
Monstrous Beauty
A Feminist Revision of Chinoiserie
Iris Moon(Author)
Metropolitan Museum of Art (Publisher)
Published on 18. March 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-1-58839-792-8 (ISBN)
Description
Curiosity and critique foreground this novel history of porcelain that unravels the cultural myths of Chinoiserie, Europe's fantasy of the East
Monstrous Beauty presents a bold cross-cultural history of porcelain told through a feminist lens. Prized for its delicate quality and whiteness, porcelain was first imported to Europe from China in the early modern period and gained lasting associations with Chinoiserie, a style that encapsulated associations of mystery and enchantment with Asia. This book probes the collective anxieties around gender, race, and sexuality lurking under the surface of this ornate style, derided by some eighteenth-century critics as monstrous and unnatural. In interconnected essays, Iris Moon unpacks Chinoiserie's language of curiosity and exoticism. Here, close looking at garnitures, plates, teacups and saucers reveals how the desire to collect and possess porcelain created entrenched cultural myths of the Asian woman, and how it later extended into such mediums as photography and film. In addition, sixteen readings by contemporary artists and scholars, of works ranging from the sixteenth century to the present, respond to this fraught history by asking how we can engage in meaningful dialogues about Chinoiserie today.
Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press
Exhibition Schedule:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
(March 25-August 17, 2025)
Monstrous Beauty presents a bold cross-cultural history of porcelain told through a feminist lens. Prized for its delicate quality and whiteness, porcelain was first imported to Europe from China in the early modern period and gained lasting associations with Chinoiserie, a style that encapsulated associations of mystery and enchantment with Asia. This book probes the collective anxieties around gender, race, and sexuality lurking under the surface of this ornate style, derided by some eighteenth-century critics as monstrous and unnatural. In interconnected essays, Iris Moon unpacks Chinoiserie's language of curiosity and exoticism. Here, close looking at garnitures, plates, teacups and saucers reveals how the desire to collect and possess porcelain created entrenched cultural myths of the Asian woman, and how it later extended into such mediums as photography and film. In addition, sixteen readings by contemporary artists and scholars, of works ranging from the sixteenth century to the present, respond to this fraught history by asking how we can engage in meaningful dialogues about Chinoiserie today.
Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press
Exhibition Schedule:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
(March 25-August 17, 2025)
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
172 color illus.
Dimensions
Height: 263 mm
Width: 183 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
918 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-58839-792-8 (9781588397928)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Iris Moon is associate curator in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.