- Size: 27.5(L) x 23.5(W) cm
- Binding: hardcover, 205 pages
- Language: English
- Publisher: Hudson Hills Press / Asia Society, New York, 2006
This fascinating publication, coinciding with the opening of an Asia Society exhibition of the same name, features significant Asian works of art from the Asia Society collection. In 1955, John D. Rockefeller III convened a committee to respond to post-World War II interest in developing improved understanding of, and relations with, countries in Asia. His family’s long-standing interest in Asia had led him to travel in China and Japan after he graduated from university in 1929. The Rockefellers’ deeply felt ‘passion for Asia’ led to the founding of the Asia Society in 1956. With the celebration of the Society’s fiftieth anniversary, the need for better understanding of Asian cultures – political, economic, and artistic – is more urgent than ever.
This beautifully produced volume reflects in photographs and words the many-sided mission of the Asia Society. Fascinating archival photographs bring the Rockefeller family’s travels, philanthropic activities, social occasions, and wonderful domestic interiors to life. Important objects – sculptures, paintings, prints, screens, ceramics – all collected by members of the family, many from the Society’s collection and others from Museums around the country, are reproduced in full colour. The text includes essays by Rockefeller family members; former Asia Society presidents; Peter Johnson, the family historian; Cynthia Altman, curator of Kykuit, the Rockefeller family estate. (Asia Society, 2006, HC, 208pp)