The Resplendent Stone: Chinese Jades from the 18th through 20th Centuries on View at San Francisco International Airport

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The Resplendent Stone: Chinese Jades from the 18 ^th – 20 ^th Centuries
On View at San Francisco International Airport
Exhibition Features Objects from the Collections of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture
 

SAN FRANCISCO —  The Resplendent Stone: Chinese Jades from the 18 ^th–20 ^th Centuries from the collections of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture, a new exhibition now on view at SFO, explores a resplendent body of jades from the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) to the first half of the 1900s.

The more than eighty objects on view reflect the status of jade as the most precious of all stones to the Chinese. While the Chinese have creatively worked jade for more than six thousand years, it was during the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing dynasties (1644–1911) that jade craft flourished, and the functions and styles of jade evolved.  During these periods artisans crafted a remarkable variety of items in jade: from personal and scholars’ studio ornaments to ritual and religious objects, practical utensils, and imitations of ancient bronze vessels. 

Among the many items featured in the exhibition are jade “mountains,” landscape screens, archaic vessels, religious sculptures, incense burners, animal figures, hair ornaments, and paperweights. In contrast to the Chinese jades, several Russian, Turkish, and Mughal jades dating from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries are also on view.

Images from the exhibition are available at: http://www.flysfo.com/web/page/about/news/pressres/exh-jade.html.

The Resplendent Stone: Chinese Jades from the 18 ^th–20 ^th Centuries is located pre-security in the International Terminal Main Hall through June 7, 2010. There is no charge to view the exhibition.

All objects are courtesy of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture.

San Francisco Airport Museums

The San Francisco Airport Museums program was established by the Airport Commission in 1980 for the purposes of humanizing the Airport environment, providing visibility for the unique cultural life of San Francisco, and providing educational services for the traveling public. The Museum was granted initial accreditation from the American Association of Museums in 1999, reaccredited in 2005, and has the distinction of being the only accredited museum in an airport.  Today, the San Francisco Airport Museums features approximately twenty galleries throughout the Airport terminals displaying a rotating schedule of art, history, science, and cultural exhibitions, as well as the San Francisco Airport Commission Aviation Library and Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum, a permanent collection dedicated to the history of commercial aviation.

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