New Ackland exhibit spotlights Asian art

A new exhibit and today's Lunch with One event will mark the end of one era of Asian art and the beginning of another at the Ackland Art Museum.

The exhibit, Sage in the Bamboo Grove: The Legacy of Sherman E. Lee" will run until Sept. 20. It chronicles the influence of a renowned art scholar who spent his last decades in Chapel Hill and passed away last year.

Professor Wei-Cheng Lin currently teaches a class on Chinese art and culture and will be speaking at today's Lunch with One. He will speak for an hour about one of the exhibit's pieces.

He said he is excited for the exhibit commemorating Lee's influence.

Sherman is one of the most important Asian art historians of his time" Lin said.

Lee received a doctorate degree from Case Western Reserve University and served in the U.S. Navy Reserve in the 1940s. His unit protected art in Japan following World War II, and Lee advised Gen. Douglas MacArthur on a mission to inventory Japanese art.

Lee would eventually become the long-time director of the Cleveland Museum of Art and write A History of Far Eastern Art"" a text still considered the authority on the subject.

Since the 1970s, Ackland directors have sought Lee's advice in building the museum's Asian collection, which contributed to the Ackland's acquisition of hundreds of pieces.

Lee also donated Asian works from his own collection.

We struck gold in building this friendship with Sherman Lee"" said Nic Brown, the director of communications for the Ackland.

In 1983 Lee came to Chapel Hill and taught at UNC and Duke University.

When he came to this area" Asian art in the South changed" Lin said.

The exhibit is housed in four galleries, three downstairs and one upstairs.

This exhibit gives us a great excuse to open up the vaults and bring out all the star pieces"" Brown said. The size and the scope of the exhibition is ambitious for a museum of our size.""

The exhibit includes works from a variety of Eastern cultures.

Downstairs" one can see bronze mirrors from several Chinese dynasties hanging near Indian Buddhist carvings.

Upstairs" an entire gallery is dedicated to Japanese screen painting. Both Brown and Lin referred to the screens as the exhibit's ""treasures.""

Lin described how the gold leaf on the screens would have added ""luxury and light to the dark interiors of palace and temples.""

Ackland's dimly lit upstairs gallery makes it easy to imagine the art in its original setting.

The event will be held downstairs in the Ackland at 1 p.m. It is free to students who bring their One Cards. Attendees are encouraged to bring lunch and relax.

Alexandra Fulton" a junior art major" said she's excited about the exhibit and Lunch with One.

""It can somewhat give the viewer a new perspective on their world.""



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