Portland Japanese Garden (Courtesy Portland Japanese Garden)

For centuries people have looked to nature and gardens to provide emotional support, a place to gather to mark important events in their lives, or as an escape from the finite walls of their homes. In The Luxurious Garden and the Gratification of Retreat, a distinguished panel of eminently qualified experts will discuss the origins of these luxurious spaces–designed in the Japanese and Chinese tradition–and their impact on visitors throughout the ages.

“Who at one time or another hasn’t sought out a garden to provide something that enhances their lives?” asks Andrew Lueck, Specialist, Vice President, Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art at Christie’s, who will moderate the discussion. “Whether it’s a tranquil setting at a museum, such as The Astor Court at The Met; the rolling hills of the Huntington Gardens; the waterfall at the Portland Japanese Garden; a private residential refuge; or in their absence, an evocative Japanese woodblock print of a Zen garden, outdoor settings have been providing us with areas of welcome refuge and retreat for centuries.”

Liu Fang Yuan, the Garden of Flowing Fragrance, The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA
Photograph by Phillip E. Bloom, November 2020

The panel includes:

Phillip E. Bloom, the June and Simon K.C. Li Curator of the Chinese Garden and Director of the Center for East Asian Garden Studies at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, CA. A specialist in the history of Buddhist art, gardens, and designed landscapes of China's Song dynasty (960–1279), he received his Ph.D. in Chinese art history from Harvard University in 2013. Prior to joining The Huntington, he served as assistant professor of East Asian art history at Indiana University, Bloomington, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Tokyo. His exhibition, A Garden of Words: The Calligraphy of Liu Fang Yuan, is currently on display at The Huntington.

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 many of which have become essential resources for the study of Chinese art 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.

Marc Peter Keane is a landscape architect, artist and writer based in Kyoto, Japan. His work is deeply informed by Japanese aesthetics and design: simplicity, serendipity, off-balance balance, and natural patinas. Working in situations as diverse as a 350-year-old house in Japan and a contemporary museum in the United States, he designs singular gardens that are both beautiful and contemplative. Keane is also known for his ceramic sculptures and his many books on Japanese gardens and nature including, Japanese Garden Notes, Japanese Tea Gardens, and The Art of Setting Stones.

Andrew M. Lueck has worked in the Asian art auction business for nearly two decades. He is a Specialist, Vice President, in Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art at Christie’s. He resides near San Francisco and works with West Coast collectors and institutions as well as others throughout the country and globe. He has been responsible for bringing to market notable fine Chinese works of art for sale in New York as well as Hong Kong and advises and works with some of the country’s top collectors and institutions.

Since 1999, Katherine Martin has served as the Managing Director of Scholten Japanese Art, one of New York’s preeminent galleries specializing in traditional and contemporary Japanese prints. Prior to her role as managing director, she was a specialist in the Japanese Department at Sotheby's New York, from 1993 to 1999. During her tenure, Ms. Martin was the primary contact for the sale of the Donna and the Late Arthur Levis Collection of Yoshitoshi Woodblock Prints and the New York representative for the London auction of Highly Important Japanese Prints from the Henri Vever Collection. She was also the specialist responsible for the series of auctions of inro, netsuke, and works of art from the Collection of the Late Charles A. Greenfield. Ms. Martin has written several catalogs published by Scholten Japanese Art, including the ongoing series focused on woodblock prints, Highlights of Japanese Printmaking, for which the most recent volume, Part Five-YOSHITOSHI, was released in March 2017. She recently concluded her two-year term as the chairman of Asia Week New York.

Sadafumi (Sada) Uchiyama served as Garden Curator for 2008-2020 and is currently the Chief Curator at the Portland Japanese Garden. Sada is a registered landscape architect and a fourth-generation Japanese gardener from southern Japan. He is devoted to fostering relations between Japanese gardens in Japan and those outside of Japan. He has taught landscape design courses and lectured on Japanese gardening at colleges and public gardens through the United States and Japan. His representative projects include the renovation of the Osaka Garden, the site of the 1893 Great Columbian Exposition at Jackson Park in Chicago, Japanese gardens at the Denver Botanic Gardens, Duke University in NC, and Wellfield Botanic Garden in Indiana.

To reserve a space for this webinar, click here