ASIAN ART: GREAT WORKS FROM JAPAN, CHINA AND INDIA
AUTHOR: BÉRÉNICE GEOFFROY-SCHNEITER
PUBLICATION DATE: NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2002
U.S. LIST PRICE: $50.00
HARDCOVER
91/2 x 111/4
200 PAGES
Westerners often have only a confused idea of Asian art, peopled with good-natured Buddhas, ferocious deities with myriad arms and licentious erotic prints. Profoundly spiritual, Asia has been the cradle of Buddhism and Hinduism, as well as a host of other religions, and a crucible of aesthetics as eclectic as they are modern. The sensuality of Indian goddesses and the sobriety of Chinese calligraphies, the intimate fusion of form and the sacred, have fascinated archaeologists, explorers, artists and writers for centuries.
Asian Art guides the reader through Asia’s profusion of religions and languages, deciphering the most characteristic works of its three major civilizations, India, China and Japan. Marking the reopening this year of the completely redesigned Musée Guimet in Paris and in response to the constantly increasing enthusiasm for the arts of Asia, Asian Art is both an instructive guide and a sumptuously illustrated art book.

Bérénice Geoffroy-Schneiter is an archaeologist, art historian and critic, and journalist. As a child she lived in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and has since traveled extensively throughout Asia for her work. She is the author of numerous books for Assouline including Ethnic Style: History and Fashion and Gandhara: The Memory of Afghanistan.