Treasure Ships : Art in the Age of Spices

Adelaide : Art Gallery of South Australia, 2014. Folio, illustrated laminated boards, pp. 352, extensively illustrated.

Treasure Ships: Art in the age of spices is the first exhibition in Australia to present the complex artistic and cultural interactions between Europe and Asia from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries – a period known as the ‘Age of Spices’.

The catalogue includes 300 outstanding and rarely-seen works of ceramics, decorative arts, furniture, metalware, paintings, prints and textiles from public and private collections in Australia, India, Portugal, Singapore and the United States.

The works of art selected reveal how the international trade in spices and other exotic commodities inspired dialogue between Asian and European artists, a centuries old conversation whose heritage is the aesthetic globalism we know today.