From our review of “Taoist Gods from China” at Brown University and “From the Land of the Immortals” at RISD:
As China marked the beginning of the Year of the Dragon with lion and dragon dances and fireworks last month, Brown University’s Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology was debuting “Taoist Gods from China: Ceremonial Paintings from the Mien” [one of the banners is pictured at left] as part of Brown’s “Year of China” programs, which aim to illuminate the country’s past and future. In concert with Brown’s project, the RISD Museum is exhibiting “From the Land of the Immortals,” a show of 18th- and 19th-century Chinese Taoist textiles.Like many faiths, Taoism is, as RISD explains, “concerned with both the position of humanity in the cosmos and the attainment of longevity and immortality, physical or otherwise.” The RISD and Brown shows are small, one-room introductions to their topics that provide brief intros to Taoism that will leave the uninitiated somewhat bewildered. Instead, we’re mainly invited engage the paintings and textiles in the language of aesthetics.
But, wow, what aesthetics.
Read the rest here.
“Taoist Gods from China: Ceremonial Paintings from the Mien,” Brown University’s Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, 21 Prospect Street, Providence, January through summer 2012.
“From the Land of the Immortals,” RISD Museum, 224 Benefit Street, Providence, Jan. 13 to April 22, 2012.