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#                 West Meets East      

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Western paintings included in the collections of the National Museum of Asian Art illuminate the important exchange of ideas between traditions that continues to this day. James McNeil Whistler painted women in kimonos, and the titles of his works reveal that he was rethinking ideas about painting. Heavily influenced by Eastern aesthetics, his work became more abstract at a time when realism was the accepted form in the West.

This exchange of influences can be seen in Smithsonian collections through all of the arts—visual, written, performance. Design crazes for Chinoiserie and Japonisme objects may have carried ideas and concepts to the Western public, revealing an enduring, if not always accurate, interest in Asia. You can find many examples in the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum collections. Works by American artists of Asian heritage can be found in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Hirshhorn, and National Portrait Gallery collections.
  -          Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery        Variations in Flesh Colour and Green - The Balcony 
-          Smithsonian American Art Museum        Hour of Meditation 
-          Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum        The Graphic Art of Mary Cassatt 
-          Smithsonian American Art Museum        Merce C 
-          National Museum of American History        Vase 
-          Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum        Imperial Guardian Lion 
-          Smithsonian American Art Museum        Evening Glow at Mono Lake 
-          Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum        Screen 
-          Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden        Franz Joseph Kline 
-          Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum        Screen 
-          National Portrait Gallery        Jack Kerouac 
-          Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum        Textile Design: Japonisme 
-          Archives of American Art        Photograph of Chiura Obata painting 
-          Smithsonian American Art Museum        The Violet Kimono 
-          National Portrait Gallery        New York, New York 
-          Smithsonian American Art Museum        Brown Kimono (Portrait of Kathryn Beta la Forque) 
-          Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum        Vase 
-          Smithsonian American Art Museum        Zen for TV 
-          Smithsonian American Art Museum        Byrdcliffe Oak Chiffonier 
-          Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum        International Tea Party 
-          Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum        Textile 
-          Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum        The Stanwood-Mansfield 
-          Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum        Lady Nicotine 
-          National Museum of American History        Meissen tea bowl and saucer 
-          Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum        Textile 
-          Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum        Textile 
-          Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum        Salad Plate 
-          Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum        Desk 
-          Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery        Nocturne: Blue and Silver--Battersea Reach 
-          Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum        Vase 
-          National Portrait Gallery        Man in a Black Robe (Victor Hammer Self-Portrait) 
-          Archives of American Art        Mary Cassatt 
-          Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery        The Empress Dowager, Tze Hsi, of China 
-          Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum        Vase 
-          Smithsonian American Art Museum        The Lotos 
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