KANSAS CITY, MO.- Opening on October 6, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art will present Rising Dragon: Ancient Treasures From China, an exhibition culled from recent acquisitions to the Museum’s already renowned Asian art collection. With the addition of the Nelson-Atkins’ soon-to-open Bloch Building, this is one of the early examples of the ways in which the Museum will be able to further highlight the richness of its collections and give visitors greater access to this important cultural resource. The exhibition will be installed in the new special galleries of the Bloch Building, following the inaugural exhibition Manet to Matisse: Impressionist Masters from the Marion and Henry Bloch Collection.

Reaching across the rich heritage of China’s ancient dynasties, this exhibition features never before seen new acquisitions from the Nelson-Atkins extraordinary Chinese collection. Each object tells a story of the culture, the people and their beliefs that have endured for centuries. Among the finest surviving examples, from nearly seven centuries of China’s past, these works exhibit master craftsmanship in bronze, stoneware, jade and more. A royal palace dragon stands guard, just as it did nearly five hundred years ago, beckoning visitors to discover the treasures of ancient China. The twenty-one individual works, and one large group of funerary objects, will remain on view until February 10, 2008.

Organized by Marc F. Wilson, Menefee D. and Mary Louise Blackwell Director/CEO of the Museum, and formerly curator of the Asian collection, the works represent his personal pursuit of outstanding acquisitions that would maintain the Nelson-Atkins’ leadership in the field of Chinese art collection and advance its contributions to scholarship by offering access to these great works for future generations. Stand-out objects from the exhibition include a Han Dynasty Embroidery with Scrolling Forms and bronze, turquoise and glass Directional Disc, a Qin Dynasty Brush Pot with Scene of “The Eigtheen Academicians,” whose ornately carved and lacquered surface tells the story in perfect, minute detail, and a celadon porcelain Architectural Model from the Song Dynasty, illustrates 12th cent. architecture from across the globe. Presenting the nearly five foot tall glazed ceramic Dragon-Form Roof Tile and a group of more than 20 tiny stoneware funerary objects, the exhibition shows the fascinating polarity of Chinese aesthetic interest in both the monumental and the miniature. The funerary group is also a demonstration of how Chinese artists elevated the crafting of utilitarian objects an art form as these objects would then accompany one, after death, into the afterlife.

These works will be framed by the pristine special exhibition spaces of the new Bloch Building, which opens June 9, where architect Steven Holl has designed innovative glass lenses to draw and filter the natural light which illuminates the gallery below. Rising Dragon will be another chance for the Museum staff to explore the opportunities afforded by the new space, and for Museum visitors to experience how art and architecture engage with each other in the new building.