Celebrating Asian Art

July 15, 2022–January 2, 2024

Creative Splendor: Japanese Bamboo Baskets from the Thoma Collection is a series of three installations of approximately 15 baskets each, that will survey the outstanding accomplishments of Japanese basket makers active since the 19th century to the present day from three regions of Japan: the Kansai region, which encompasses the ancient capital, Kyoto; the Kanto region, which stretches westward from Tokyo; and the southernmost island of Kyushu. The exhibition demonstrates the specific techniques and styles of cutting and weaving bamboo that are particular to each of these geographic regions.

To view the exhibition, click here.

The Lenora and Walter F. Brown Asian Art Wing

In 1990, museum trustees Walter F. and Lenora Brown began donating what has grown to over 500 Asian objects, mostly Chinese ceramics, which surveys the entire 5,000-year history of ceramics produced in China. With additional later acquisitions, the Museum's collection of Asian art is now among the finest in the nation and is drawn from several cultures across the continent, including China, Japan, Korea, India, Tibet, Nepal, Pakistan, Mongolia, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka.

The collection was installed in its new and dedicated space, the 15,000-square-foot Lenora and Walter F. Brown Asian Art Wing, in 2005. With the installation in 2019 on the museum's grounds of a 12-foot-high, six-and-a-half ton Taihu Rock, gifted by San Antonio's sister city Wuxi in China, the Asian art collection became part of SAMA's riverview.

To view the collection, click here.