ART Connoisseurs - Brussels

Thanks to the study of a selection of Buddhist art objects preserved in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, it is possible to explain and illustrate the close links between these images (Dvaravati art, Preangkorian Khmer statuary, art of Champa) and the Indian prototypes that generated them. These iconographical and stylistic links will be illustrated and studied thanks to a florilege of masterpieces from Southeast Asia statuary (c. 6th to 10th century).

In charge of the Southeast Asian art department of the Musée Guimet since 1996, Pierre Baptiste is an art historian and researcher. Teacher at the Faculty of Archaeology of the Royal University of Cambodia, Phnom Penh (1998-2002) and the Ecole du Louvre, Paris, he directed the renovation of the Southeast Asian galleries at the Guimet (1996-2001).

Author of several essays, and articles devoted to the arts of Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand, he participated to the scientific direction of books in this field, such as (Missions archéologiques françaises au Vietnam – 1903-1904, 2005 ; Catalogue des collections khmères du musée Guimet, 2008). He curated exhibitions on several aspects of the arts of Southeast Asia, suche as : Trésors d’art du Vietnam - La statuaire du Champa, 2004 ; Dvâravatî : Aux sources du Bouddhisme en Thaïlande, 2009. He organised an exhibition on Louis Delaporte and the so-called rediscovery of Angkor (Angkor Naissance d’un Mythe – Louis Delaporte et le Cambodge, 2013) and recently curated an exhibition with Vietnam on the iconography of the Dragon (L’Envol du Dragon – Art royal du Vietnam).