Crafts

Seen as an expression of individuality and personality, fashion around 1900 became a synonym for the physical and social emancipation of women and progressed to become an object of artistic interest. The clothes designs of famous artists like Heinrich Vogeler, Henry van de Velde, Josef Hoffmann and Sonia Delaunay reveal both a new aesthetic and a new attitude to the role of women.

The private collection of 80 inrō, ojime and netsuke presented here was donated to the Museum for Lacquer Art in 2017. The wealth of objects reproduces plants and animals with symbolic significance, literary subjects, historical scenes and famous landscape scenarios – and thus presents an image of Japan in miniature.

The history and culture of Europe has been decisively shaped by the exploration and use of the seas surrounding Europe. This catalogue book reflects the significance of the sea as a space of rule and trade for Europeans, as bridge and border, as resource and a place of longing. The book also reviews the changing perception of the sea in the arts.  

In this publication the sinologist Rupprecht Mayer presents 143 Chinese reverse glass paintings from a private collection in southern Germany. Traditional motifs of happiness, scenes from plays and novels, landscapes, China’s entrance into modernity, and the changing image of the Chinese woman define the central motifs.

The inimitable fashions of Stephan Hann are produced from everyday materials like pages of telephone directories, Tetra-Pak cartons and plastic carrier bags. These materials are transformed by the artist’s hand into clothes which fascinate us immediately. At the same time his poetic creations provide us with food for thought.

This survey in 14 essays of Fatimid art between the 10th and 12th centuries showcases the pottery, rock crystal, metalwork, textile, architectural, wood, and calligraphic creations of one of the most artistically inventive periods in Islamic culture, with special attention paid to the art of Christian and Jewish communities under the Fatimids.

"A Princely Pursuit" highlights more than seventy pieces from the Meissen porcelain collection of Malcolm D. Gutter. Promised to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the collection’s roughly 170 works focus on exemplary early examples from the German manufactory and trace the evolution and experimentation of Meissen wares.

In her series of images “Monkey Business” the artist Beate Passow portrays a mysterious fairy-tale world of political dimensions. The black and white images, which upon closer observation turn out to be sophisticated tapestries, question the ruling systems, economic structures, and political movements of contemporary Europe

The catalogue presents for the first time the rich Tibetan artistic heritage through the collection of Michael and Justyna Buddeberg: carpet manufacture, craftwork in metal and the manufacture of furniture. Previously neglected aspects of everyday Tibetan culture are explored and make the catalogue an essential starting point for further research.  

The Museum of Lacquer Art has what is probably the most important collection of Russian lacquer wares outside Russia. The works of art date to the period between the early nineteenth century and the 1950s, providing an extensive overview of the development of this flourishing art and craft. Monika Kopplin highlights the extraordinary variety of decorative techniques as well as the many stylistic features. The history and art history of Russia are reflected in the small format of the lacquer ...