On the left is Zhang Daqian's forgery of a painting by Bada Shanren, Four Geese, vertical scroll, ink on paper, pictured on the right behind Fu Qiumeng

Although Asia Week New York’s youngest member, Fu Qiumeng is impressive in the diverse experience she has already acquired and in her vision for her gallery’s future. A native of Chengdu, Fu, who also uses the name Mona, encountered Chinese traditional paintings and calligraphy at a young age in the company of her father and grandfather, both avid collectors. She also started painting while still a child. However, she initially started a career in advertising until Fu realized she was meant to work in the arts.

In 2012 Fu began working for Yang Wu and Zeng Yiyan, a noted ink painter, calligrapher, and connoisseur, at their Bao Rui Ying International Auction Company in Beijing. Because the house was just starting, Fu was involved in all aspects of work and quickly gained a wide range of experience. In 2014 she enrolled at Northwestern University for an M.S. in Leadership in Creative Enterprises. After moving to New York, Fu garnered more experience by working for Lark Mason Associates and studying painting with scholar-artist Arnold Chang. But perhaps most influential was her time spent at the contemporary Southeast Asian art gallery Tyler Rollins Fine Art in Chelsea; as it was there Fu learned how to position Asian tradition in the realm of the contemporary art world. She determined to utilize strategies from this robust and active part of the art market to promote East Asian contemporary art characterized by a connection to China’s rich tradition and opened her own gallery in 2016. (For the gallery website, click here.)

View of Fu Qiumeng Fine Art’s main gallery during the exhibition Nothing but Recollection: Hisao Hanafusa, 2021

Now working in her gallery, which is well situated on 80th Street just a few blocks from the Met, Fu Qiumeng presents several exhibitions and events each year that feature the works of contemporary artists connected to the visual art history tradition. During March Asia Week, Fu exhibited the popular collaborative works of Arnold Chang and Michael Cherney in Ink Affinities (for more details, click here). Their innovative works combine the photograph details of China’s topography taken by Cherney, who lives in Beijing, with the traditional ink paintings of Chang, who is based in New Jersey. These collaborations create not only visually appealing images but epitomize Fu’s interest in engaging varied media and avoiding pigeonholes of ethnicity. Fu’s current show, Moonlight on Stones, presents the work of NY-based painter and calligrapher Wang Mansheng (for more details, click here). As Wang’s works and background are deeply steeped in Chinese traditional literature, Fu invited Dr. Chao Ling, Assistant Professor in the Department of Chinese and History, City University of Hong Kong, to curate the show. Fu seeks to engage the research, ideas, and voice of young scholars to imbue her exhibitions both with interdisciplinary insights and added layers of depth, while providing these specialists with a welcome platform and audience.

L-R: Arnold Chang and Michael Cherney, Da Ming Mountain Study #2, 2021, photography and ink on xuan paper, mounted on paper and Wang Mansheng, Celestial Lake on Mountain’s Top, 2013, ink, walnut ink, tempera, acrylic on paper

Fu Qiumeng Fine Arts expends much energy on preparing and sharing research and information about Chinese paintings and calligraphy. Fu productively spent the months of Covid isolation investigating in great depth the preeminent scholar and artist Wang Fangyu’s studies of the work of Bada Shanren. The result was the highly informative and thought-provoking exhibition Authentic or Forgery: How Does a Chinese Connoisseur Work?, presented from December 2020 to January 2021 (for more details, click here).  In addition to regular in-person and online lectures and numerous essays and news items on their website, the gallery also participates in wùgé publishing, which integrates art, scholarship, design, and bookmaking.

Yau Wing Fung, Riding Mist XXI, 2022, ink and color on paper

Fu Qiumeng will continue to feature the work of young artists this summer with their upcoming summer group show The Rain Freshens. On view July 29 through September 3, this show includes paintings by four vibrant ink artists of the new generation: Yau Wing Fung (born 1990), Chen Duxi (born 1983), Zhang Xiaoli (born 1989), and Zhang Yirong (born 1979), who explore and reinterpret classical codes and practices.

When asked why she decided to establish her gallery in New York, Fu Qiumeng noted that this city is the most vibrant in the U.S. for Chinese art, as there are several museums with exceptional collections and events, important university programs, and an active Chinese art community. Moreover, it is one of the world centers for contemporary art. Where better to build bridges between “east and west, contemporary art and traditional?”

For an engaging interview with Fu Qiumeng and Artnet, click here.

Artist Talk: Heeseop Yoon, Korea Society
Online program, July 12, 2022, 5pm EDT

Although her intricate installations are often so large that they spread over walls onto ceilings and floors, Heeseop Yoon, whose solo exhibition Agglomeration is on view at The Korea Society Gallery through August 25, thinks of her work as freehand drawings. All of Yoon’s works are based on real spaces with vast messes, such as basements, workshops, storage spaces, or “places where everything is jumbled and time becomes ambiguous without the presence of people.” Based on photographs, Yoon draws freehand without erasing; based on her own drawings, she creates her enlarged wall drawings using black tapes. In the final installation, her miscalculations and corrections are visible, as Yoon is interested in how memory and perception constantly adjust both for herself and for her viewer, and the paradox that the more she corrects her work, the less legible the drawing becomes. In this video presentation, Yoon discusses her career and work.

Read more and register, click here.

The Emperors Babur and Humayun, Folio from the Late Shah Jahan Album, Mughal dynasty, ca. 1640, opaque watercolor and gold on paper mounted on board, Purchase—Smithsonian Unrestricted Trust Funds, Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program, and Dr. Arthur M. Sackler

For those who are unable to visit the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. in person, the museum's website offers a rich array of online exhibitions and educational materials for enrichment and enjoyment. Two online exhibitions that are currently available explore the art associated with Mughal emperor Babur and the Sogdians of Central Asia.

Writing My Truth: The Mughal Emperor Babur
The founder of India’s Mughal dynasty (1526–1858), Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur (1483–1530), rose from origins as a Central Asian princeling to rule a vast empire stretching across today’s Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. Over the course of his extraordinary life, he wrote a memoir known as the Baburnama, weaving incisive observations on art and nature into recollections of love, war, and political alliances. Babur’s grandson, the Mughal emperor Akbar (reigned 1556–1605), later commissioned the translation Writing My Truth: The Mughal Emperor Babur brings together Persian paintings from Babur’s lifetime with Mughal paintings from 1580 to 1650, when his autobiography was illustrated and circulated.

To explore this exhibition, click here.

Camel with Musicians, Tang dynasty (618–907), glazed earthenware, H. 58.4 cm,
National Museum of China, Beijing

The Sogdians: Influencers on the Silk Roads
The Sogdians: Influencers on the Silk Roads is a new digital exhibition that explores Sogdian art through existing material culture. It focuses on the golden age of the Sogdians, from the fourth to the eighth centuries CE, when Sogdiana flourished through trade and agriculture. Sogdian emigrant communities spread across China, South and Southeast Asia, and into the Central Asian steppe and Mongolia. During these centuries, a highly sophisticated and distinct Sogdian urban culture developed, epitomized by richly colored wall paintings and exceptional textiles, metalwork, and sculptures. Various dimensions of Sogdian culture, from art, music, and feasting to religious and funerary practices, are presented in this digital exhibition. New 3-D models of metalwork objects, photographs of archaeological sites, and international scholarship reveal new details about these forgotten people.

To investigate this exhibition, click here.

Miracle, Mountain, Museum: Curator Sonya Mace on Revealing Krishna,
National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution
Live program, Friday, July 8, 2022, 5:30–6:30pm

The exhibition Revealing Krishna: Journey to Cambodia’s Sacred Mountain, currently on view at the National Museum of Asian Art, transports visitors to a sacred mountain in the floodplains of southern Cambodia. The exhibition showcases a monumental sculpture of the Hindu god Krishna lifting Mount Govardhan to protect his people from a torrential storm sent by an angry god. Sonya Rhie Mace, the George P. Bickford Curator of Indian and Southeast Asian Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art, reveals in this illustrated lecture how provenance research and conservation over the last decade have led to new, awe-inspiring insights into the meaning and context of this monumental Cambodian masterpiece.

This talk is part of the event Afterhours@NMAA: Summer Festival and offers a variety of activities, including evening hours in the galleries, art and music from across Asia with performances, artist demos, and a special movie screening. Food and cocktails will be available.

Read more and register, click here

Sueharu Fukami (born 1947), Firmament, 2013, wheel-thrown porcelain with seihakuji glaze,
D. 23 in. (58 cm)

NOMAD Capri, Thomsen Gallery
July 6-10, 2022

Thomsen Gallery is now participating at NOMAD Capri, a new destination of the international art fair for collectible design and contemporary art. Taking place in the historic 14th-century monastery Certosa Di Capri on Capri, Italy, Thomsen's exhibition offers a select group of works by the renowned Japanese porcelain sculptor Sueharu Fukami, maki-e lacquer boxes by the Kyoto lacquer artist Yoshio Okada, and Japanese bamboo ikebana baskets by the great master Iizuka Rōkansai.

If you are fortunate enough to be on Capri, do visit Thomsen's display in Room 7 of Certosa Di Capri. For complimentary admission tickets, please register here.

Trefoil-shaped covered box with decoration of chrysanthemums, ca. 12th century, lacquer inlaid with mother-of-pearl and tortoise shell over pigment, brass wire, 1 5/8 in. (4.1 cm), L. 4 in (10.2 cm), D. 1 3/4 in. (4.4 cm). Fletcher Fund, 1925 (25.215.41a,b)

Shell and Resin: Korean Mother-of-Pearl and Lacquer,
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Last day July 5th

Lacquerware with mother-of-pearl inlay has a long and rich tradition in the history of Korean art. This show showcases nearly thirty outstanding works of Korean lacquerware from The Met collection to highlight the distinctive materiality of lacquer and mother-of-pearl. The exhibition begins with a twelfth-century trefoil box, noteworthy for its rarity, and follows the traditional to the present with contemporary works by master artists.

Pillow in the shape of an infant boy, Qing dynasty (1644–1911), 18th–19th century, jadeite.
Gift of Heber R. Bishop, 1902

A Passion for Jade: The Bishop Collection
July 2, 2022–February 16, 2025
More than a hundred remarkable objects from the Heber Bishop collection, including carvings of jade, the most esteemed stone in China, and many other hardstones, are on view in this focused presentation. The refined works represent the sophisticated art of Chinese gemstone carvers during the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) as well as the highly accomplished skills of Mogul Indian (1526–1857) craftsmen, which provided an exotic inspiration to their Chinese counterparts. Also on view are a set of Chinese stone-working tools and illustrations of jade workshops, which will introduce the traditional method of working jade.

Covered box with hibiscuses and grape vines, Ming dynasty (1368–1644), mid-15th century,
cloisonné enamel, Promised Gift of Clara and Theodore Wang

Embracing Color: Enamel in Chinese Decorative Arts, 1300-1900
July 2, 2022 – February 17, 2025
Enamel decoration is a significant element of Chinese decorative arts that has long been overlooked. This exhibition reveals the aesthetic, technical, and cultural achievement of Chinese enamel wares by demonstrating the transformative role of enamel during the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties. The first transformational moment occurred in the late 14th to 15th century, when the introduction of cloisonné enamel from the West, along with the development of porcelain with overglaze enamels, led to a shift away from a monochromatic palette to colorful works. The second transformation occurred in the late 17th to 18th century, when European enameling materials and techniques were brought to the Qing court and more subtle and varied color tones were developed on enamels applied over porcelain, metal, glass, and other mediums. In both moments, Chinese artists did not simply adopt or copy foreign techniques; they actively created new colors and styles that reflected their own taste. The more than 100 objects on view are drawn mainly from The Met collection.

Rotation 1: July 2, 2022–April 30, 2023
Rotation 2: May 20, 2023–March 24, 2024
Rotation 3: April 13, 2024–Feb 17, 2025

Oka Kazuma (1882-1956), Bar Bacchus in Ginza, from the series Pictures of Ginza, First Series,
January 1929, Gift of the artist

Recollections of Tokyo: 1923-1945
July 2-September 25, 2022

This weekend, the Art Institute of Chicago opens two new engaging Asian art exhibitions

Tokyo was devastated by the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923 but developed at an astounding rate over the next few decades. During this period, a number of printmakers documented their impressions of both the ruin of the city and its rebirth. In this Japanese print exhibition, the representation of lost buildings and outmoded entertainments can remind us of time’s passage and the ever-changing nature of a dynamic urban metropolis.

Covered Vase, Qing dynasty (1664–1912), reign of the Kangxi Emperor (1662–1722).
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Bud Berman

Among Friends and Family
July 2-September 25, 2022
The many cultures and traditions across Asia offer countless examples of visually beautiful and emotionally profound art reflecting the importance of time spent with loved ones. The Among Friends and Family exhibition presents a selection of objects from China, Japan, and Korea that portray some of the gatherings that invigorate both everyday life and special occasions.

Cap, Qing dynasty (1644–1912), 18th–19th century. Promised gift of Barbara and David Kipper

While at the museum, be sure to also see the familiar yet rare objects in Kingfisher Headdresses from China, currently on view through May 2023. By the Song dynasty (960–1278), portraits of empresses showed them wearing headdresses adorned with kingfisher ornaments. Few examples of this fragile artistry have survived, and the earliest ones come from the tomb of the Wanli Emperor (reigned 1572–1620), in which archaeologists found four elaborate kingfisher crowns worn by his empresses.

Koike Shōko (born 1943), Narrow-footed pleated shell-shaped covered container, 2013, glazed stoneware, 14 1/4 x 14 in. Photography by Richard Goodbody. Courtesy of Joan B Mirviss LTD

Listening to Clay: The Artists, Curators, and Collectors who Listen
Online Zoom program, July 26, 2022 at 5pm EDT

To celebrate the publication of Listening to Clay: The Artists, Curators, and Collectors who Listen, authors Alice and Halsey North and Louise Allison Cort discuss in depth their personal relationships with these sixteen artists that formed the basis for this book. From the perspective of collecting, they offer a behind-the-scenes look at these artists gleaned over many years and share valuable insights into their artworks. They are joined by Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Monika Bincsik, who recounts the importance of the importance of the Norths’ gift to the Met. In her recent installation of the main balcony, she re-contextualizes these artists in conversation with Western artists.

PANELISTS:
MONIKA BINCSIK, Diane and Arthur Abbey Associate Curator for Japanese Decorative Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
LOUISE CORT, Curator Emerita, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
ALICE and HALSEY NORTH, Japanese clay art collectors and museum patrons
Moderated by JOAN B. MIRVISS

The book can be ordered now through the publisher Monacelli Press/Phaidon or purchased through Joan B Mirviss LTD in July.

To register for this free event, click here. A confirmation email will be automatically sent to you once you register.

Yes, Wonderful Things, Oliver Forge Brendan Lynch
July 1-8, 2022

A hundred years ago, in November 1922, these words were uttered by Howard Carter, when he and Lord Carnarvon, after years of searching, finally peered into the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings which had remained miraculously untouched and well-preserved for millennia. A century earlier in September 1822, Jean-François Champollion, the French scholar often called the Father of Egyptology, revealed his ground-breaking decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs laying the foundation for the study and understanding of the ancient Egyptians with the words “I’ve done it”.

To commemorate these two momentous events, Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch in collaboration with Claire Brown Art, announce an exhibition devoted exclusively to Ancient Egyptian Art which will be held at our new premises, 16-17 Pall Mall.

Read more, including an online catalogue, click here.