Art Histories, Across and Within: The Rockefeller Collection at Asia Society
Explore how art, ideas, and cultural influences traveled across Asia centuries before today’s hyperconnected world in this special Museum Salon at Asia Society.
Art historian Arathi Menon joins Asia Society curator Xiaohan Du for a conversation inspired by works from the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection and the exhibition Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon—Celebrating 70 Years of Asia Society and the Rockefeller Legacy.
The discussion looks beyond individual artworks to examine the historical networks that allowed objects, raw materials, artistic traditions, and ideas to move across land and sea. These exchanges helped create connections between cultures throughout the premodern world and influenced artistic innovations across the Asian continent.
Menon, an Associate Professor of Art History at Hamilton College, specializes in South Asian art and the material culture of the premodern Indian Ocean world. Her research includes the Malabar coast of southwestern India and the cultural, economic, and political forces that shaped its churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, architecture, and sculpture.
