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On a Newly Designed Digital Platform, Asia Week New York Opens with a Virtual Preview of Major Highlights from Galleries and Auction Houses March 11 at 5:00 p.m. (EST)

UTAGAWA HIROSHIGE, Toto ryogoku yusen no zu (View of pleasure boats at Ryogoku, the Eastern capital), triptych, polychrome woodcut, Japan, c.1830 (Courtesy: Hara Shobo)

New York: Asia Week New York is delighted to present a Virtual Preview of ancient and contemporary treasures from the Far East on Thursday, March 11 at 5:00 p.m. (EST); 2:00 p.m. (PST). To reserve, click here:  https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_oA86NxqZSB273qYA5C2gxw

To celebrate this exciting occasion, a panel of distinguished guest speakers will provide a preview of Asian art in their respective fields. They include: Maxwell K. Hearn, Douglas Dillon Chairman of the Department of Asian Art, Olivia Hamilton, Specialist, Head of Department, in the Chinese Works of Art department at Christie’s New York, Katherine Martin, Chairperson, Asia Week New York and Managing Director, Scholten Japanese Art, and Eric Zetterquist, principal, Zetterquist Galleries, New York.

“On behalf of everyone involved with Asia Week New York, I extend my thanks and appreciation for keeping the ball rolling during the past year,” says Katherine Martin. “We are grateful for the devoted group of galleries, auction houses, museums, curators, collectors, scholars, and the public-at-large who have stood behind us and kept us going and are optimistic that Asia Week New York will return in full force next year.”

According to Martin, Asia Week New York has created a highly sophisticated and streamlined digital platform for dealers and auction houses to present a selection of their respective highlights which can be accessed on www.asiaweekny.com, starting March 11th.

About the Panel

Maxwell K.,(Mike) Hearn Douglas Dillon Chairman, Department of Asian Art, began working at the Metropolitan Museum in 1971, helping oversee the expansion of the Met’s collection of Chinese art as well as major additions to its exhibition spaces, including the Astor Chinese Garden Court, the Douglas Dillon Galleries, and the renovated and expanded galleries for Chinese painting and calligraphy. He has worked on over 50 exhibitions and authored or contributed to numerous catalogues including The Great Bronze Age of China (1980), Splendors of Imperial China: Treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei (1996), Along the Riverbank: Chinese Paintings from the C. C. Wang Family Collection (1999), How to Read Chinese Paintings (2008) and Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China (2013). Mike, who received his undergraduate degree in art history from Yale University and his Ph.D. from Princeton, has taught graduate and undergraduate seminars on Chinese painting at Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. In 2014 he was elected a Fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Olivia Hamilton joined Christie’s in 2016 and has been in the industry for ten years. She has been instrumental in bringing to auction internationally important sales of Chinese art across a range of materials, including masterpiece Song ceramics, rare jade carvings, and the finest Ming and Qing porcelain.

Ms. Hamilton holds a Postgraduate diploma in Asian Art from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Classics at the University of Oxford, following which she studied Mandarin in Beijing. She also spent over three years in the Hong Kong office of an English law firm, qualifying as a lawyer in 2008.

Katherine Martin has been the Managing Director of Scholten Japanese Art in New York since 1999 where she has organized over fifty gallery exhibitions. Prior to consulting privately, Ms. Martin was a specialist in the Japanese Department at Sotheby's New York (1993-1999). While at Sotheby's, Ms. Martin was the primary contact for the sale of the Donna and the Late Arthur Levis Collection of Yoshitoshi Woodblock Prints (Sept. 1997, Mar. 1998), and the New York representative for the London auction of Highly Important Japanese Prints from the Henri Vever Collection in October 1997. Ms. Martin was also the specialist in charge during the series of auctions of inro, netsuke, and works of art from the Collection of the Late Charles A. Greenfield (Sept. 1997, March 1998, Sept. 1998). From 2012 she has served on the Planning Committee of the Asia Week New York Association, Inc. (AWNY), on its Board as Treasurer (2012-2017, and 2019-present), and as Chairperson of AWNY as of March 2019.

Ms. Martin has written several catalogues published by Scholten Japanese Art, including the ongoing series focused on woodblock prints, Highlights of Japanese Printmaking, for which the most recent volume, Part Six – The Baron J. Bachofen von Echt Collection of Golden Age Ukiyo-e, was released in March 2020.

Eric Zetterquist is an artist and Asian antiquities dealer. He opened his eponymous gallery in 1992 after training for ten years with dealer and photographer, Hiroshi Sugimoto. While presenting early ceramics from all of Asia, he has specialized in those from Tang through Yuan Dynasties in China, as well as 11th to 16th centuries in South East Asia and Japan.

Since the inception of his gallery, Zetterquist has mounted over 50 exhibitions and authored 14 exhibition catalogs. He has hosted numerous “handling sessions” for University undergraduate and graduate students, in the belief that ceramics should be handled to be fully understood. In 2015, Zetterquist presented “Ly Dynasty White and Brown-and-White Wares; A Visual Declaration of Independence” at the Cornell University symposium, “Vietnamese Ceramics: Objects at the Crossroads.”

As he embarks on his fourth decade as a gallerist, Eric Zetterquist looks forward to presenting the best of Asian ceramics in New York, while contributing to their understanding and appreciation in the rich tapestry of world art history.

About Asia Week New York

The collaboration of top-tier international Asian art galleries, the five major auction houses, Bonhams, Christie’s, Doyle, Heritage Auctions, iGavel, and Sotheby’s, and numerous museums and Asian cultural institutions, Asia Week New York is a week-long celebration filled with a non-stop schedule of simultaneous gallery open houses, Asian art auctions as well as numerous museum exhibitions, lectures, and special events. Participants from Great Britain, India, Italy, Japan, and the United States unveil an extraordinary array of museum-quality treasures from China, India, the Himalayas, Southeast Asia, Tibet, Nepal, Japan, and Korea.

Asia Week New York Association, Inc. is a 501(c)(6) non-profit trade membership organization registered with the state of New York. For more information visit www.AsiaWeekNewYork.com @asiaweekny #asiaweekny

About Songtsam, Presenting Sponsor

Founded by Baima Duoji, in 2000, the Songtsam Hotels, Resorts, & Tour is the only collection of luxury Tibetan-style retreats found across the Tibetan Plateau that offers guests sophisticated elegance, refined design, modern amenities, and unobtrusive service in places of natural beauty and cultural interest. With his long-standing and strong interest in Chinese, Himalayan, and Southeast Asian art, Mr. Baima started collecting art long before he established his first hotel, Songtsam Lodge Shangri-La, which is located next to the famous Songzanlin Monastery in Shangri-La. Many of the properties across the Tibetan plateau are decorated with Mr. Baima’s personal collection, with each hotel acting as a private art museum. Songtsam aims to share the beauty of humanity’s imagination and creativity with people from all over the world and has been exploring and preserving the essence of Tibetan culture, all the while maintaining a commitment to supporting economic development, local communities, environmental conservation, and sustainability within Tibet and Yunnan. For more information, visit www.songtsam.com/en