Exotic Encounters – Reading Two 18th Century Chintzes

The Coffee House Club
20 West 44th St
6th Floor
New York, NY 10036

Doors open 6:00pm
Lecture 6:45pm

This lecture will share the journey of discovery reading two remarkable chintzes painted on the south coast of India in the early to mid-18th century. These much travelled textiles, and the imagery they incorporate, provides a window on the dynamics of global trade and design.

John Guy, FSA, is the Florence and Herbert Irving Curator of the Arts of South and Southeast Asia at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and an elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, London.  He was formerly Senior Curator of South Asia at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and has served on the Councils of the European Associations of South Asia and Southeast Asian Archaeology and various editorial boards.  He has worked on a number of archaeological excavations, both land and maritime sites, and served as an advisor to UNESCO on historical sites in Southeast Asia.

John has authored books on many aspects of Indian and Southeast Asian art, and numerous research papers. Major books include Oriental Trade Ceramics in South East Asia (OUP 1986), Ceramic Traditions of Southeast Asia (OUP 1989), Vietnamese Ceramics: A Separate Tradition (co-author 1997), Woven Cargoes. Indian Textiles in the East (Thames & Hudson 1998; reprint 2009), Indian Temple Sculpture (V&A /Abrams, 2007), Chola – Bronzes of Southern India (Royal Academy co-author 2007), Lost Kingdoms. Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia (MMA/Yale 2014).

He has curated and co-curated many exhibitions, most recently Gods of Angkor. Khmer Bronzes from the National Museum of Cambodia (Freer-Sackler  2010), Wonder of the Age: Master Painters of India (MMA 2011), Cambodian Rattan: The Sculpture of Sopheap Pich (MMA 2013), Interwoven Globe. The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500-1800 (MMA 2013) and Lost Kingdoms. Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia, 5th to 8th Century (MMA 2014). (image: Long cloth with bizarre silk design (detail), Coromandel Coast, ca. 1710, MMA 2005.166.)