The Nelson Atkins Museum is a beautiful art museum in Kansas City, Missouri. We had the opportunity to visit their Lunar New Year Celebration for the Year of the Dragon. There was plenty of music and dancing, tasty food, and art exhibits.
We enjoyed the sculpture. This lion was a guardian for an ancient Chinese palace.
Some of the pieces were religious. The statue below is “Kuan-Yin of the southern seas,” the Chinese Buddhist deity of compassion and mercy.
In addition to the large sculptures, there were also reliefs, flat sculptures like this one:
Sinuous curves and graceful poses characterize the people in these artworks.
Many of the animals looked ferocious.
But some of them, like this camel, seemed humorous.
We can imagine that this camel is intended to be fierce — but maybe it’s laughing.
One of the exhibits looked at Chinese clothing from the past.
The painting below shows women in flowing robes.
The actual garments on display looked more structured. They were all very elaborate. It must have taken hundreds of hours to construct them by hand.
Some of the pieces were quite simple — but still very beautiful, like these porcelain dishes.
The treasures from this ancient culture were very impressive.
