browse tags

John Guy

Portrait of John   Guy

John Guy (b. 1949) is a maritime archaeologist, international museum curator, advisor to UNESCO archaeological preservation programs, an Indologist and art historian specializing in Hindu-Buddhist sculpture, woven textiles, and South and Southeast Asian art.

A senior curator of Indian art at the Victoria and Albert Museum of London from 1984 to 2008, he joined the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) in 2008. As Curator of the Arts of South and Southeast Asia, Department of Asian Arts, he has curated major numerous exhibitions, including Wonder of the Age: Master Painters of India (2011), Interwoven Globe (2013), Lost Kingdoms: Hindu Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia (2014), The Lion Avatar in Indian Temple Drama (2016), Y. G. Srimati and the Indian Style (2017), and Crowns of the Vajra Masters: Ritual Art of Nepal (2018). 

John Guy has conducted extensive field research on Buddhist and Hindu art of South and Southeast Asia, and participated in maritime excavations with a particular interest in the interregional ceramic and textile trade across the Indian Ocean. He has acted as an advisor to UNESCO on historical sites in Southeast Asia and worked in partnership with government archaeological agencies in Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, including at the sites of Wat Phu in Laos and My Son in Vietnam (respectively Khmer and Cham), assisting in documenting for World Heritage listing. As for maritime archaeology, he has studied several shipwreck sites such as Hoi An Vietnam, Belitung Island (Sumatra, Indonesia) and the Phanom Surin shipwreck cargo in Thailand. 

He is an elected a Fellow of the London Society of Antiquaries (since 2003) and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS).

Publications

  • “The Vietnamese Wall Tiles of Majapahit”, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society 53, 1988 – 89: 27 – 46.
  • “New Evidence for the Jagannatha Cult in Seventeenth Century Nepal”, Journal of The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 2, pt. 2, 1992: 213 – 30.
  • “The lost temples of Nagapattinam and Quanzhou: a study in Sino-Indian relations”, Silk Road Art and Archaeology 3, 1994: 291 – 310.
  • [editor] Indian Art & Connoisseurship: Essays in Honour of Douglas Barrett, Mapin Intl., 1995, 360 p.. ISBN-13‎ 978 – 8185822143.
  • [ed. with R. Scott] South East Asia and China: Art, Commerce and Interaction, Percival David Foundation Colloquies on Art and Archaeology of Asia, no. 17, University of London, 1995.
  • “The Avalokitesvara of Yunnan and some South East Asian Connections”, in R. Scott and J. Guy eds., South East Asia and China: Art, Commerce and Interaction, 1995: 64 – 83.
  • “Cloth for the gods — the patola trade to Kerala”, Asian Art and Culture, Sackler Gallery / Oxford University Press, vol. IX‑2, 1996: 27 – 37.
  • [with John Stevenson] Vietnamese Ceramics: A Separate Tradition, Chicago: Art Media Resources and Avery Press, 1997, 422 p.
  • Woven Cargoes: Indian Textiles in the East, New York: Thames and Hudson, 1998, 192 p. ISBN: 0500018634; reprint. 2009.
  • “The Kosa Masks of Champa: New Evidence”, in W. Lobo and S. Reimann eds., Southeast Asian Archaeology 1998. Proceedings of the 7th International conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists, Berlin, 1998, Berlin/​University of Hull, 2000: 51 – 60.
  • “Offering up a rare jewel: Buddhist merit-making and votive tablets in early Burma,” in R. Blurton and A. Green eds., New Researches on the Art and Archaeology of Burma, London, British Museum Publications, 2003: 23 – 33.
  • “Early Asian Ceramic Trade and the Belitung (‘Tang’) Cargo,” Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society 66, 2003: 13 – 27.
  • “The Nataraja murti and Chidambaram: genesis of a cult image”, in V. Nanda and G. Michell eds., Chidambaram: Home of Nataraja, Mumbai, Marg, 2004: 70 – 81.
  • “The Intan shipwreck: a 10th century cargo in South-east Asian waters”, in S. Pearson ed., Song Ceramics. Art History, Archaeology and Technology, University of London, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art Colloqu. on Art & Archaeology in Asia No. 22, 2004: 171 – 192.
  • [ed. with Vidya Dehejia, John Eskenazi & Daud Ali] Chola: Sacred Bronzes of Southern India, London: Royal Academy of Arts/​Thames and Hudson, 2006, 158 p. ISBN 9781903973844.
  • “The Divine Androgyne — Siva, Parvati and sexual syncretism in Indian art”, J. Menzies ed., The Goddess. Divine Energy, Sydney, Art Gallery of NSW/​Thames & Hudson, 2006: 68 – 75.
  • Indian Temple Sculpture, London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2007, 192 p. ISBN-13‎ 978 – 1851775095; repr. 2017.
  • “Rajas and Courtesans: Indian Figurative Textiles in Indonesia”, in J. Puranananda ed., Threads of Tradition. Southeast Asian Textiles, Bangkok, River Books, 2007: 40 – 57.
  • “Ornaments of Empowerment the Kundala-Subang in Old Javanese Jewellery”, Aziatische Kunst, 2008: 55 – 61.
  • “Pan-Asian Buddhism and the Bodhisattva Cult in Champa,” in Tran Ky Voung and B. Lockwood eds., New Studies in Cham History, Singapore, NUS Press, 2010: 300 – 22.
  • “Quanzhou: Cosmopolitan City of Faiths”, The World of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty, James C. Y. Watt ed., New York: MET Publication, 2010 :159 – 178 (360 p).
  • “Mahavihara Master”, in M. C. Beach, E. Fischer and B.N. Goswamy eds., Masters of Indian Painting, Zurich, Artibus Asiae, 2011: 29 – 40.
  • [with Jorrit Britschgi] Wonder of the Age: Master Painters of India, 1100 – 1900, New York: MET Publication, 2011, 224 p.
  • “A ruler and his courtesans celebrating Vasantotsava: courtly and divine love in a Nayaka kalamkari”, in N. Haidar and M. Sardar eds., Sultans of the South. Arts of the Deccan, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Yale University Press, 2011: 162 – 75.
  • “Sacred Metals in South and Southeast Asia”, in David Ekserdjian ed., Bronze, London: Royal Academy, 2012: 55 – 61.
  • “Choice Varied Flowers (Indian Painted Cloth)”, Hali 172, 2012: 78 – 81.
  • “One thing leads to another: Indian Textiles and the Early Globalization of Style”, Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade 1500 – 1800, Amelia Peck ed., New York: MET Publication, 2013: 12 – 27.
  • [editor] Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia, New York: MET/​Yale University Press, 2014, 318 p. ISBN 978 – 1‑58839 – 524‑5/ISBN 978−0−300−20437−7.
  • “The Phanom Surin Shipwreck, a Pahlavi Inscription, and their Significance for the History of Early Lower Central Thailand”, Journal of the Siam Society 105, 2017: 179 – 96.
  • “Long Distance Arab Shipping in the 9th Century Indian Ocean: Recent Shipwreck Evidence from Southeast Asia”, Current Science 117 – 10, 2019: 1647 – 1653.
  • Art and Independence: Y.G. Srimati and the Indian Style, Mapin Publishing, 2019.
  • [review] ​“Nepalese Stone Sculptures (Volume One: Hindu; Volume Two: Buddhist) By Ulrich von Schroeder, Visual Dharma Publications, 2019, 2 vols, 1567 pages, 3000 illustrations, 1 SD memory card, ISBN: 9783033063815; 3033063810”, Orientations Magazine 53 – 3, May-June 2022: 101 – 4. 

Glossary Terms

View all glossary terms →