Art and Museums
Dreams of the Kings: A Jade Suit for Eternity; "Humankind's Dream of Eternal Life is Enduring"
The centerpiece of Dreams of the Kings is a 2,000-year-old, life-sized jade and gold burial suit, meticulously assembled from more than 4,000 pieces of jade linked together with gold wire. Jade is China's most precious material and has been exalted in that country since the Neolithic period as having deep spiritual significance associated with the afterlife. It was only during the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.E –220 C.E.) that it was used to completely encase the corpse to reflect the belief that the body would not decay if encased in jade.
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The Strong Museum: Home to International Center for the History of Electronic Games, the National Toy Hall of Fame, the World Video Game Hall of Fame
Editor's note ... We stumbled upon this essay while preparing the post for SeniorWomen.com: Nicolas Ricketts, a Curator at The Strong, asks: "What makes a game classic? Part of the answer is longevity. Most people consider chess classic; we've played it for centuries. What about playing cards? Woodblock-printed cards appeared during China's Tang dynasty (618–907), while written rules for card games were first seen in 15th-century Europe. Games such as Monopoly in the 1930s and Scrabble during the 1950s broke sales records at first... Like chess and playing cards, these games are now available in electronic formats, but people still enjoy the tabletop versions. In the spirit of those other famous games, I’d like to propose the tile game Mahjong as a potential classic." more »
Henry James, American Painting and Memorable Heroines
Henry James and American Painting, an exhibition that is the first to explore the relationship between James' literary works and the visual arts, is appearing at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. On view until Jan. 21, 2018, it offers a fresh perspective on the master novelist and the significance of his friendships with American artists John La Farge, John Singer Sargent, and James McNeill Whistler, and close friend and esteemed arts patron, Isabella Stewart Gardner. more »
Her Paris: Women Artists in the Age of Impressionism; How Women Embraced Their Artistic Aspirations Despite Societal Challenges
While Paris was known as a cosmopolitan city, Parisian society was still very restrictive for women. They were not allowed to attend the École des Beaux-Arts, the country’s most important art academy until 1897, and it was not socially acceptable to frequent public spaces, such as cafes, to work on their art and mingle with their peers without a male companion. The exhibition traces how women embraced their artistic aspirations and helped create an alternative system that included attending private academies, exhibiting independently and forming their own organizations. more »