Monstrous Beauty

Name: Monstrous Beauty
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SKU: 9781588397928
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A Feminist Revision of Chinoiserie

By Iris Moon

Brief 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... Read More

Format: Paperback / softback

$59⁹⁹

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Monstrous Beauty

$59⁹⁹

Curiosity and critique foreground this novel history of porcelain that unravels the cultural myths of Chinoiserie, Europe's fantasy of the East

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)

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781588397928

Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 18 March 2025

Country: United States

Imprint: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Illustration: 172 color illus.

Contributors:

Contributions by Cindy Kang
Contributions by Ronda Kasl
Contributions by Eleanor Hyun
Contributions by Elizabeth Cleland
Contributions by Anne Anlin Cheng
Contributions by Patricia Ferguson
Contributions by Patty Chang
Contributions by Marlise Brown

Audience: Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Width: 184.0mm

Height: 267.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 256

Collections

Arts & Culture Iris Moon Non-Fiction

About the Author

Iris Moon is associate curator in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.