Faces of Asia at the Sackler (7/1 - 9/4/06)--I will be in Virginia from 7/20-7/25 visting my wife's family in the Shenandoah Valley, but hope to run over to D.C. to take in this exhibit at the Sackler. Yesterday's Washington Post article framed the exhibit this way: "It's a mistaken notion that portraiture is a uniquely, or even predominantly, Western tradition, a notion reinforced, if inadvertently, by the newly reopened National Portrait Gallery, whose purview is exclusively American. By all means, visit the refurbished and revitalized Old Patent Office Building, which just opened this month after a 6 1/2 -year renovation, for a taste of portraiture of Americans past and present. Then stop by the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery for "Facing East: Portraits From Asia." There, you'll encounter some of the same issues and questions posed by the National Portrait Gallery about the nature and purpose of portraiture -- plus a few new ones. It's all in a small but thoughtful exhibition of historical works from Japan, China, Iran, India, Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Yemen and Nepal, and contemporary pieces by the Korean-born Do-ho Suh and the Iraqi-born Jannane al-Ani." The Sackler's excellent website <http://www.asia.si.edu/ includes podcasts of Asian music and Silk Road-related scholarship as well.