The Art of Asia Across Space and Time

The Collection of Asian Art at the NGP contains almost 13,000 art objects with their origins in Japan, China, Tibet, South and Southeast Asia, and the Islamic cultural realm. The exhibition presents a selection of approximately 520 of the most important artefacts covering a period from the 3rd millennium BCE to the present day. Textile objects and works on paper are alternated regularly; thus, the exhibition constantly presents something new. 

The interest in collecting Asian art developed in the Czech lands from the late 16th and early 17th century onwards, although the collections of the NGP are linked in particular with collecting in the 19th and 20th centuries. The first part of the exhibition presents historical encounters of Central Europeans with “Oriental” art. It outlines how early contacts had repercussions in collecting and trade during that time, as well as in visual art in the Czech lands. The individual exhibition rooms provide an insight into Czech responses to Asian displays at World’s Fairs, Prague outlets dealing in goods from “the Orient”, oriental salons in chateau and palace interiors in Bohemia and Moravia, distinguished Czech collectors of Asian art and Asian inspirations in Czech visual art.  

The second, more extensive part of the exhibition presents the art of Asia and the Islamic world from the perspective of our contemporary knowledge. Within thematic contexts it provides an insight into spiritual traditions, writing and calligraphy, ornamentation and decorative designs and the realm of nature and people within different Asian cultures. It offers a more detailed understanding of the original meaning, function, context and aesthetics of the individual art objects. Here too, however, attention is also paid to the collecting provenance, thus how the works came into the collections of the NGP. 

More about The Collection of Asian Art at the NGP

Featured artwork on the page: Mahakala, Tibet, 18th – 19th cent., NGP