Reframing the Tianlongshan Cave Temple Fragments: Art Talk with Sarah Laursen

In 1943, the museum was gifted 25 stone fragments from the Tianlongshan cave temples in China’s northern Shanxi province. Beginning in the late 1920s, the reliefs and sculptures were removed from the site and published by art dealer Sadajirō Yamanaka, sparking interest among collectors worldwide. This talk highlights a collaboration with Harvard students that investigates the creation of the works, their meaning in Buddhist medieval China, their sale and journey to their current home, and the ravaged site they left behind.

Conceived as part of the museum-wide ReFrame initiative, this project represents a first step toward critically reassessing archaeological fragments in the Asian collections at Harvard as well as the general consequences of early efforts to collect Chinese art in the United States.

TAKE A CLOSER LOOK:

+ Visit http://hvrd.art/reframingtianlongshan for more about the creation and significance of the stone fragments from the Tianlongshan cave temples, their removal and sale, and the history of their display at the Harvard Art Museums.

+ Explore the SketchUp 3D Model of Cave 2:    • Reframing Tianlongshan: SketchUp 3D M...  .

SPEAKERS:
+ Sarah Laursen, Alan J. Dworsky Associate Curator of Chinese Art, Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art, Harvard Art Museums;
+ Kaitlin Hao ’21, undergraduate, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard College, and Ho Family Student Guide, Harvard Art Museums;
+ Xiaofei (Sophie) Lei, M.A. candidate in the Regional Studies East Asia Program, Harvard University;
+ Michael Norton, Ph.D. candidate, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University.
+ Moderated by Lynette Roth, Daimler Curator of the Busch Reisinger Museum and Head of the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art, Harvard Art Museums.

---

This talk is part of a series inspired by ReFrame, a museum-wide initiative to reimagine the function, role, and future of the university art museum. These talks examine difficult histories, foreground untold stories, and experiment with new approaches to the collections of the Harvard Art Museums, reflecting the concerns of our world today.

Recorded May 18, 2021. © President and Fellows of Harvard College. For questions related to permission for commercial use of this video, please contact the Department of Digital Imaging and Visual Resources at [email protected].