Monstrous Beauty

Curiosity and critique foreground this novel history of porcelain that unravels the cultural myths of Chinoiserie, Europe's fantasy of the East

Monstrous Beauty presents a bold cross-cultural history of porcelain told through a feminist lens. The delicate material prized for its whiteness was first imported to Europe from China in the early modern period and gained lasting associations with Chinoiserie, a style that encapsulated European fantasies of the East. This volume probes the collective anxieties around gender, race, and sexuality lurking under the surface of an ornate style, derided as an effeminate fantasy that was monstrous and unnatural. Through critical essays on objects from the sixteenth century to the present, leading scholars unravel Chinoiserie's language of curiosity and exoticism, and how the desire to collect and possess porcelain created trenchant cultural myths of the Asian woman with a long afterlife in photography and film. Works by contemporary artists respond to this fraught history by asking how we can engage in meaningful dialogues about Chinoiserie today.

Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press

Exhibition Schedule:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

(March 24-August 17, 2025)