Yu Tôk-chang, Bamboo through the Four Seasons, panels 7 (right) & 8 (left), mid-18th century. Eight-panel folding screen; ink on paper; with two seals of the artist, 81.4 x 48.8 cm (paintings proper). Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Ernest B. and Helen Pratt Dane Fund for the Acquisition of Oriental Art, Richard Norton Memorial Fund. Photo: Katya Kallsen, HUAM. © President and Fellows of Harvard College.

This exhibition features a selection of the Art Museums' most significant works on paper and silk from China, Korea, and Japan and reflects Harvard's long and continuing tradition of collecting and celebrating the arts of Asia. The first important Asian paintings to enter the Museums were 80 Chinese works from the Edward B. Bruce collection in 1923. Augmented over the years by choice purchases and fortuitous gifts, the Museums' holdings gained greater prominence with the 1985 bequest of the Hofer Collection of the Arts of Asia. Formed by Philip Hofer, a former curator of printing and graphic arts at Harvard's Houghton Library, this collection is prized for its fine examples of Japanese painting, calligraphy, and printed books. Our holdings were further enhanced by the 1994 acquisition of the Nelson Goodman collection of Korean paintings and by other purchases of Korean artworks, including a magnificent folding screen by the master bamboo painter Yu Tôk-chang.

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