The Asian and Islamic Art galleries provide a survey of the full range of Asian and Islamic art in the Brooklyn Museum, which houses one of America's foremost collections. It presents more than one hundred masterpieces from these extraordinary holdings, representing China, Korea, Japan, India, Southeast Asia and the Himalayas, and the Islamic world.
The Chinese gallery at the Museum features more than 100 objects that cover more than five thousand years of Chinese culture and civilization, from neolithic times to the present. Current interest focuses on China's diversity as well as its cultural and artistic connections with neighbors. Many objects also demonstrate the ways in which Chinese culture has, throughout history, looked back at earlier traditions as a sign of enduring respect for the past.
Korean culture is often presented in connection with China and other East Asian cultures. The Brooklyn Museum's presentation of its Korean collection emphasizes Korea's unique traditions, culture, and aesthetics.
Japanese art forms the largest area within the Asian art collection at the Brooklyn Museum. In addition to the traditional arts of Japan, the galleries include a section devoted to contemporary Japanese ceramics by renowned masters and the younger generation of artists who are currently active in Japan. Japanese folk art is represented, as is a selection of artifacts from our renowned collection of Ainu culture.
The South Asian collection includes works from cultures defined by their geographical proximity to the Indian subcontinent, ranging in date from prehistory to the present. The Museum's outstanding India terracotta collection is represented. Basic religious tenets constitute an overarching theme throughout the cultures of South and Southeast Asia. The sculptures and architectural components on display were largely created as religious icons or embellishments for the walls of religious buildings. Outside the religious sphere, courtly traditions, such as Mughal (1526–1756) decorative arts produced in India, are also a strength of the Museum's collection.
The Islamic collection is encyclopedic in representation and contains a renowned, comprehensive group of later Persian art of the Qajar period (1779–1924), which is one of the finest outside Iran. Well-represented among the Islamic holdings are medieval Islamic ceramics, the arts of Safavid Iran, Ottoman Turkish ceramics and textiles, Turkmen costumes and jewelry, and North African textiles, costumes and jewelry. The permanent galleries display approximately 100 works drawn from all periods of Islamic Art, and feature regular rotations of light-sensitive material. Complementary didactic materials and educational programming in the galleries are designed to reach the Museum's many audiences, including the vibrant, diverse Muslim community, which is an important local Brooklyn constituency.