Guimet Asian-Arts Museum, or MNAAG for short, has been renovated in a masterly and contemporary manner. It is the largest European museum entirely dedicated to this region of the world.
The Guimet Museum of Asian Arts is located at 6 place d'Iéna, 75116 Paris, near the statue of General George Washington and the building of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (EESC). The Guimet Museum also manages the Buddhist Pantheon - Hôtel Heidelbach (19 avenue d'Iéna 75116 Paris), just a few meters away, and the d'Ennery Museum (59, avenue Foch, 75116 Paris), which are also devoted to Asian art.
The creation of the Guimet Asian-Arts Museum in Lyon
The museum was created on the initiative of Émile Guimet (1836-1918), an industrialist and scholar from Lyon. Following trips to Egypt (the Boulaq museum inspired him for the museography of his future museums), Greece, and a world tour in 1876, with stops in Japan, China, and India, he assembled important collections of Asian art. He gathered important collections of art objects. They were presented in Lyon from 1879.
The Guimet Asian-Arts Museum in Paris
Later, Emile Guimet specialized in Asian art objects and transferred his collections to the museum he had built in Paris by Jules Chatron, which was inaugurated in 1889. In 1927, the Guimet Museum became part of the Direction des Musées de France and brought together other collections and bequests from individuals. It is now the largest collection of Asian art outside Asia.
The collections of the Guimet Asian-Arts Museum
The collections are divided in the museum by geographical area and according to a stylistic evolution aiming at the knowledge of the history of Asian arts. The collections are classified according to the following criteria
Weapons
Graphic arts
Bronzes
Ceramics
Interior decorations
Drawings
Prints
History
Manuscripts
Furniture
Objects of daily life
Objects of worship
Paintings
Religions of the Far East
Sculpture
Live performance
Textiles
Evolution of the collections of the Guimet Asian-Arts Museum
Emile Guimet's original collection, supplemented by numerous donations over the years, has meant that the museum's collections, which are relatively exhaustive in terms of the geographical distribution of East Asia, are limited to archaeological or ancient art objects and exclude contemporary art and ethnological objects.
However, a form of diversification can be noted with the creation of a department of textiles thanks to the legacy of Krishna Riboud.
A place, although not very important, is also sometimes given to contemporary art in the margin of temporary exhibitions.
Southeast Asia Collection
This collection, one of the richest in the museum, which opens the visit, is devoted for the most part to the statuary and architectural decoration of the Khmer Empire (9th to 13th centuries).
India Collection
These excavated objects, the rarest of which come from the Indus Valley civilization while the most numerous come from South India, bear witness to the commercial relations of ancient India with the Western world, and in particular with the Romans.
Statuary
The sculptures are essentially related to the religious practices of Buddhism, Brahmanism, and Jainism.
Works of art and jewelry
The gallery presenting the Riboud collection exhibits Indian and Asian textiles, generally inaccessible in other museums, as well as a superb collection of objets d'art, some of which (Mughal art productions) are exceptional jewelry.
Paintings, illuminations, and manuscripts
These are, for the most part, miniatures and a few movable paintings, from the Mughal period, but which often show the Indian literary tradition. The miniatures are on display, in rotation with other collections, in the rotunda of the old library on the first floor.
Central Asia Collection
Most of this collection comes from the Paul Pelliot mission of 1906-1909. The regions concerned benefit from a very dry climate on the Silk Road, allowing for wood and unbaked clay sculptures to have been preserved.
Afghanistan and Pakistan Collection
With the acquisitions made by Alfred Foucher as well as those from the archaeological excavations of the DAFA (Délégation archéologique française en Afghanistan) as the core of the collection, this collection is devoted to the Greco-Buddhist arts of the kingdoms located in the current states of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Himalayan Arts Collection
With a core collection of bronze statuettes from Émile Guimet, enriched in 1912 by bronzes and paintings brought back by Jacques Bacot and other donations in memory of Gustave-Charles Toussaint, this collection is devoted to the essentially religious art of Tibet and Nepal: statuettes, cult objects, thangka, revealing Tibetan art for the first time in France.
Riboud Collection - Textiles
The Riboud collection, one of the most beautiful collections of textiles and Indian art objects from the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries, is presented in rotation in the gallery's showcases, as its richness equals that of the world's largest collections of Asian textiles.
Korea Collection
The Korean collection, consisting of approximately one thousand pieces, covers virtually all periods.
Japan Collection
This collection evokes the entire artistic history of Japan since the time of the hunter-gatherers. Then one encounters some beautiful Sumi-e black ink wash paintings, complete samurai outfits, and a set of sword blades.
The imposing statues of the fearsome guardians of the Kamakura period contrast with the calmness of a 16th-century Zen monk, unexpectedly naturalistic in the vicinity of several Bosatsu Bodhisattvas.
The accessories of daily life constitute sets that are appreciated by the public: Noh theater masks, small Inrō boxes and netsuke (these tiny sculptures that represent men and women, children and old people, flowers and animals, elegantly stylized or humorously caricatured). These collections take us through the historical period proper to beautiful sets of illustrated manuscript books, such as The Tale of Genji and several painted screens rich in detail suggesting the life of ancient Japan in its most intimate as well as its most everyday aspects.
A ceramics gallery allows visitors to appreciate Japanese ceramics in all their aspects, from the soberest to the most sumptuous. The famous raku as well as Imari porcelain. All the tea ceremony accessories are available in various styles.
Photographic collection
The museum's photographic archive contains reproductions of the museum's works in the chronology of their presentation, but above all, it contains an important collection of travelers' photographs, some of which are the work of great professional photographers, and some of which date from the early days of photography.
The library and the roof were registered as historical monuments by a decree dated July 11, 1979.
The Buddhist Pantheon, an extension of the Guimet Asian-Arts Museum
The approach to the Buddhist pantheon is more closely linked to Emile Guimet's original project, since its aim is, through the choice of particularly significant objects on the iconographic level, the knowledge of religions, in this case, those of the Far Eastern forms of Buddhism (China-Japan).
This Japanese garden, a haven of peace in the heart of Paris, houses a tea pavilion conducive to meditation. The superb galleries of the Buddhist Pantheon are presented in this private hotel. Unique in the West as in the far East, its collections reveal the field of Buddhist piety.
With a surface area of only 450 m2, it was fitted out when the building was renovated in 1991. With its giant bamboos, stone slabs, small wooden bridges, and a water feature, it is one of the most "zen" places in the capital!
You will also find a pavilion built by Japanese artists and carpenters high up in the garden. It hosts the Guimet Museum's tea ceremonies, which offer a privileged moment to taste the pleasures of the Japanese art of living (more information on the ceremonies here).
It is also an opportunity to appreciate the neoclassical architecture of the Hôtel Particulier, former home of Alfred Heidelbach, banker and president of the United States Chamber of Commerce in Paris (1852-1922).
The Garden is open from 10 am to 5 pm. Closed during tea ceremonies.
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