspired significant artworks. The exhibition is organized
into four broad categories or types of games—chance, strategy,
memory and matching, and physical skill. In addition, there will
be an area where visitors have the opportunity to play the kinds
of games featured in the exhibition. Specially designed tables with
changeable tops will enable visitors to play chess, liubo,
go/weiqi, shogi, xiangqi, Parcheesi,
backgammon, and Snakes and Ladders. On afternoons and weekends,
New York City students will engage visitors in game-playing.
The Artworks
The exhibition opens with games of chance, which include dice,
pachisi (Parcheesi) and the Indian game that inspired Snakes
and Ladders. Many early games of chance were not strictly about
a race to the finish but were also about players attaining a spiritual
goal or state. The game of Snakes and Ladders played today by children
in Britain and the United States had its origins in India as a more
complex game in which players attempted to reach a “place”
representing a state of nirvana.
Shiva and Parvati Playing Chaupar, India, Punjab Hills;
dated 1694 - 1695. Ink, opaque watercolors, silver, ink, and
gold on paper. Metropolitan Museum of Art |
While early Indian sculptures depict the Hindu deities Shiva and
Parvati competing at dice, in miniature paintings they are generally
depicted playing pachisi, as in a beautiful ink and watercolor
painting, Shiva and Parvati Playing Chaupar, from the late
17th century. This painting, on loan from the Metropolitan Museum,
depicts Shiva and her consort playing what was a sophisticated race
game involving skill, strategy and luck. For centuries it was played
with elaborate and varying rules throughout India by both the poor
and the elite—Emperor Shah Jahan played a life-sized version
of the game using court ladies as his “pieces.”
The exhibition’s section on strategy explores games in which
positions, territories and battlegrounds are paramount, and focuses
on chess and weiqi, a game of intellectual skill. Major
loans in this section include a magnificent Rajasthani chess set
dating from 19th century India. The complete set—so delicately
crafted it was likely ornamental—is comprised of ivory figures,
including elephants, camels and horses. Also on loan from the Metropolitan
Museum is a spectacular 18th century Burmese chess set, made of
ivory with details painted in red and green, that depicts decorated
figures astride elephants. In contrast, a 12th century (Seljuk period)
Iranian chess set, another loan from the Metropolitan Museum, includes
elegantly abstracted figures once thought to reflect Islamic avoidance
of figural representation. These and other chess sets show the pervasiveness
of chess as both an analogue of war and a royal game. First appearing
in India in the sixth century and known in Europe as early as the
tenth century, chess is a game that neatly demonstrates how games
can reflect the cultural values of their players. Just as early
Islamic sets are abstracted, later European sets show kings and
highly powerful queen and bishop figures.
Illustrating the importance of games in early societies, mastery
of weiqi was considered by Chinese people to be one of
four essential cultural accomplishments along with music, calligraphy
and painting. Another unique loan is an eighth century Chinese manuscript
on weiqi from Dunhuang, now in the British Library, that
includes a text written on the subject by the Emperor Wu (502-550)
of the Liang Dynasty. The Japanese version of weiqi, known
as go, is also featured in the exhibition. A highlight
example is an exquisite early 18th century set with a highly decorated,
lacquer board and agate pieces, from the Kozu Kobunka Kaikan Museum
in Japan. The set is decorated with the crest of the Tokugawa family,
the military rulers of the Edo period, and is thought to be part
of the bridal trousseau of a member of the Tokugawa family.
The exhibition examines the development of backgammon, a game of
both strategy and luck, which is claimed by the Persians as their
invention and remains a popular game in Iran today. Included in
Asian Games is a finely decorated board from 19th century
Iran, on loan from the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art.
The central motif dividing the two halves of the board echoes patterns
found in Roman game boards. Figural depictions on the board include
lovers in European clothes, a couple in Iranian dress and a woman
nursing a child. An earlier, Safavid era illustration from the Shahnama
(Book of Kings) depicts Buzurjmihr Inventing Nard (backgammon)
in Answer to the Kain of Hind’s Chess Challenge is a
striking image, not only for its depiction of the invention of backgammon,
but for the use of games as an identifying cultural idiom.
The exhibition section on memory and matching looks at playing
cards, dominoes and mahjong (all Chinese in origin) along with esoteric
but spectacularly beautiful Japanese games of matching such as shell
and incense identification competitions.
Finally, a section on games of power and dexterity looks at physical
games like kickball and polo. The quintessential pastime of emperors
and kings, polo is thought to have originated among horseback chase
games, like buzkashi, still played in Central Asia today.
In China, references to polo date from the late 7th century, but
by then it was already played in Persia, from where it was transmitted
to India. It was played with enthusiasm by the great Mughal emperors
Akbar (r. 1556–1605) and Jahangir (r. 1605-1627). In India,
it was adopted by British colonials who brought it to the West.
A highlight of this section is the depiction of Dasaratha’s
Four Sons Practicing Royal Pursuits from the Ramayana. This
miniature painting (India, 1712), on loan from the British Library,
shows Lord Rama engaged in the Indian royal pursuits of elephant
riding, archery and polo. Other highlights include Tang dynasty
ceramic figurines of ladies and foreigners playing polo, a 17th
century Japanese screen showing Tartars playing the game, and ceremonial
Japanese kickballs. Important Indian and Persian polo paintings
on loan from the British Library and the Metropolitan Museum of
Art are also included.
Asian Games: The Art of Contest is curated by Colin Mackenzie,
Middlebury College Museum of Art and Irving Finkel, British Museum.
It is accompanied by a vibrantly illustrated 280-page catalogue.
The exhibition will be presented at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
in Washington, D.C. from February 26 through May 15, 2005 and at
Middlebury College Museum of Art in fall 2005.
Major funding for Asian Games: The Art of Contest is
provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National
Endowment for the Arts.
Related programs
In conjunction with Asian Games: The Art of Contest, the
Asia Society will present a number of public programs. A daylong
symposium held on October 16, From Dice to Go: Asian Games Through
the Ages will examine new research on the importance of games
in historical and contemporary Asian societies and their global
impact. Speakers include exhibition curators Colin Mackenzie and
Irving Finkel, and David Parlett, inventor/author, among others.
The world of games and their importance in human life is interpreted
through dance, music and text, in two special performances on October
29–30 of Game/Play, conceived and directed by choreographer
Yoshiko Chuma. The piece will explore over 50 games in 50 minutes,
from children’s clapping games to sophisticated tea drinking
competitions. Participating artists include dancer/choreographer
Yin Mei and musician Robert Black. For a complete schedule of programs,
call (212) 517-ASIA.
About Asia Society
Asia Society is America’s leading institution dedicated to
fostering understanding of Asia and communication between Americans
and the peoples of Asia and the Pacific. A nonprofit, nonpartisan
educational institution, the Asia Society presents a wide range
of programs including major art exhibitions, performances, media
programs, international conferences and lectures, and initiatives
to improve elementary and secondary education about Asia. The Asia
Society is headquartered in New York City, with regional centers
in Washington, D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Hong Kong,
Manila, Melbourne, and Shanghai.
Asia Society and Museum
725 Park Avenue (at 70th Street), New York City.
(212) 517-ASIA, www.asiasociety.org
Hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 11:00 A.M. – 6:00 P.M.; Fridays
extended evening hours until 9:00 P.M.; Closed on Mondays and major
holidays.
Admission: $10; $7 for seniors and $5 students with ID; Free for
members and persons under 16; Free to all on Friday evenings, 6:00
– 9:00 P.M.
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07/28/04 etm
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