“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
– Lao Tzu
Sites/Topics covered in this post:
- MNAAQ
Go-Date: Day 128, Thursday, May 30
Lesson Learned: Always, always carry an umbrella with you in Paris…..always! I can count on a single hand the days which not a drop of rain fell while we’ve been here. Oh, not much most of the time, but enough to make you look like a soggy Persian cat.
Quickest Way to Get to Asia from Paris
Created in 1889 by Emile Guimet, the museum has continued to expand and enrich its collections and diversify. The museum was displaying five thousand years of Asian arts on our visit. The museum building itself is rather amazing as its housed in an 18th century building, yet when you enter its as if the building was erected only 20 years ago. It’s spaces with show clean design with contemporary materials and you find a mix of contemporary artists around the corner of a room next to 2,000 year old antiques. From Buddhas of Afghanistan to Zen monks of Japan, Indian fabrics with samurai armor, treasures from Angkor to the fine arts of China, the Guimet Museum offers unique collections, which are all opportunities for meditation, aesthetic, or exploratory in the heart of Asia. Renovated in a masterful and contemporary way, it is the largest European museum entirely devoted to Asian arts. We really didn’t know what to expect when we entered, and I’ll state that this facility was an exceptional surprise. (information from the museum guide)
The Collections
• Military & Ceremonial Arms
• Graphic arts
• Bronzes
• Ceramics
• Interior Decorations
• Drawings
• Prints
• Historical Artifacts
• Manuscripts
• Furniture
• Objects of everyday life
• Objects of worship
• Paintings
• Religions of the Far East
• Sculptures
• Performing Arts Items
• Textiles
Collection periods
• Ancient Rome (7th BC to 5th AD)
• Paleochristian (1st – 4th)
• Byzantium (4th – 15th)
• Middle Ages (5th – 15th)
• Roman (Xth – XIIth century)
• Baroque (16th – 17th)
• Rococo (eighteenth)
• Neoclassicism (18th – 19th centuries)
• Romanticism (18th – 19th century)
• Realism (nineteenth)
• Impressionism (nineteenth)
• Symbolism (XIXth century)
• Fauvism (twentieth)
• Cubism (twentieth)
• Modernism (20th)
• Expressionism (20th)
• Futurism (20th)
• Dadaism (twentieth)
• Surrealism (twentieth)
• Abstraction (twentieth)
• Movement (20th)
The National Museum of Asian Arts has the largest collection of Asian art in Europe. I can’t verify this claim, but there is more Asian art here than we saw at the Lourve, though we may have to check that out again on a second visit. Created at the initiative of Emile Guimet (1836 – 1918), industrialist and scholar, the museum began in Paris in 1889, houses collections of Asian art of all geographies and civilizations, gathered through many journeys through the world. world, marking milestones in Japan, China and India (it appears Emile spent more time traveling than working….good for him).
The building underwent a massive renovation – exterior and interior – from 1996 to 2000. Though the exterior was restored, not replaced. The interior was gutted and completely redone. Now, when you look out of the windows of the modern space its like a time machine to the 1700s. Since its reopening in 2001, 6,000 works are thus newly presented on 4 entirely contemporary levels. Be prepared to walk up four flights of stairs, but they are wide with good lighting and easy steps. Which is something I can’t claim for all the museums we’ve visited on this journey.
There’s not much else to say other than the pictures tell a far better story than I ever could. This museum sits on a hill on Trocadero Square not a stones throw away from the Eiffel Tower. You can’t miss it, its located right across the street from the statue of George Washington. It’s a shame that people spend so much time looking over at the Left Bank that they don’t take the time to explore this little gem. If there were other Americans in the museum, I didn’t hear them. Take some time away from the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, and Champ Elysee and spend a few hours inside this little treasure.
