The exhibition "The Lunar Year of the Horse. A Gallop through Time and Space" at the Museum of East Asian Art Cologne invites guests on a cultural and historical journey through time from December 3, 2025 to January 31, 2027. The depiction of the horse in East Asian art is the focus of the show, which is being organized to mark the lunar year of the Fire Horse in 2026.
It sheds light on the powerful motif as a symbolic animal in China, Japan and Korea. Guests can admire around 70 exhibits from the museum's own collection as well as selected loans, including paintings, woodcut prints, ceramics, porcelain, bronze sculptures, lacquer objects, ivory carvings and textiles dating from the 3rd century BC to modern times. Culture fans will discover exhibits in the exhibition halls that bring the close links between art, myth and tradition to life.
In the cultural context of China, the horse has shaped art and society for thousands of years as a status symbol, military companion and heavenly mount; the Tang and Qing dynasties in particular stand for magnificent depictions in sculpture and painting. In Japan, the significance of the horse has manifested itself since the Nara period (710-794) in Shinto rituals, samurai iconography and Japanese woodblock prints, while in Korea a national system of horse breeding existed as early as the Three Kingdoms period and horses appear above all in grave goods and ceremonial representations as a sign of authority, loyalty and status.
A special highlight of the exhibition is the artistically animated adaptation of a section from the Chinese transverse scroll Autumnal Drift Hunt by filmmaker Jie Lu, who translates the historical image of horses into moving images.
Services - MuseumsCard offer
This offer includes museum admission to the exhibition "The Lunar Year of the Horse" from December 3, 2025 to January 31, 2027 with the MuseumsCard Single for Adults or the MuseumsCard Family. The MuseumsCard can also be used to visit any number of other museums in the city of Cologne on a total of two consecutive opening days. There is a free choice:
- Museum Ludwig
- Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud
- Roman-Germanic Museum
- Museum of Applied Arts Cologne
- Museum of East Asian Art
- Museum Schnütgen
- Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum - Cultures of the World
- Cologne City Museum
- NS Documentation Center
The MuseumsCard is also valid as a ticket on the first day of validity on public transport operated by VRS partner companies within the city of Cologne.
