Empire of the Art

It’s no secret that the contemporary art world is marveling at China’s booming market. More often than not, when the hammer comes down at the top-drawer auction houses, the big news is that a previously unknown Chinese talent has just set a staggering sales record with one of his glossy new paintings. But what about China’s vast history that boasts rich, cultural traditions that made the Asian nation the envy of the civilized world during the 17th and 18th centuries, when Chinese commodities such as pottery and porcelain became highly coveted by Europeans? That history is the subject of “China’s Last Empire: The Art and Culture of the Qing Dynasty,” a new exhibit at the University of Miami’s Lowe Art Museum (1301 Stanford Dr., Coral Gables), which houses one of the most expansive holdings of ancient Chinese art in the region. The sprawling exhibit examines this last imperial period in China’s long and distinguished history and is organized in four distinct themes: imperial, literati, beliefs, and interactions. On view are treasures such as an imperial court robe, a seal box, official badges of rank, religious artifacts, and a never-before-exhibited 18th-century Italian watercolor of a Chinese procession in the capital city of Beijing. Forget those gaudy Chinese works making all the noise these days. At the Lowe, you can discover dazzling historical objects that are both timeless and priceless.
Tuesdays-Sundays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Starts: July 1. Continues through Oct. 19, 2014