Ren Yi, Demon Queller, Zhong Kui, 1882, ink and color on paper, 65 ½ x 30 ¾ in.
The Clyde and Helen Wu Collection of Chinese Painting, Gift of Dr. Clyde Wu

The Gallery’s collection of Asian art comprises nearly 8,000 works from East Asia, South Asia, continental Southeast Asia, Iran, Iraq, and Turkey and spans the Neolithic period to the 21st century. Highlights of the collection include Chinese ceramics and paintings, Japanese paintings and prints, and Indian and Persian textiles and miniature paintings. Examples from the collection are now on view in three exhibitions through November 2022.

Understanding an Eighteenth-Century Indian Album
This exhibition brings together several manuscript pages featuring exquisite paintings of musical modes, given to Yale in 1939 and 1940. The display locates their production in late 18th-century northern India and presents a selection of textiles and ceramics similar to those illustrated in these pages.

Chinese Painting between War and Revolution, 1830–1950
This show highlights the vibrancy and experimentation with Western and Japanese visual traditions that characterized Chinese painting during the tumultuous period between the Opium War (1839–42) and the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

Sakura: Cherry Blossoms
Celebrating the varied rendering of cherries in paintings, woodblock prints, lacquer, and metalwork, Sakura: Cherry Blossoms explores the longstanding Japanese fascination with the beauty of this delicate blossom as a symbol for the ephemeral nature of life and its pleasures.

In addition, the recent gift Rain Washes the Body, Enlightenment Cleanses the Soul (2017), a painting by contemporary Korean artist Kim GuGu, is temporarily shown with stone and bronze sculpture from Asia’s multifaceted religious traditions. These less fragile sculptures, together with ceramics and metalwork objects from across Asia, remain permanently on view.

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Crystal Ball, 19th–early 20th century, Chinese, 1944-20-2a,b

Authentic: Truth and Perception in Chinese Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art
Concludes July 3, 2022

Explore the act of copying and how attitudes toward authenticity are nuanced and culturally specific. Discover the intention behind the work and compare contemporary views on authenticity with those of the past. Highlights include enamel-decorated imperial porcelains, rock crystal carvings and woodblock prints.

Tuan Andrew Nguyen, The Specter of Ancestors Becoming, 2019 4-channel video installation, Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation and produced by Sharjah Art Foundation with additional production support from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Courtesy of the artist and James Cohan, New York.

Asia Society Texas
Making Home: Artists and Immigration
Exhibition through July 3
Making Home: Artists and Immigration focuses on immigration and related themes through the works of Phung Huynh, Beili Liu, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, and Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya. The exhibition engages with the individual, lived experiences of immigration through the paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures, and installations of the four featured artists. Making Home centers on the complexities of deeply personal histories of immigration, as the artists consider topics of intergenerationality, the repercussions of colonial histories, dislocation, memory, otherness, belonging, and resilience.

Docent-led tours of Making Home allow visitors to experience art on a personal level, learn about art historical periods and styles, and hear stories associated with the artwork. In-person tours are available for this exhibition at 11am on Saturday, July 2. Also available on Saturday at 10am is a docent-led Architecture Tour of Asia Society's iconic and unique Center designed by Yoshio Taniguchi.
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Asia Society Japan
JapanCraft21: Building a Movement
In-person and online program, July 5 8am Tokyo time/July 4 7pm EDT
JapanCraft21 Director Steve Beimel will take a hard look at the current situation around Japan’s Master Crafts tradition — why the system is faltering, what can be done to turn it around, and the actions that JapanCraft21 is taking.
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A Rare and Large Kesi “Peach” Panel, 19tn-20th century, hanging scroll, 90⅜ x 47¼ in. (229.6 x 120 cm), Lot 71, Estimate: $30,000-40,000

CHINA/5000 YEARS, Sotheby’s New York
Online auction June 17-29

CHINA/5000 YEARS features a selection of over 130 Ming and Qing porcelains and textiles, early ceramics, bronzes, jades, Asian and Chinese art reference books, and other Chinese works of art. Highlights include a large famille-rose ‘peach’ vase (Tianqiuping), a late Shang/early Western Zhou dynasty archaic bronze ritual wine vessel (Zhi), a selection of Ming and Qing porcelains from a New York private collection, and a group of early ceramics from a Canadian private collection.

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Miwa Kyūwa (Miwa Kyūsetsu X) (1895-1981), White Hagi square vase in the form of a handled bucket, ca. 1965, glazed stoneware, 12 1/2 x 6 3/4 x 6 3/8 in.

Branching Out:
The Kaneshige Family and the Bizen Tradition
The Miwa Family and the Hagi Tradition
Joan B Mirviss LTD
Live and online exhibition, closes June 30, 2022

The widespread popularity and distinguished reputations that Japan’s ancient ceramic traditions enjoy today are largely indebted to a core group of mid-twentieth century artistic visionaries: among them, Kaneshige Tōyō (1896-1967) for Bizen ware and Miwa Kyūwa (1895-1981) for Hagi ware. Both men were inheritors to their highly esteemed, long-established, multi-generational family names that had been associated with excellence in their respective ceramic traditions for centuries. Together with scholar-potter Kawakita Handeishi (1878-1963), they co-founded the artistic discussion group Karahinekai in 1942, formed of artists who were dedicated to the recovery of lost techniques from the golden age of ceramics during the 16th century Momoyama period.

The gallery's website includes an online catalogue, as well as links to articles on the show by Ceramics Now, Antiques Trade Gazette, and Yomitime.

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Emi Anrakuji (born 1963), Untitled 8, early 2000s, archival pigment print on a vintage postcard
(circa 1900s), 3 1/2 x 5 3/8 in (8.9 x 13.8 cm) (image), @Emi Anrakuji

Emi Anrakuji: Ehagaki–Picture Postcard, MIYAKO YOSHINAGA
Through June 30

Emi Anrakuji is known for taking obscured and often close-up images of herself (all but her eyes) in mundane surroundings with evocative atmospheres. This exhibition features over 30 color-pigment self-portraits that Anrakuji meticulously printed on vintage postcards (in Japanese, ehagaki – picture postcard) collected by her grandfather at the turn of the last century. The grandfather, a wine importer in Tokyo, frequently traveled to Europe and brought back these postcards, a popular novelty among collectors especially from the 1890s to the 1910s. According to Anrakuji’s family lore, a box of the well-preserved old postcards miraculously survived the 1923 earthquake and the WWII air raids in 1945. On both occasions, the fire burned down the city of Tokyo almost entirely, including her grandfather’s shop. Therefore, these postcards became a family treasure passed down through the generations.

Be sure to read Loring Knoblauch's in-depth review of this exhibition in Collector Daily online, click here.

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Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva with Six Light Bodhisattvas, Joseon dynasty (1392-1910), 16th–17th century

The Afterlife Journey: Divine Protectors and Guides in Korean Buddhist Painting, The Art Institute of Chicago
In-person lecture by Professor Cheeyun Lilian Kwon
June 30, 4-5pm CDT

Cheeyun Lilian Kwon, professor at the School of Fine Arts, Hongik University, Seoul, will discuss the Ksitigarbha painting in the Art Institute’s collection. Influenced by an unique amalgamation of various sources, Korea adopted a vision of the afterlife that was protected by the Ksitigarbha bodhisattva and accompanied by a host of heavenly beings. In this talk, Professor Kwon will discuss the Ksitigarbha painting in light of the Buddhist tradition that became deeply rooted in Korea for over a millennium. Such paintings acted as central agents in the Buddhist rituals dedicated for the dead in pre-modern Korea.

Professor Kwon teaches in the Arts and Cultural Management Department and the School of Fine Arts, Hongik University, Seoul. She received her PhD in East Asian art from Princeton University and taught Korean and East Asian art at American University and George Mason University. She also served as curator of Korean art at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and curatorial consultant at the Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution.

This program is generously funded by the National Museum of Korea.

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Oki Toshie (born 1976), Rapids, 2017, madake bamboo, rattan, 3.5 x 21 x 13 in.

Oki Toshie, TAI Modern
June 24-July 23, 2022
Opening reception June 24, 5-7pm
Artist's live talk, June 25, 3pm

One of bamboo art’s few female artists presents her first solo exhibition in the United States. This impressive Japanese artist shares her joy, creativity, and drive for beauty and expression with each piece.

Oki Toshie (born 1976) is a self-proclaimed introvert who cherishes the opportunity to communicate through her artwork. Her strongest desire is to create works that will move the hearts of viewers. “I try to balance my personal expression with beauty of form,” she says. “It is a constant process of trial and error, but I am proud to say that I put my heart and soul into each piece I create.”

The last student of Living National Treasure Iizuka Shokansai, her engagement with Japanese bamboo art began at an exhibition she visited while in high school. She was amazed that a utilitarian object such as a basket could reflect artistic vision. “Japanese people are particularly good at expressing themselves within the limitations of a fixed form, such as in haiku and tanka poetry,” says Oki. In a similar way, Oki expresses herself within the constraints of vessel forms, creating elegant and evocative trays and flower baskets.

One of the foremost bamboo artists working in Japan, Oki’s exhibition at TAI Modern includes this year’s Asahi Newspaper Prize winning piece from the Eastern Division. Her works have been included in major museum collections and exhibitions throughout the United States and Japan.

Shigeru Uchida (born 1943), Ji'an tea house, at Ippodo Gallery

Lecture and Tea Ceremony with Tea Master Nagano Yoshitsugu, Ippodo Gallery
In-person program, June 28, 2022, 2-4pm

This special program is organized to complement Ippodo's current exhibition, Magic of the Tea Bowl, Volume 2. Nagano Yoshitsugu will first give a lecture, How to Experience the Sensations of a Tea Bowl, in which participants will learn the points of how to appreciate tea bowls while appreciating the tea bowls displayed in the gallery. In the second half of the program, each person will be able to choose a bowl of tea and drink powdered green tea prepared by Nagano sensei using that bowl.

Nagano Yoshitsugu, Japanese Tea Ritual Instructor and Professor of the Ueda Soko School, is the youngest person to be certified in the highest rank of the Ueda Soko School (USRJWT), which has been practiced in Hiroshima for 400 years. He received a BFA from the Faculty of Art in the Hiroshima City University in 2012. In 2019 he relocated to New York City, where he energetically promotes the aesthetics and spirituality of the Japanese Tea Ritual, which is rooted in Zen Buddhism. He also works to establish new styles of a modern Tea Ceremony that incorporates new expressions into the traditional rituals to create new ways of engaging with the Tea Ceremony.

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