At the core of any encounter is a dialogue that can take the form of a chance meeting, an adversarial conflict, or an encounter with unknown realms or worlds. Every encounter fosters a questioning or confrontation of what is the same and what is different. What is accepted and familiar in the art and culture of any people at any time is often inconspicuous, hidden in the currents of tradition until there is an encounter with something that is different yet similar, or similar yet different. The connections or points of encounter occur across place and time, and the direction of a gaze controls how one culture sees another and how one sees oneself. Encounters draws from the arts of Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe, spanning ancient to contemporary works, and includes media ranging from painting and sculpture to calligraphy, ceramics, and photography.

Winslow Homer, American, 1836-1910: The Trysting Place, 1875. Watercolor and gouache with selective application of clear, shiny coating over traces of pastel and graphite on cream wove paper, 30.5 x 20.5 cm. Princeton University Library, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Division of Graphic Arts. Gift of the Estate of Laurence Hutton in 1913. L.61 photo: Bruce M. White

Root & Branch considers trees and branching forms in the history of art and scientific imagery—from a mythical narrative scene on an ancient Greek amphora to an eighteenth-century master drawing of an oak tree to an aerial photograph of erosion patterns in the American desert to a map charting one moment of global activity on the World Wide Web.

Thomas Cole, American, 1801-1848: Tree and Rock, 1823. Pen and black ink and graphite on cream wove paper, 22.8 x 34.2 cm. Gift of Frank Jewett Mather Jr. (x1940-84) photo: Bruce M. White.

Dancing into Dreams: Maya Vases of the Ik’ Kingdom will offer an intimate glimpse at the exceptionally painted chocolate-drinking cups of a single Maya center located in modern-day Guatemala. Ik’ vases are acknowledged particularly for their naturalistic color, veristic portraiture, skillful rendition of graceful movement, and elegantly fluid, calligraphic line. Several Ik’ vases were also signed by their painters—a convention attested in the ancient Americas only among the Maya of this region. Complementing our important holdings of Ik’ vessels with loans of select masterpieces from other museum collections, the exhibition will both elucidate the courtly politics and dynastic history of the Ik’ kingdom and reveal the vital role of master artists in these intrigues.

Guatemala, Motul de San José or vicinity, Maya, attributed to Mo…?n Buluk Laj, Late Classic, ca. A.D. 755: Shallow bowl with flared rim. Ceramic with polychrome slip, h. 8.1 cm., diam. 20.0 cm. Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund. photo: Bruce M. White. y1993-19

This exhibition explores the history and archaeology of Polis Chrysochous, a town in the Republic of Cyprus that is the site of the ancient city of Marion and its successor city, Arsinoe. Celebrating the conclusion of more than two decades of excavations at Polis by the Princeton Department of Art and Archaeology, under the direction of Professor William A. P. Childs, City of Gold will feature 110 objects lent by the Cypriot Department of Antiquities, the British Museum, and the Musée du Louvre, including splendid gold jewelry and a rare marble statue of a kouros, or nude male youth.

Greek, Attic, ca. 520-510 B.C.: Statue of a kouros (nude male youth), from Polis Chrysochous, Cyprus. Parian marble, h. 72 cm. The British Museum (1887.8-1.1). Copyright © The British Museum / British Museum Images.