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Stefano Arienti: The Asian Shore
installation, 2007.
Clements/Howcroft Photography
Four Sliding Doors: Chrysanthemums
and Bamboo, Japanese (Rimpa School),
17th-century. Paint and Gold on Paper,
167 x 187 cm. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Seconda stanza cinese (Second Chinese Room), 2006-2007
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June 29 - October 14, 2007
Isabella Gardner created spaces of private meaning in the Museum. The 1915 Chinese Room was just such a space, where she fantasized and projected romantic ideas of ritual and mystery onto a Buddhist shrine of her imagination.
Artist-in-Residence Stefano Arienti’s interest in Asian art and culture has led him to concentrate on the history of the Gardner Museum’s Asian collection and on the Chinese Room in particular. Working with found images and other materials from the Gardner archives, the artist has transformed his sources through drawing, by burning, tracing and transferring photocopies of original digital images. These drawings are as a frieze on an historical wall, a canon of human gesture, linking ideas about what is classical and permanent in art to all that is intangible, immaterial and fleeting.
The Asian Shore installation integrates harmoniously with the architecture and the display practices of the museum, which appeal to the senses and give further expression to the ways perception is tempered by ambiance. The work includes a set of sliding 17th century Japanese doors with painted bamboo shoots that are usually displayed, on the reverse side, in an upstairs passage way, as well as, a series of rugs that the artist has dyed to reveal unexpected patterns. The drawings, the sliding doors and especially the expanse of red and black surface created by the rugs envelope viewers in a way that is both intimate and reassuring. Visitors to the exhibition are encouraged to go into the room, take off their shoes, sit on the rugs and enter into a sensual and meditative encounter with art.
Stefano Arienti is an Italian artist who lives and works in Milan. In the summer of 2004 he participated in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s Artist-in-Residence program, which for the past fifteen years has encouraged artists to further their artistic practice by exploring and responding to the museum’s collection and environment.
The Chinese Room
Like many other 19th-century
Americans, Isabella Gardner
was fascinated with Asia,
and in 1883 she embarked
on a lengthy journey through
Japan, China, Southeast Asia,
and India. She was not yet a
collector, although she bought
a few souvenirs. During the
construction of her museum,
around 1900, Isabella bought many Asian objects from
dealers in Boston—mostly decorative carvings and trinkets,
which were used in the museum. In 1903, when her museum
was first opened, most of galleries were devoted to Renaissance
art although one room was called the Chinese Room. In
t ypical Victorian fashion, it was filled with a mixture of
Japanese screens, Asian textiles, 19th-centur y paintings,
and Italian furniture.
In 1915, Isabella Gardner undertook a major renovation of
her museum. The old Chinese Room was dismantled and
much of her Buddhist sculpture was moved into a new
space. This dark, atmospheric setting was arranged like a
shrine, decorated with large-scale Buddhist sculptures.
One table was reserved for objects associated with Okakura
Kakuzo, the recently deceased author of The Book of Tea.
A devout Episcopalian, Gardner was fascinated by all of
the world’s religions.
Gardner’s friends found the Chinese Room awe-inspiring and
tomb-like, but it was never regularly open to the public. It was
a romanticized and very personal interpretation of a Buddhist
temple, which seemed too much a jumble for many scholars:
the room was dismantled and for the most part sold in 1971.
The museum mourns today the loss of the Chinese Room
and is seeking ways to redress this.
Artist Book: An artist book by Arienti entitled The Asian Shore will accompany the exhibition. Published by Charta and available September 2007. Preorder via the Museum shop.
Accompanying Programs
- June 29, 2007, 1:30PM, Artists-in-Conversation, Artist-in-Residence Stefano Arienti joins Curator of Contemporary Art Pieranna Cavalchini to discuss the exhibition.
- September 27, 6:30PM, Conversations: "Tourist and Collector: Isabella Stewart Gardner's Passion For Asia" Nuriko Murai, Professor at Temple University, Tokyo and Gardner Museum Curator Alan Chong discuss Isabella's Asian collection and travels.
For more information or to purchase tickets
Exhale at the Gardner
Free Guided Meditation Workshops:
Tuesdays, August 7, September 4 & October 2, 10:00-11:00 am
Relax, renew and discover the transformative power of art and meditation during a special series of workshops at the Gardner Museum. More info and reservations.
Additional discounts and offers for members of the Gardner Museum, exhale mind body spa, WBUR 90.9 FM and Japan Society of Boston.
The 2007 Artist-in-Residence program is made possible, in part, by the Nimoy Foundation and generous individuals. The Gardner Museum receives operating support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
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