Skip to content

Curator’s Lecture – Alfred Pillsbury’s Collection of Ancient Chinese Bronze

March 6, 2025

6:30 - 8:00 PM

This lecture traces the formation of Alfred Pillsbury’s collection during the early 20th century and offers updated perspectives on many masterpieces from this remarkable assemblage. For more information and tickets, please contact Tracy Jiao at [email protected].
 
Alfred Pillsbury’s Collection of Ancient Chinese Bronzes at Mia
In the early 20th century, Alfred Pillsbury, guided by personal taste and self-taught connoisseurship amassed a remarkable collection of Chinese objects. Among these, his collection of approximately 150 ancient Chinese bronzes, dating from the late Shang to the Zhou dynasties (c. 13th–3rd centuries BCE), stands out for its depth, rarity, and exceptional aesthetic quality. Now housed permanently at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), Pillsbury’s collection is widely regarded as one of the finest assemblages of ancient Chinese bronzes in the United States, celebrated for its stylistic diversity, beauty, and pristine condition.
 
This lecture traces the formation of Pillsbury’s collection during a period when the antiquities market shifted from Europe to the United States, leading American collectors to recognize bronze as one of the most brilliant achievements of Chinese civilization. Pillsbury’s collection, along with other significant assemblages, was shaped by this burgeoning appreciation for Chinese bronzes. Drawing on recent archaeological discoveries and new scholarship, the lecture offers updated perspectives on many masterpieces from Pillsbury’s collection. Most of these works will be featured in the China Institute’s upcoming exhibition, Eternal Offering.
 
https___cdn.evbuc.com_images_951435763_2096883500443_1_original
Detail of food vessel gui , early Western Zhou dynasty (1046 – 771 BC), Bequest of Alfred F. Pillsbury.

“Eternal Offerings: Chinese Ritual Bronzes from the Minneapolis Institute of Art” is organized by the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Generous support for the exhibition and related catalogue provided by the Blakemore Foundation, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor, the Bei Shan Tang Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, and Christie’s.

China Institute Gallery’s presentation of “Eternal Offerings” is made possible, in part, by support from the following: Center for Language Education and Cooperation; E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation; Angela H. King, Joseph Tse Foundation; and an anonymous donor.
Speaker
Dr. Liu Yang

Chair of Asian Art and Curator of Chinese Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia). He earned his Ph.D. in Art History and Archaeology from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Before joining Mia, Dr. Liu was Senior Curator of Chinese Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales. Since 1998, he has curated over a dozen traveling exhibitions from China and authored or co-authored numerous books, three of which have won awards. Notable exhibitions include “Power and Beauty in China’s Last Dynasty” (2018) and “Eternal Offerings: Chinese Ritual Bronzes” (2023), and collaborations with Robert Wilson and Tim Yip. Dr. Liu is also an Advisory Committee member for the China Center at the University of Minnesota and the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts.

Donate Now Subscribe