Top Lot: Luo Zhongli (China, born 1948), Portrait of a Woman, 1987, oil on canvas,
Estimate: $30,000-50,000, sold: $162,500

Asian, Ancient, and Ethnographic Works of Art Parts I and II, iGavel
Sale dates:
Part I: April 7-April 26, 2022
Part II: April 7-April 27, 2022
Sales total: 290 lots sold for a total of $1,076,618, with buyer's premium

Strong interest in this sale preceded the auction itself last month during Asia Week New York with robust attendance to see sale highlights. Moreover, numerous additional consignments required expanding the auction to a second part and an additional day of sales.

The first and third top-selling lots were two portraits of elderly people from China's Southwest in oil by Luo Zhongli. This artist, who was born in 1948 and a native of Sichuan province, is China's most highly regarded realist painter. He is best known for his dramatically detailed and lifelike Father, painted in 1980 and now in the National Art Museum of China in Beijing. The sale of these paintings was dramatic, as conveyed by iGavel founder and president Lark Mason, “Both paintings by Luo Zhongli were bid to under $20,000 on the morning of the final day. It was in the final minutes that they rose, doubling and tripling the high estimate. These oil-on-canvas portraits, bought by the consignor’s parents in Beijing in 1987, hung on the wall together for nearly 40 years and now will be going back to Asia together to their new owner.”

L-R: Chinese Porcelain Enamel Decorated Fish Bowl, Qing Dynasty, Estimate: $3,000-5,000, sold: $123,139 and Luo Zhongli (China, born 1948), Portrait of a Man, 1987, oil on canvas, Estimate: $30,000-50,000, sold: $106,250

Similarly nail-biting was the sale of the second-most-expensive lot. This Qing-dynasty Chinese Porcelain Enamel Decorated Fish Bowl, as relayed by Mason, “…blew past its estimate range with a frenzy of bidding at the end, with eight bidders placing a total of 57 bids and pushing the lot into extended bidding for 26 minutes”. As iGavel's New York exhibition was part of this March's Asia Week, it draws this season's fair to a satisfying close of nearly $100m in total gallery and auction sales.

iGavel's website regularly publishes informative and insightful blogs. Libby Austin described the cultural and historical context that informed these portraits by Luo Zhongli in Luo Zhongli: Social Commentary through Artistic Expression . Lark Mason's essay, The Mystery of the Singular Table: An extraordinary Chinese table, not only rich in decoration, but in provenance as well, on the Chinese Gold and Silver Wire Inlaid Table in the sale, not only provided background of the furniture's production and historical context but also added provenance details and an evaluation of the item that ould only be written by a uniquely experienced veteran in the field.

To see the results of all the lots in the recent sale, click here. For additional fine works of Asian art still available for purchase in iGavel's current Fr3sh sale, click here. 

Arthur & Bond, Japanese Export Sterling Silver Tea and Coffee Service, Yokohama, early 20th century, lot 95, Estimate: $30,000-50,000

Pacific Trade Featuring Artifacts from the Collector's Cabinet, Doyle
Exhibition: April 30-May 2, 12-5pm
Live auction, May 3, 10am

Doyle will present an auction in the sale category of Pacific Trade Featuring Artifacts from the Collector's Cabinet on Tuesday, May 3, 2022 at 10am. Doyle's Pacific Trade auction in November 2021 was a success with strong international competition and a sale total that surpassed expectations.

A China Trade Painting of the Whampoa Anchorage, 19th century, oil on canvas, lot 70,
Estimate: $2,500-3,500

The upcoming auction will showcase a range of property from prominent estates and distinguished collections, including Chinese export porcelain, paintings, furniture and decorative art, Japanese and Southeast Asian art and much more.

Read more, click here

Top: Ganesh Haloi (born 1936), Untitled, 2015, gouache on handmade paper, 18.75 x 32.25 in., Akar Prakar and Bottom: Bikash Bhattacharjee (1940-2006), Untitled, 1977, oil on oil paper pasted on canvas, 302 x 44 in., DAG

India Art Fair 2022
April 28-May 1, New Delhi

After a year's pause due to Covid, this year is the 13th edition of the annual India Art Fair and is the largest fair for Indian arts and artists. The 2022 fair includes over 70 exhibitors, including art institutions, museums, and private foundations, and is being shown at the NSIC Grounds in Okhla.

Two Asia Week New York, members, Akar Prakar and DAG, are participating this year. Akar Prakar is located in booth B-10 and is displaying works by Nandalal Bose, Somnath Hore, SH Raza, Prodosh Das Gupta, Sarbari Roy Choudhury, Manish Pushkale, and Ganesh Haloi, whose works are also featured in an exhibition in Akar Prakar's Kolkata gallery. To see Akar Prakar's exhibits in the India Art Fair, click here.

Set up in Booth B-12, DAG is presenting Masterpieces: 200 Years of Indian Art, which offers a rich selection of 19th and 20th century art works from DAG's collection of modern art. Works by seventeen artists are displayed, which presents a diverse variety and informative survey. To see DAG's exhibits in the India Art Fair, click here.

Ganesh Pyne, Doors and Windows, 1967, tempera, 13 x 15 in.

From the Shadows by Ganesh Pyne, Akar Prakar
April 27-June 4, 2022
On view in person at Akar Prakar, New Delhi, and online on the gallery's website

Born and brought up in Calcutta (present-day Kolkata) in 1937, Ganesh Pyne spent years of his life in a crumbling mansion in Kabiraj Row. Growing up during hard and turbulent times in the country, he found his reprieve from the dark reality outside in the mythologies and folktales narrated by his grandmother, Nandarani. The fantastical world created by her -stories became the basis of his artistic language years later.

Pyne’s process and practice reflected in this exhibition of largely small format works is a passage into the mystical visual world created by him. The imageries carry within it the fantastical mind of the introverted and sensitive soul. The resoluteness to his art and the commitment to evolution in his practice are both exemplified in this exhibit of an artist regarded as a modern master in the history of Indian Art. From the Shadows aims to illuminate these rare works and archives including postcards, drawings, book illustrations, watercolours and a sneak peek into his personal diary from the 1960s. Offering a unique opportunity to view his life and work and understand the inner workings of the recluse artist's mind and art, almost a decade after his passing.

Read more, click here

L-R: Arnold Chang and Michael Cherney, whose collaborative artworks are in Ink Affinities.

Ink Affinities: A Conversation between Arnold Chang, Michael Cherney, and
Dr. Wen-shing Chou
Online program, Thursday, April 28, 8pm EDT
Organized and moderated by Fu Qiumeng

Fu Qiumeng Fine Art welcomes the painter Arnold Chang, based in New Jersey, and the photographer Michael Cherney, based in Beijing, and the art historian Dr. Wen-shing Chou, to join in a conversation of Chang and Cherney's recent exhibition curated by Fu Qiumeng. Next week is the final days for this show, Ink Affinities 墨缘: The Collaborative Works of Arnold Chang and Michael Cherney.

Read more, click here

Jonathan Yukio Clark (born 1987), Sakura in Volcanic Landscape, 2022, monotype print on washi, koa, sugi, tinted hydrocal, 21 x 62 x 5.5 in. (53.3 x 157.5 x 14 cm.) © Jonathan Yukio Clark, Courtesy:
MIYAKO YOSHINAGA, New York

“In the Space of the Near and Distant”- Solo Exhibition by Jonathan Yukio Clark
MIYAKO YOSHINAGA
Concludes April 30

MIYAKO YOSHINAGA organized for Asia Week this successful solo exhibition by Hawaiʻi-based Japanese-American artist Jonathan Yukio Clark. The artworks on view consist of monotype prints and sculptures informed by the traditional Japanese living space, where the transience of nature and human life are closely connected through, for example, a garden which “borrows” the scenery of the outside landscape. For Clark, the concept of borrowed scenery or shakkei means not only the visual borrowing of expansive vistas framed through such gardens or architectural features, but also the spiritual incorporation of impermanence into the stability of built or inhabited spaces.

The gallery is open from 11am to 6pm and located on East 64th Street in Manhattan. Read more, click here

The Magic of Zen, United Nations
On view now through April 29
South Lobby of the Secretariat Building

In celebration of Chinese Language Day, which takes place annually on April 20th, the Chinese Translation Service in association with the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the UN and the UNSRC Chinese Book Club organized an exhibition entitled The Magic of Zen. On display are traditional ink paintings and calligraphy by Wang Fangyu, Wang Dongsheng, Wang Mansheng, Fung Ming Chip, Jin Xufan, Tang Ke, Hai Tao, Tai Xiangzhou, and Cai Dong. These works illustrate Zen aesthetics such as mystique, tranquility, depth, elegance, and simplicity while reflecting the Chinese painting ideology of “drawing artistic inspiration from both within and without.” Five of these artists are represented by AWNY member Fu Qiumeng Fine Art.

Language Days at the United Nations seek to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity, as well as to promote equal use of all six official languages throughout the organization. Chinese was established as an official language of the UN in 1946 and became a recognized working language in 1973. Chinese Language Day is held each year on April 20th, which is called guyu (“rain of millet”) in the traditional Chinese calendar and pays tribute to the historian Cangjie (circa 2667 BCE–2596 BCE), who is credited with inventing Chinese characters. Legend has it that he had four eyes and that when he created characters, the deities and ghosts cried and the sky rained millet.

Read more, click here

Chinese Powder Blue Porcelain Teapot, Kangxi period (1662-1722), 4 1/2 in.

The Philadelphia Show, Ralph M. Chait Galleries
April 29-May 1
Preview Party April 28
The Philadelphia Show is known for exceptional quality and integrity, and this year, for the first time, will be held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Over forty of our nation's most outstanding antique dealers and fine art galleries exhibit the best selections in antiques. fine art, Americana, period furniture, folk art, ceramics, porcelain, silver, jewelry, textiles and decorative arts.

Read more, click here

Madhvi Parekh, Sea God, 1971, oil on canvas, 48.0 x 72.2 in.

With the confluence of Asia Week New York and Women’s History Month, Josheen Oberoi, Vice President and Director of DAG’s New York branch, was inspired to suggest to the DAG global team the idea to assemble an exhibition of works by Indian women artists. The result, curated and led by Kishore Singh, Senior Vice President and Head of Exhibitions and Publications, is the exhibition A Place in the Sun: Women Artists from 20th Century India, on view at DAG’s NY gallery in the Fuller Building until May 28th. While this plan met the immediate goal of presenting a multifaceted and engaging exhibition of works by several accomplished Indian modern artists, many of which have now been sold, it also supported Oberoi’s goal to expand awareness, especially in the United States, of the work of this overlooked cohort.

Josheen Oberoi is a gallerist and curator based in New York. Prior to joining DAG, an international gallery that specializes in South Asian modern art, Oberoi worked as Director at Tyler Rollins Fine Art, with a focus on contemporary Southeast Asian art; Saffronart, as a Specialist in South Asian Art; and Bodhi Art as a gallerist and Associate Curator. She also worked for Miditech, where she helped produce documentary series on Indian art and architecture and other projects for the BBC. She has an MA in medieval Indian history from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and an MA in South Asian art history from Florida State University.

Zarina Hashmi, Untitled, serigraph on paper, 1971

Despite the recognition of a few women artists, both through exhibitions such as those devoted to Zarina Hashmi and Mrinalini Mukherjee, and the inclusion of Arpita Singh in Asia Society’s Triennial in 2020, and through auctions where works by artists such as Amrita Sher-gil have recently sold for approximately US$5million, viewers in the U.S. have little chance to see or learn about artists such as those included in DAG’s current show. A Place in the Sun focuses on artists who lived and worked primarily in the mid to late 20th century, who have often been overlooked, as they fall between the artists who emerged before them at the beginning of the modern period and those that came after them as part of the contemporary art expansion. Some better known artists, including Zarina, whose name people recognize, are included alongside lesser known ones, such as Anupam Sud and Madhvi Parekh, that expands the audience’s knowledge of the field. By deliberately limiting the number of artists represented to ten, and by including several works by each, the exhibition is better able to demonstrate each artist’s breadth.

Oberoi feels strongly that education and presenting information in a variety of forms are key in the long term. Therefore, this exhibition is accompanied by and related to several informative productions. A Place in the Sun has an extensive online catalogue, available here. Similarly, DAG has produced a monograph on the artist Gogi Saroj Pal. Oberoi also presented an overview of the exhibition to the Foreign Press Association in a recorded conversation with Sarab Zavaleta. An example of the challenging thoughts that were discussed was to consider how unusual in world art history it is for a male model to be presented as Anupam Sud did in Couch Potato (to watch the recording, click here.)

L-R: DAG’s publication on the work of Gogi Saroj Pal; Josheen Oberoi presenting DAG New York’s current exhibition for the Foreign Press Association in March.

In future, Oberoi and the DAG team are planning more exhibitions of great art, varied and informative programs, and personal outreach to “make information and resources available” and thereby “create access” for more people to discover and enjoy the inspired and inspiring work of India’s modern women artists. In the near term, for example, Oberoi is planning a walkthrough with a NY curator and a talk by an academic that investigates the interface between women in cinema and art in the early and mid 20th century. (Stay tuned here and to DAG's website for more details.)

Anupam Sud, Couch Potato, etching and aquatint on paper, 2007