I was lucky to get a sneak preview of the Terra Cotta warrior exhibition opening today at the National Geographic Museum. The amazing thing about seeing these right in the heart of Washington DC is that some of the exhibits are statues from the tomb of emperor Qin Shihuangdi, who ruled between 221 and 210 BC.
I think National Geographic did a great job inviting Bloggers and photographers for a preview along with the traditional press preview that they did a few days ago.
Many of these were built painstakingly and buried along with emperor Qin Shihuangdi and were discovered in 1974 outside the Chinese city of Xi'an in 1974. That ought to be the biggest discovery of the century.
According to the National Geographic Blog - “The average terra cotta warrior is 6 feet tall and weighs 300-400 lbs. Craftsmen sculpted individual facial features for each figure by hand. Many of the faces are thought to resemble the artists themselves or some real person or military figure. It is believed that no two faces are identical.”
Remember as you go through this exhibition ( They have a audio tour too) that these exhibits are from centuries ago and imagine the days in a land far away the painstaking labor and craftmanship that went into this and maybe we will all be inspired to do something great with our own day and art.
Here are my pictures from my visit yesterday. Details of the Exhibition are below.
Exhibition Title: “Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor”
Exhibition Dates: Nov. 19, 2009 – March 31, 2010
Web Site: www.warriorsdc.org
Overview: “Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor” features the largest number of terra cotta figures ever to travel to the United States for a single exhibition. The exhibition showcases 15 terra cotta figures from the tomb of China’s First Emperor, Qin Shihuangdi, who ruled from 221 B.C to 210 B.C., including nine terra cotta warriors, two musicians, a strongman, a court official, a stable attendant and a horse. The exhibition features 100 sets of artifacts in all, including weapons, stone armor, coins, jade ornaments, roof tiles and decorative bricks, and a bronze crane and swan.
Organizers: The exhibition is co-organized by the Bowers Museum, Houston Museum of Natural Science and the National Geographic Museum, and is guest curated by Dr. Albert E. Dien, professor emeritus, Stanford University.
Sponsors: The exhibition is supported by American Airlines; Amtrak; Washington, D.C.’s Loews Madison Hotel; P.F. Chang’s China Bistro; The PIMCO Foundation; UPS; Viking River Cruises; and WTOP.
Location:
1145 17th Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
Hours: The exhibition is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with extended hours on Wednesdays until 9 p.m. The National Geographic Museum is closed on Dec. 25.
Admission: Tickets are timed and dated and can be purchased online at the Buy Tickets page of the exhibition Web site www.warriorsdc.org, by phone at (202) 857-7700 and at the National Geographic Museum ticket booth located at the exhibition’s entrance or at the National Geographic ticket office, 1600 M Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.
Ticket prices are $12 for adults; $10 for seniors, students, military personnel and National Geographic members; and $6 for children ages 2-12. Children under age 2 are admitted free. A companion audio tour, offered in English, Mandarin and Spanish, is available for $5.
Prices for groups of 10 or more are $8 per ticket, and K-12 school groups are $6 per person with one free adult ticket for each group of 10 students. For more information on group sales, call (202) 857-7281.
The PIMCO Foundation will provide 200 free, same-day tickets each Wednesday evening during the exhibition’s run. These tickets will be distributed at 5:30 p.m. for the 6 p.m. viewing on a first-come, first-served basis at the museum, with a limit of two tickets per person.
Terracotta Warrior and a 4 yr old
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