Here are highlights from upcoming exhibits at the Cleveland Museum of Art:
Carpets and Canopies in Mughal India
Friday, March 22–Sunday, Sept. 8
Gallery 242B
FREE
Carpets and canopies designated portable courtly spaces among nomadic groups, such as the Mongols and Turks of Central Asia. The Mughals of India, who were of Mongol and Turkic descent, continued to use carpets and canopies to mark royal presence. Even when the Mughals settled in permanent stone structures, a special carpet signaled the window (jharokha in the Mughal court language of Persian) where the populace could see and petition the emperor from below. Other regional rulers all over India soon adopted the use of the jharokha carpet to locate other members of a royal household.
Mughal carpets were not meant to be walked on; instead, they functioned more like furniture, as seats of honor. They also created an intimate space where courtly pleasures were enjoyed.
Using silk or pashmina—fine wool yarn made from the coats of Himalayan goats—intricate floral patterns on Mughal carpets evoke the luxury of a garden of paradise. Many of the patterns originated in paintings or manuscript illuminations. In the Mughal court of India, painters worked alongside carpet weavers and textile artists, who used dyed yarns as painters used pigments.
The swirling floral vines with a central lobed medallion testify to an ongoing appreciation of Persian design. After the 1620s, Mughal artists in India began making carpets and textiles featuring individual flowering plants regularly spaced over plain ground. Both the Persian and Mughal floral aesthetics continue to be influential in textile designs internationally.
Into the Seven Jeweled Mountain: An Immersive Experience
Friday, March 15–Sunday, Sept, 29
Arlene M. and Arthur S. Holden Gallery | Gallery 234
FREE
Journey into the wondrous terrain of the Seven Jeweled Mountain through an immersive, large-scale projection of its legendary scenery as illustrated in a 19th-century Korean folding screen.
The Seven Jeweled Mountain is a superb example of a Korean landscape painting tradition called “true-view,” where natural sites were realistically depicted to capture their unique terrain. Travel through the landscape’s eccentric geology amid changing weather, following the trail of others who documented their trek. Outside the digital experience, the 10-panel folding screen offers a connection to the enlarged breathtaking vistas.
Through the carefully rendered scenery and historical first-person narration, discover the natural wonder that was once a beloved tourist destination, now part of North Korea and inaccessible to most of the world.
As a collaboration between the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation, the digital content of this exhibition will be simultaneously on view at the National Palace Museum of Korea in Seoul, meaningfully connecting the two institutions in celebrating Korea’s cultural heritage and history.
From Dreaming to Hiking: Korean Landscape Paintings
Through Sunday, Sept. 29
Korea Foundation Gallery | Gallery 236
Whether depicting imaginary, idealized terrain or actual geographic and historical sites, Korean landscape paintings are celebrated for their dynamic artistic vocabulary. Natural locations known for awe-inspiring topographic features became the most beloved subjects, but artists also created fictional landscapes that serve as an inspiration to attain a way of life in perfect harmony with nature, as seen in Winter Landscape and Mountain Market, Clear with Rising Mist from the CMA’s collection.
Coupled with the digital immersive exhibition Into the Seven Jeweled Mountain in the Arlene M. and Arthur S. Holden Textile Gallery (gallery 234), From Dreaming to Hiking explores this Korean landscape painting tradition wherein nature becomes an important dimension of human experience.
On-Site Activities
Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of each month
Ames Family Atrium
FREE; ticket required
Public tours are offered daily at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, and at 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Art and Conversation Tours are offered at 10:15 a.m. on Tuesdays.
Continuing Exhibitions
New Narratives: Contemporary Works on Paper
Through Sunday, April 14
James and Hanna Bartlett Prints and Drawings Gallery | Gallery 101
FREE
New Narratives: Contemporary Works on Paper explores the myriad ways in which contemporary artists use storytelling to engage the imagination, scrutinize the past, and envision the future. Consisting entirely of prints and drawings, the exhibition features many recent acquisitions to the CMA’s collection. Pervading the works on view is an interest in narrative, whether fiction or nonfiction, personal, cultural, or mythic. Artists in the exhibition utilize history, people, or events, biographies of known or often unknown people, and various media juxtapositions to layer the past and the present day.
The two galleries that make up the exhibition are anchored by large-scale, multipart works. Jacob Lawrence’s The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture (1986), a series of 15 screenprints, recounts aspects of the Haitian revolution (1791–1804), the successful insurrection by enslaved and free people of color against French colonial rule. Lawrence’s expressive style and tightly composed scenes narrate the revolution through the biography of one of its leaders, General Toussaint L’Ouverture (1743–1803). Also featured is Kara Walker’s The Means to an End: A Shadow Drama in Five Acts (1995). This monumental five-part etching employs the style of historical silhouettes popular in the antebellum South to suggest a provocative narrative about race, gender, and power. Also featured are new drawings by Kerry James Marshall and Shahzia Sikander and prints by Camille Billops, Enrique Chagoya, David Wojnarowicz, Michael Menchaca, Renee Stout, and others.
To the River’s South in Japanese Painting
Through Sunday, June 2
The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Japanese Art Galleries | Gallery 235A
FREE
The Chinese words jiang, or “river,” and nan, or “south,” together form the region name Jiangnan, or “river’s south.” The river is the Yangzi River, or “Long River,” that flows from west to east across China, emptying into the sea near the city of Shanghai. The “south” is a constellation of cities, mountain ranges, lakes, and rivers reaching as far west as Mount Lu, about eight hours from Shanghai by car (684 kilometers, or 425 miles). Core episodes in Chinese history and literature were set in or inspired by these sites. Transmitted through text and image, records and representations of Jiangnan occupied a significant position in the lives of creators and consumers of culture across East and Southeast Asia in the centuries leading up to the present. Some of the paintings and painted ceramics in this gallery show how Japanese artists of the past portrayed two landmarks in Jiangnan, Mount Lu and West Lake, and Xiao-Xiang, a place located physically west of Jiangnan but an important touch point in artistic productions from that region.
Barbara Bosworth: Sun Light Moon Shadow
Through Sunday, June 30
Mark Schwartz and Bettina Katz Photography Galleries | Gallery 230
When photographer Barbara Bosworth was a child growing up in Novelty, Ohio, she would go on nighttime walks with her father, and they would gaze up at the sky. This practice, which became a lifelong passion, inspired the photographs in this exhibition. Timed to coincide with the total solar eclipse visible in Cleveland on April 8, it explores Bosworth’s photographs of light—from eclipses, sunrises, and sunsets to the luminescent glow of fireflies and a flashlight.
Light is essential to both photography and astronomy. British scientist and astronomer Sir John Herschel coined the term photography in 1839 by combining Greek words that mean “drawing with light.” The camera and telescope, which Bosworth has used together in some of the photographs on view, each collect light. Her pictures of stars are the result of the impact on film of light that has traveled millions of years to get there.
Nine monumental color images of the sky and heavenly bodies are joined by six intimately scaled black-and-white scenes of life and light on the earth. Seen together, they suggest how we endow astronomical phenomena with personal meaning. Bosworth’s art elucidates bonds between humans and the natural world that often go unnoticed.
Liturgical Textiles from Late Medieval Germany
Through Sunday, August 4
Gallery 115
FREE
The Cleveland Museum of Art has a particularly rich selection of liturgical textiles (textiles used during religious ceremonies) from the Middle Ages (about 500–1500). In cathedrals, monasteries, and parish churches, they were used at many different points of church life. They covered the altar table, were used during mass, or served as vestments, or garments, for the clergy. They were usually richly decorated with pictorial programs, allowing insights into the thinking and piety of each time period.
They were often produced within monastic communities. Nuns, in particular, are believed to have made textiles. In the late Middle Ages (about 1200–1500), production increased sharply, and especially in Italy, textiles were also produced industrially on a large scale and delivered throughout Europe.
Textiles are particularly sensitive to light, and accordingly, they can only be exhibited for a limited period in order to preserve their colors and fabrics for later generations by keeping them in a dark, climate-controlled space.
Six Dynasties of Chinese Painting
Through Sunday, September 1
Clara T. Rankin Galleries of Chinese Art | Gallery 240A
FREE
Six Dynasties of Chinese Painting presents a selection of the museum’s most important paintings that cover six different dynasties, including the modern era. These paintings represent various subject matter, from figures, landscapes, animals, birds, and flowers to religious and historical themes; their dates of acquisition range from the museum’s founding years to the most recent additions, demonstrating a continuous commitment to Chinese painting, a field that has always been the strongest asset of the Chinese collection.
Through Sunday, December 8
Jon A. Lindseth and Virginia M. Lindseth, PhD, Galleries of the Ancient Americas | Gallery 232
Between about 3000 BCE and the early 1500s CE, ancient Andean weavers created one of the world’s most distinguished textile traditions in both artistic and technical terms. Within this time span, the most impressive group of early textiles to survive was made by the Paracas people of Peru’s south coast. Most artistically elaborate Andean textiles served as garments.
Native North American Textiles and Works on Paper
Through Sunday, December 8
Sarah P. and William R. Robertson Gallery | Gallery 231
Newly on display from the permanent collection are two Diné (Navajo) textiles from the late 1800s and early 1900s, both of them rugs woven for the collector’s market, modeled on the Diné shoulder blanket. Also new on view is a watercolor from the 1920s by the Pueblo artist Oqwa Pi (Abel Sanchez), who was key to a major development in Southwest Indigenous arts as Natives took control of representing their own cultures after centuries of marginalization.
On-Site Collection Tours
Tuesday through Friday, 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, 1:00 p.m.
FREE; ticket required
Join a public tour to learn new perspectives and enjoy great storytelling about works in the museum’s collection. Tours depart from the information desk in the Ames Family Atrium. Tickets may be reserved at cma.org or on-site at the ticket desk. Tours are limited to 15 participants per group.
Photo courtesy Cleveland Museum of Art
Babur receives booty and Humayun’s salute after the victory over Sultan Ibrahim in 1526, from an Akbar-nama (Book of Akbar) of Abu’l Fazl (Indian, 1551–1602), c. 1596–1597 or 1604. India, Mughal court, made for Emperor Akbar.
