The influence of Asia on European artists in the late 19th century is well known. But American art is generally only written about in the context of its relationship with Europe. A planned exhibition curated by Alexandra Munroe, the Guggenheim Museum's new senior curator of Asian Art, aims to change that.
The exhibition, which is tentatively entitled American Art and the East, will show how 20th-century forms such as abstract art were influenced by Asia. According to Munroe, Americans were influenced by both Asian aesthetic principles and Asian techniques such as calligraphy.
'The influence of 19th-century orientalism has been extensively researched,' Munroe says, 'But what's virtually uncharted is the influence of Asia on American art and culture of the 20th century. With this exhibition, we're presenting a revision of American art history. We're looking at how Asian ideas, philosophy and thought became a major influence on the development of American modernism and the American avant-garde.'
American Art and the East, which is due to open in the spring of 2009, illustrates the Guggenheim Museum's new commitment to Asia and its art. The museum has previously held only three major exhibitions of art from the region.
Munroe was appointed as the museum's first senior curator of Asian Art late last year. Before that, she was the director of Japan Society Gallery (1998-2005) and the society's vice-president of arts and culture.
She has also been active in contemporary Chinese art, and was co-curator, with Wu Hung, of the Art of Mu Xin: The Landscape Paintings and Prison Notes, which opened at the Yale University Art Gallery and toured the US in 2002-03. Her first exhibition at Guggenheim New York will be a retrospective of Shanghai-nese artist Cai Guoqiang, which she will co-curate. It opens in February next year, and will probably travel to Beijing during the Olympics. There are also plans to open a Guggenheim museum in Asia.
