gems, jade, nephrite, archaic jade, Chinese jade, Hetian yu

I am pleased to offer an exhibit of beautiful jade artifacts from one of the early cultures that laid the foundation for Chinese civilization: the Hongshan culture, dating from ca. 4500 to 2700 BCE. It was centered in northern China and Inner Mongolia. This exhibit builds on an exhibit that I offered eight years ago. The essays in this catalogue highlight the fruits of the considerable research that has been done in the ensuing years. Still, much remains enigmatic about this culture and its late Neolithic jades—its enduring legacy to us. My hope is that this exhibit generates further interest in early Chinese history and art. I have always been attracted to the earliest works of art developed by a culture. They tend to be utterly original and powerful, imbued with the vibrancy of an emerging cosmology. The jade artifacts displayed in the exhibit are pleasing to behold, but they are also suggestive of the iconic motifs and symbols that would become an inherent part of Chinese civilization. This exhibit was made possible by the invaluable guidance and assistance of Dr. Elizabeth Childs-Johnson, recent Research Professor in the Department of East Asian Studies at Old Dominion University. She provided the descriptions for the objects exhibited and assisted in the editing of the catalogue. I am also indebted to Gu Fang, Researcher at the Beijing Institute on Jade Culture, to Liu Guoxiang, Senior Fellow of the Institute of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and to Frank Aon of Orenda Labs. Here at the gallery, all-important support was offered by Kraige Block.