Ideals of Beauty

New in theWorld of Art series is this guide to the treasures of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the national museums of Asian art at the Smithsonian Insitution inWashington DC. The museums house a spectacular array of Asian art, originally begun by the 19th-century collector Charles Lang Freer with aesthetic beauty as his sole guiding criterion, and now comprising one of the world’s most extensive collections outside Asia. The Freer Gallery also contains an important collection of 19th-century American art, featuring James McNeillWhistler’s fantastic blue-and-gold Peacock Room, perhaps one of the earliest art installations on record. The guide presents the curators’ selections of the most important and beautiful objects in the collections. An introduction by the chief curator, a timeline, maps and sections on the museums’ archives, library and conservation efforts celebrate Freer Sackler Galleries’ evolution into the 21st century.