January 28, 2010 – March 24, 2010

TEACHING GALLERY

Curated by Ankeney Weitz, Associate Professor of Art and East Asian Studies

Chinese decorative art mostly consists of auspicious imagery, including many varieties of flowers—especially hibiscus, peony, and lotus—and animals like bats, dragons, cranes, and bees. By joining several images together, Chinese artists inscribed clever puns or rebuses upon the surfaces of objects and paintings. Understanding the images in this exhibition will depend on a special kind of reading in which the sound of the symbol’s name rhymes with the sound of another word or phrase.

PHOTO: Anonymous, Chinese
Blue and White Bowl, 16th century
Porcelain with underglaze blue decorations, 3 x 9 in.
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Bernat

Museum Contact Information

Colby College Museum of Art
5600 Mayflower Hill Drive
Waterville, ME 04901

Tel 207-859-5600
Fax 207-859-5606

museum@colby.edu

Museum Hours

Free and open to the public
Tuesday–Saturday 10 am – 4:30 pm
Sunday 12 – 4:30 pm

Closed Monday

www.colby.edu/museum