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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 13, 2018 12:29:43 GMT
The Musée national des arts asiatiques - Guimet is one of the greatest museums in the world for Asian art, but it is rarely overflowing with visitors. Just about the only tourists who go there come from Asia, and there are not huge crowds of French visitors either. There is such a glut of museums in Paris that it is not really surprising, but people who have not seen this one are really missing out. Why the name Guimet? Emile Guimet was a rich industrialist from Lyon as well as being a globetrotter. He started collecting Greek and Egyptian artifacts but moved on to Asian art in the 1880's. His first museum was in Lyon, but then he decided to build his own museum in Paris, and it opened in 1889. Guimet died in 1918, and in 1927 the museum became a national museum, and other Asian items were brought from the Trocadéro Palace which was filled with the plunder of explorer Louis Delaporte. Anyway, it is the biggest collection of Asian art outside of Asia. However, it exhibits almost exclusively items of Asian sculpture, although there is a new wing devoted to textiles. The museum actually has two other sites in the neighbourhood -- the Musée d'Ennery and the Hôtel d'Heidelbach -- which house more of the collections. One good thing about the museum ticket for Guimet is that it is valid for a second visit within ten days to reduce the sensory overload.
Anyway, the Guimet is at Place d'Iéna, directly across from the Palais de Tokyo, which is the Paris municipal museum of modern art (not to be confused with the Pompidou Centre, which is the national museum).
s19.postimg.cc/w2o248xeb/Guimet_010.jpg
s19.postimg.cc/y78f5cegj/Guimet_011.jpg
s19.postimg.cc/a3hnh2j4z/Guimet_009.jpg
I just plunged right in and immersed myself in Khmer sculpture for a start.
s19.postimg.cc/xuh0z5ogz/Guimet_012.jpg
s19.postimg.cc/v0dvlq9g3/Guimet_013.jpg
s19.postimg.cc/54u52izwj/Guimet_014.jpg
One's first impression is "I think I know what happened to all of the heads missing from the statues on the temples in Cambodia" but it would be a mistaken one.
s19.postimg.cc/4s2qwnukz/Guimet_015.jpg
Most of these items date from the 12th century, while the French were building Notre Dame.
s19.postimg.cc/4fbcqfuar/Guimet_016.jpg
s19.postimg.cc/vpwny3pf7/Guimet_017.jpg
s19.postimg.cc/wffgagxoj/Guimet_018.jpg
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 13, 2018 12:34:06 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 13, 2018 14:06:57 GMT
So interesting! Add me to the list of people who have never heard of this museum. This is a treat.
You say you plunged right in with the Khmer sculpture. Does that mean everything you've show so far is Khmer? That first piece you show is mind-boggling. Also, you point out that the works from the Trocadéro were "the plunder of explorer Louis Delaporte". It's awful to think how much art, so much of it religious in nature, was simply snatched from its intended place.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 13, 2018 15:12:15 GMT
Surely you are teasing, Bixa. We can all see that I have left Cambodia and and moved into India. Unfortunately for some of you, I have a different approach to museums and rarely seek out the information concerning the artworks. I just let it all wash over me and rejoice in the things I like, without worrying about their origins.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 13, 2018 15:16:20 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 13, 2018 15:20:35 GMT
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Post by bjd on Aug 13, 2018 16:22:16 GMT
I visited that museum a few years ago. My husband is interested in Japanese prints and there was a exhibition of Chinese and Japanese scrolls and paintings.
I confess that I am not really keen on Asian sculpture so we didn't go to the same areas as you. I do get museumed out pretty fast too.
There is a small Asian art museum here in Toulouse as well. The house of an explorer and art collector, the Musée Labit.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 13, 2018 18:40:45 GMT
Hayagrïva and his spouse in Tibet engaged in conjugal bliss Five legs between them?
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 13, 2018 18:44:50 GMT
I noticed the same thing. He has four legs and four arms. Her second leg is raised and wrapped around him in back to allow maximum penetration, as I'm sure you know.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 13, 2018 19:16:20 GMT
I did know that. I have always rejected any sexual partners with fewer than eight limbs.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 13, 2018 19:27:36 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 14, 2018 6:01:23 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 14, 2018 6:06:29 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 14, 2018 16:47:35 GMT
The two pieces after the "Shadows!" picture are truly wonderful, as are the The highly expressive faces. I also love both horses pictures and would kill to own that vase with the fish on it. Not only do I find it beautiful, but it's so unexpected in with all the other stuff, seeming more like an example of art-nouveau.
This is a great presentation. I appreciate seeing the long views of the various rooms, and find the dark wood floors and plinths very effective with the white walls and glass cases. (I'll spare everyone my usual complaints about the #%^@& spotlights.)
Is the picture of the builders on paper or something else?
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 14, 2018 22:13:12 GMT
Yes, that last illustration of builders was part of a set of cases with other such illustrations, probably printed on a sort of rice paper.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 15, 2018 4:13:32 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 15, 2018 5:22:43 GMT
I want to live in that cupola! I see what you mean about the birds somehow looking so different. They lead nicely into Uma and into the bas-relief that ends the thread, in terms of giving a look at the greatness and differentness of Asian art compared to the western art most of us are probably more used to.
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