Early Khmer Art Collecting in American Museums
RSVP not required, but appreciated.
Nicolas Revire, the Art Institute of Chicago
This presentation explores the early collecting of Khmer art from ancient Cambodia by major U.S. encyclopedic museums, focusing on institutions such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and The Art Institute of Chicago. These museums played a pivotal role in shaping the Western perception of Southeast Asian art, particularly Khmer art, in the first half of the 20th century. By reviewing significant acquisitions made over a century ago, this talk will examine how Khmer sculptures, architectural fragments, and ritual objects entered these collections.
The presentation will also delve into the key figures—collectors, art dealers, curators, and scholars—who were instrumental in acquiring these objects. Individuals such as art dealer C.T. Loo, collector Denman Waldo Ross, and curator Ananda Coomaraswamy, among others, had a profound influence on the early introduction of Khmer art to the West. Through these case studies, the talk will highlight the complex dynamics of early collecting, including the geopolitical and colonial contexts of their circulation, and the ethical questions surrounding their provenance or origins. The presentation will invite reflection on how these early practices continue to shape the way Khmer art is viewed, exhibited, and understood in American museums today.
Nicolas Revire holds a doctoral degree from the Université Paris 3–Sorbonne nouvelle in France. He specializes in the Hindu‒Buddhist art and archeology of early Southeast Asia, with a research focus on Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia. He is general editor of Before Siam: Essays in Art and Archaeology (2014) and Decoding Southeast Asian Art: Studies in Honor of Piriya Krairiksh (2022). After nearly two decades of teaching and research at Thammasat University in Bangkok, he is presently the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Senior Research Fellow at the Art Institute of Chicago, serving both the Departments of Arts of Asia and Curatorial Documentation and Research. He is also the managing editor of the Journal of the Siam Society.
Please contact Jorge Espada at jorge_espada@harvard.edu with any questions.