Valor on the Wind
February 2 - April 25, 2010

Valor on the Wind: Selected Examples of the horse in Chinese, Japanese, and Tibetan Art

February 2-April 25, 2010

Opening Reception: Friday, February 5, 2010

The Lentz Center is pleased to announce its winter/spring show, Valor on the Wind. Through selected examples, some of the roles that the horse has played in China, Japan, and Tibet will be displayed. Joining items from the Lentz collections will be items from the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon–Eugene, and from Berea College Museum of Art, Berea, Kentucky.

The exhibition title, Valor on the Wind has been chosen because it represents two of the horse’s main char-acteristics: speed and tractability. The speed of the horse captured the Chinese imagination to the extent that they sometimes associated the horse with the dragon, a beneficent creature which they thought could travel throughout the universe at will. The horse’s ability to accept training was admired by the Chinese and they began to associate the horse with man who could be educated as long as he had the expert teachers who could understand and bring out the man’s best abilities.

Domesticated during the Neolithic Period in China, the real horse has been seen in sacrifice burials from 1200 B.C.E. Gradually the real horse was replaced by clay horses (3rd.c. B.C.E.), although some use of the real horse in burial continued into the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.E.-221 C.E.) It was during the 2nd.c. B.C.E. that the Emperor Han Wudi had special large horses brought from Bactria and called them, “Heavenly horses.” He thought that the horses would carry him to immortality in the land of the mythical Queen Mother of the West, Xi Wangmu.

The horse remained important in Chinese history for war and sport. The horse in art carried with it all of its earlier associations such as the term, Heavenly horse. Sometimes silk was traded for horses from outside of China’s territory.

In Japan, horses were sometimes given to temples as sacrifices. Those who couldn’t afford to give a horse often gave ema or horse pictures on wooden boards in place of the real horse. At the time of the samurai the horse developed a special importance in the cult of the warrior. Most prominent in Tibet is the wind-horse which can be seen on prayer flags in the five Buddhist colors. The flag itself is called a wind-horse because prayers are carried on the wind.

Exhibition dates: February 2-April 25, 2010. The opening reception will be held in conjunction with the First Friday event at the Lentz Center for Asian Culture, February 5, 2010, 5:00pm-7:30pm.