All posts in Arts of Asia

Arts of the Islamic World gallery

The Reinstallation of the Asian and Arts of the Islamic World Galleries

If you’ve visited the second floor of the Museum recently, you may have noticed that it looks considerably more bare than normal. Big changes are…

Read More
Kiosks in Split Second

In the Gallery vs. Online: How a Split Second Can Differ

One of the questions people always ask me is how web differs from what happens in the building and that’s a difficult thing to get…

Read More
Nayika Awaits Her Lover

Split Second: A Curator’s Reaction to the Results

I’ve had a lot of time to mull over the results of the Split Second, so here are a few of my thoughts—roughly one week…

Read More
Led by Songhur Balkhi and Lulu the Spy, the Ayyars Slit the Throats of Prison Guards and Free Sa'id Farrukh-Nizhad

Split Second: Why Indian Paintings?

I am listed as a contributor to the Split Second project, but I really wasn’t the brains behind it; I’m just the person who okayed…

Read More

Split Second Stats #7: Contentiousness

A big part of experiencing art is talking about it. Sometimes (or, uh, frequently) artworks are successful because they provoke disagreement, and along with that…

Read More
Portrait of a Man

Treatment of Portrait of a Man

In preparation for the paper rotation that recently went on view in our second floor, the works were examined and, if necessary, stabilized before going…

Read More
1

Split Second Stats #6: Subconscious Effects

In the previous post I closed by noting that depending on what participants were asked to do, visual complexity could affect their ratings. Indeed, we…

Read More
2

Split Second Stats #5: Complexity

Complexity is an important factor in the evaluation of art. In all of the previous Split Second blog posts I’ve talked about how the complexity…

Read More
1

Split Second Stats #4: Engagement

In previous Split Second blog posts, we looked at the effects of thin-slicing, textual information, and gender. Put another way, we were studying the effects…

Read More
4

Split Second Stats #3: Gender and Information

In the last blog post about Split Second, I talked about how adding extra information about a work changed what people thought about it. In…

Read More
Split Second paintings in the Conservation Lab

Many Hours for a Split Second

With the initiation of the project Split Second, Joan Cummins, Curator of Asian Art selected a very large number (185) of works from the Museum’s…

Read More
Varaha Rescuing the Earth

The Original Avatars: An Introduction to Vishnu’s Earthly Manifestations

The Vishnu exhibition that’s on view here right now includes a large section on the god’s avatars.  The show introduces the idea of the avatar…

Read More
3

Split Second Stats #2: Adding Information

Last week I talked about our Split Second: Indian Paintings exhibition and Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. In the previous…

Read More
5

Split Second Stats #1: Thin-slicing vs. unlimited time

A big inspiration for Split Second: Indian Paintings was the book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. Blink introduced the general…

Read More
Google Analytics - Split Second - New York Participants

Come visit your data in Split Second

Watching Split Second: Indian Paintings get installed into the gallery this week has been a real thrill for me. I believe it is vital that…

Read More

Split Second Thank You

The online evaluation phase of Split Second: Indian Paintings came to a close yesterday evening and now it’s time to say thanks to everyone who gave us…

Read More

Next up, what you see is what you get.

This post continues the discussion about the tool we developed for Split Second.  Once you get past stressing and (possibly) scrolling in the timed trial, the…

Read More

Stressing and Scrolling in a Blink

One of the things we wanted to do with Split Second is talk about the tool that we developed for the online activity.  Much like…

Read More

What do you see in a split-second?

Today, we are launching Split Second: Indian Paintings and it’s something I’ve been excited about for quite a while. Split Second is an opportunity to…

Read More

Object of the Month: May 2010: Infinity II (Shinso)

Often as I walk through the Asian galleries, I see people sitting on the bench in front of this porcelain sculpture, just sort of blissing…

Read More

Beautiful Asian Landscapes on View for 2009

Museums are full of small-scale changes of exhibition that are worth seeing but easily missed because they don’t get any publicity. Sometimes it’s as simple…

Read More

Purchasing a Major Work of Art for the Collection – part VII

I can’t believe that it’s been more than a year since my last posting on this topic. I guess I got distracted by other tasks….

Read More

Last chance to catch our Add-Art show!

Last week I blogged about our participation in Add-Art, the plug-in for Firefox that blocks ads and replaces them with art. We just got an…

Read More

Mashing-up Hiroshige to block ads and Add-Art!

What in the world am I talking about?? Brooklyn-based artist Steve Lambert has developed a plug-in for the Firefox browser that block ads and replaces…

Read More

Celebrating Spring in the Japanese Style

Stepping out of the Eastern Parkway subway station this morning, I was greeted by the most amazing sight: the cherry trees in front of the…

Read More

Purchasing a Major Work of Art for the Collection – part VI

The search for an object to purchase in honor of the soon-to-be-retired Curator of Asian Art began more than eight months before I arrived at…

Read More

Purchasing a Major Work of Art for the Collection – part V

Armed with the “wish list” and approximate budget I described in my previous entries, the team of curators and trustees who were interested in finding…

Read More

Purchasing a Major Work of Art for the Collection – part IV

I have been discussing the process of acquiring a new masterpiece for the collection, and in my first installment, I introduced the object, a bronze…

Read More

Purchasing a Major Work of Art for the Collection – part III

Last time I wrote about how we happened to have the money and the initiative to look for a major new acquisition for the Asian…

Read More

Purchasing a Major Work of Art for the Collection – part II

In my previous entry, I introduced a wonderful object, an Indian bronze of Shiva from the tenth century. I am tracing the way that this…

Read More

Purchasing a major work of art for the collection

I have been an art museum curator for almost eight years now, and I can tell you that the one aspect of my job that…

Read More