Archive

Exhibition

Tanaka Ryohei

November 30, 2024 to April 13, 2025

Tanaka Ryohei (1933–2019) was a Japanese printmaker who masterfully employed the Western intaglio technique of etching (Japanese: doban). His predominantly monochromatic prints depict Japan’s traditional thatched-roof farmhouses, temples, and landscapes with poetic beauty and a gentle melancholy. The textures of thatch, wood, stone, and other natural materials are rendered with remarkable precision and perfection. more

Exhibition

EXPEDITIONS

October 25, 2024 to March 30, 2025

Frieda and Adolf Fischer founded the Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne in 1909. Their first study tour together, from October 1897 to May 1899, brought the couple from Berlin to Japan. After staying in Kobe, Kyoto and Tokyo, in spring 1898 Adolf Fischer visited the island of Taiwan, known historically as “Formosa”, which had been ruled by Imperial Japan since 1895. The exhibition is centred on previously unpublished travel diaries, reports and photographs produced by Frieda and Adolf Fischer. Artworks purchased in Japan and ethnographic objects acquired in Taiwan provide evidence of the couple’s early collecting activities. more

Exhibition

Flowers for Frieda

Mai 24, 2024 to Juli 4, 2024

The temporary installation in the entrance and foyer area of the Museum for East Asian Art is themed on the centuries-old art of flower arrangement known from Japan – Ikebana, literally, the “way of flowers.” The landscape garden in the museum's inner courtyard designed after traditional Japanese models as well as the larger-than-life bronze figure “Usagi Kannon II” (2013/14) created by the contemporary artist Leiko Ikemura here form a unique setting. more

Exhibition

Art in the Limelight!

Mai 9, 2024 to November 3, 2024

Alfred Salmony (1890–1958) had a decisive influence on the history of the collection of the Museum for East Asian Art, as its first deputy director after the museum opened in 1913. The eponymous exhibition shows a selection of around 100 pieces that can be traced back to Salmony’s acquisition initiatives. These include exquisite jades and sumptuous early Chinese artefacts, such as pendants and belt buckles, hairpins and bronze mirrors. more

Exhibition

Bizarre Beauties

April 9, 2024 to March 9, 2025

Since the Tang Dynasty (601–907), Chinese literati have been collecting bizarrely shaped rocks. Placed in the garden as miniature versions of mountain peaks, they represent a microcosm of nature in which the scholar meditates, drawing inspiration from them and devoting himself to the arts of poetry, painting and calligraphy, or playing the zither. more

Exhibition

50 YEARS – 50 TREASURES

January 19, 2024 to September 29, 2024

In January 1974, the art collector Hans-Wilhelm Siegel (1903–1997) founded the non-profit Oriental Endowment for the Promotion of East Asian Art in Cologne. The endowment’s fund came from the proceeds Siegel received from the sale of his important collection of Chinese and Southeast Asian art objects to the city of Cologne. The collection was built during his five decades as a businessman in East Asia. Siegel’s patronage inspired other collectors to establish art foundations that are now an integral part of Cologne’s museum landscape. To mark the 50th anniversary, the exhibition presents fifty selected works from the Siegel Collection as well as acquisitions that have since been financed with the earnings of the endowment’s capital for the Museum of East Asian Art. more

Exhibition

Interstices

Dezember 15, 2023 to April 7, 2024

The Museum for East Asian Art Cologne is delighted to show contemporary works by Helena Parada Kim. The Cologne-born artist of Korean-Spanish origins studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf as master student under British painter Peter Doig. more

Exhibition

Kyoto Netsuke

November 30, 2023 to April 1, 2024

The museum will be exhibiting 60 elaborately crafted and skillfully decorated netsuke to mark the 60th anniversary of the twinning of the cities of Cologne and Kyoto. The small sculptures from the Kamigata metropolitan region and the Kyoto school symbolise the long-lasting friendship between these two cities. more

Exhibition

Gods, spirits and demons

From 20 June 2023

Mysterious, magical, spiritual - sculptures, murals, woodblock prints, books, screens visualize the complex world of gods, spirits and demons. Two absolute highlights: Raijin, the thunder god, or Karura, a bird-like creature from Hindu mythology. For the new installation of the permanent collection "JAPAN" outstanding objects have been impressively staged. more

Exhibition

Naoya Hatakeyama. YOKOHAMA SOUVENIRS

12 May - 05 November 2023

Historical photographs of Japan’s sights from the Meiji period (1868–1912) inspire the photographer Naoya Hatakeyama to visit those places and examine them anew. In a playful juxtaposition of photographic archive material and his own shots of those sites, he traces the temporal aspect that is located between the tourist views of the past and the landscape of today. more

Exhibition

Silver for Tsingtao

4 May 2023 until 05 November 2023

From the estate of Bitburg engineer Heinrich Hildebrand (1855-1925), the Museum is presenting exceptional works created by Chinese silversmiths during the late Qing Dynasty (from 1644 to 1911). Between 1891 and 1908, Hildebrand constructed railway lines, factories and buildings all over China. He acquired scores of artworks for his residence in Tsingtao (today known as Qingdao), capital of the territory Kiaochow, which was leased by Imperial China to the German Empire. Most of his silverware was produced in the hinterland of Tsingtao around 1900. more

Exhibition

Horizons

October 21, 2022 - April 10, 2023

The exhibition Horizons presents striking positions by contemporary, internationally renowned artists from China, Korea and Japan at the interface between Far Eastern and Western art. The exhibition includes works by Qiu Shihua, Leiko Ikemura, Evelyn Taocheng Wang, Kimsooja and Yu Duan. more

Exhibition

Shin hanga

March 11 - June 6 2022

With a unique selection of over 200 Japanese colour woodblock prints from the first half of the 20th century, the exhibition shows the development of shin hanga (‘new prints’). The subjects range from bijin (female beauties) and great actors of the kabuki theatre to atmospheric landscapes and impressive depictions of birds to scenes from modern urban life. more

Exhibition

One Hundred Aspects of the Moon

September 17, 2021 - January 9, 2022

From September 2021 the Museum of East Asian Art Cologne shows 100 Aspects of the Moon by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839–1892). Yoshitoshi was the last great woodblock print master of the Ukiyo-e tradition, and 100 Aspects of the Moon is regarded as his greatest achievement. The series brings to life the history and mythology of ancient Japan. more

Exhibition

Asia in Focus

until September 4, 2022

The exhibition sheds light on more than 500 years of exchange between Europe and the Far East. Under the influence of colonialism the earlier European view of China and Japan, with its appreciation and understanding of mutual intellectual and artistic exchange, has almost been forgotten. more

Exhibition

Global Merchandise

Since the beginning of Chinese porcelain production in Jingdezhen in the 14th century, shapes and decorations have been produced to the taste of overseas buyers. Using objects from its own collection, the exhibition shows which types of Chinese porcelain came to Europe, especially in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Japan Gallery presents not only the classic export porcelain from Arita but also the modernised production of the Meiji period (1868-1918) from Kutani, Kyoto, Satsuma and Seto. more

Exhibition

Fascinating Discoveries from the Depot

until August 8, 2021

The museum holds a diverse collection of about one thousand paintings and calligraphic works from the countries of East Asia. Occasionally, unexpected treasures come to light in storage, as parts of the collection are still in need of research. more

Exhibition

All under Heaven

17 November 2018 to 6 October 2019

December 1977 saw the opening of the Museum of East Asian Art’s new building, designed by the Japanese architect Kunio Maekawa (1905–86). Situated by the artificial lake known as the Aachener Weiher, it replaced the building destroyed in World War II and so provided the museum, founded in 1909, with a new home. more

Exhibition

The printed Image

1 March 2018 to 1 July 2018

The special exhibition opens forty years after the opening of the new building, designed by Kunio Maekawa, on the Aachener Weiher, a building which gave the Museum of East Asian Art a new home after the destruction of its former premises in the Second World War. more

Exhibition

Netsuke and Sagemono

2nd September to 1st Nobember 2017

The exhibition presents a selection of netsuke and sagemono from museum and private collections. more

Exhibition

Passions

13 August 2016 to 29 January 2017

What would a life be without passions? In the art of East Asia, human passions play an important part. From love to the arts, the yearning for freedom and a life in the midst of nature, from the pleasures of erotic play to the overcoming of the passions through Buddhism – every aspect is reflected. more

Exhibition

The Magic of Characters

23 April 2016 to 17 July 2016

The exhibition ‘The Magic of Characters’ presents, for the first time, works of Chinese calligraphic art from the twelfth century BCE until the present, examining the many planes of significance of calligraphy and writing generally more

Exhibition

All about Girls and Tigers

26 September 2015 to 28 February 2016

The Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne is devoting a major thematic exhibition to the internationally acclaimed artist and winner of numerous prizes, Leiko Ikemura. more

Exhibition

Drunk on Sobriety

November 13, 2019 - August 16, 2020

This showcase exhibition presents ceramics, lacquerware, paintings and calligraphy that bear witness to the great esteem in which tea drinking is held in China. Since the late Neolithic period, wine made from fermented grain has been a further highly popular tipple. Contrasting with wine’s intoxicating effect, savouring multiple bowls of tea made users „drunk on sobriety“. more

Exhibition

White Gold

8 May to 13 September 2015

Porcelain was highly appreciated not only in the Middle Kingdom; the "white gold" from China was also much in demand in Europe and the Middle East. In combination with the permanent loans from the Peter und Irene Ludwig Stiftung, the museum is presenting for the first time a selection of the 100 or so most refined, and most unusual, items of porcelain in its collection. more

Exhibition

BORO

28 March to 2 August 2015

Boro shows some 50 rare articles of clothing and everyday textiles made in Japan between 1850 and 1950. The word boro means ‘patched together’ and here refers to the indigo-dyed patched-together garments of the Japanese rural population. more

Exhibition

Tradition and Modernism in Dialogue

20 November 2014 to 31 January 2015

Masterpieces by Lee Young-Jae and traditional Korean ceramics. In the Korea Gallery of the Museum of East Asian Art, Cologne. more

Exhibition

From Japonisme to Zen

18 October 2014 to 1 February 2015

The exhibition, conceived in association with the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern investigates for the first time Klee’s confrontation with East Asian art and culture. Klee was also the cardinal point for subsequent artists in Japan. more

Exhibition

From Istanbul to Yokohama

17 May to 7 September 2014

350 historical photographs, taken by European and native photographers, bring to life the routes taken by the globetrotters to Asia. more

Exhibition

Compassion and Meditation

17 May 2014 to 1 February 2015

The exhibition seeks to present the two concepts of compassion and meditation in the teachings of the ‘Great Vehicle’ (Sanskrit: Mahayana). Here, a central role is played by the Bodhisattvas as enlightened beings who nonetheless have pity on humanity, as well as by meditation, which was widely disseminated by the Zen schools (Chinese: Chan; Jap.: Zen). more

Exhibition

The Glory of the Emperors of China

20 October 2012 to 20 January 2013

The Forbidden City in Beijing is one of the largest museums in the world. For almost 500 years, it was the seat of government of the emprerors of China, and formed the middle of the Middle Kingdom. The face of the Forbidden City was shaped by the last dynasty, the Qing from Manchuria (1644–1911), who left behind a collection of more than 1.8 million art treasures. more