Xu Beihong (1895-1953), Lion and Snake, 1938, ink and color on paper,
Robert and Lisa Kessler Collection

Zoom Discussion Panel: Fantastic Brush: Twentieth-Century Chinese Ink Art Denver Art Museum
March 17th, 11am MDT/1pm EDT

PARTICIPANTS:
Chair: Hyonjeong (HJ) Kim Han, Joseph de Heer Curator of Asian Art, Denver Art Museum
Discussant: Einor Cervone, Curator of Asian Art, Denver Art Museum
Speakers: Professor REN Wei, Assistant Professor of Art and Art History; The Tamar and Emil '53 Weiss Chair in Asian Art (2015), Dickinson College
Professor Yang WANG, Assistant Professor of Art History, University of Colorado Denver
Professor Stephanie SU, Assistant Professor, History of Asian Art, University of Colorado Boulder

The transformations of ink arts in twentieth-century China tell the story of modern Chinese art at large. This Zoom panel explores different visions—different answers—put forth by artists during these watershed times, to the looming question: what’s next for ink art? Celebrating the exhibition, Fantastic Brush: Twentieth Century Ink Art from the Robert and Lisa Kessler Collection, now on view at the Denver Art Museum, the three papers coalesce around the return to ink.

Professor Ren Wei lays down the social stakes of Chinese modernity, and their reflection in Chen Shizeng’s innovative vernacular ink painting. Professor Stephanie Su traces artists’ explorations of the subjectivity of color and the turn to realism. Professor Yang Wang examines the context in which ink painters navigated the expectations placed on them and their medium by the Communist state. The panel will be moderated by Hyonjeong Kim Han, Joseph de Heer Curator of Asian Art at the Denver Art Museum, with an introduction by Einor Cervone, Associate Curator of Asian Art, Denver Art Museum.

Read more and register, click here

L-R: Xing-yao, Yue-yao and Yaozhou Ceramics, Tang-Yuan dynasties

Chinese Ceramics from Tang-Yuan Dynasty, Zetterquist Galleries
March 16-25, 2022

Zetterquist Gallerie's March 2022 exhibition features Chinese ceramics from the Tang through Yuan dynasties. Highlighted are exquisite examples of celadons from the Yaozhou, Yue, and Longquan kilns. There is an exquisitely carved Yaozhou peony bowl from a New York collection and an heirloom-quality Longquan celadon vase from an old English collection. There are persimmon-glazed bowls from Yaozhou and Jian-yao kilns, as well as a tortoiseshell censer from Jizhou. Of the many white wares in the exhibition is a carved Dingyao twin fish bowl with Japanese provenance and a Tang dynasty Xing-yao bottle vase from a distinguished New York private collection and provenance from Robert Hatfield Ellsworth and AW Bahr Collections. Two Song dynasty Hutien-type Qingbai bowls, one with original silver foil rim remnants, and the other with carved cloud motif, portray the refinement of this kiln's output.

Xing-yao Bottle Vase, Tang dynasty (618-907), H. 23 cm.

The galleries' website includes multiple photos of each work of art in this exhibition, as well as detailed information about the materials and provenance of each. 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
March 17-April 30, 2022
Opening reception: March 17, 5-8pm

This solo exhibition by a Hawaiʻi-based Japanese-American artist will 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 Jonathan Yukio 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. With this philosophy in mind, Clark traces and captures the imprints of his heritage, such as his family history across Hawaiʻi and Japan, panoramic views of volcanic mountainscapes from both regions, and the 1950s Oʻahu home of his Japanese grandparents. Through his personal lens, Clark skillfully embeds these elements into his recent work, while using various natural materials that speak to a close affinity for each environment.

Jonathan Yukio Clark (born 1987), In the Realm of Mount Mihara, 2022, 6 monotype prints, washi,
40 x 168 in. (101.6 x 426.7 cm), Jonathan Yukio Clark, Courtesy: MIYAKO YOSHINAGA, New York

The exhibition highlights a monumental wall piece In the Realm of Mount Mihara, the artist’s tribute to the rugged beauty of the volcano in the Island of Izu Oshima off the coast of Honshu, Japan. To epitomize the greater natural world, Clark uses his masterful monotype technique for six separate prints, each carrying on a panoramic vista of distinctive terrains and vegetations with vigorous rhythm and earthy colors. A smaller landscape, also from Izu Oshima, is embedded into a wooden frame and entitled Sakura in Volcanic Landscape. These disparate landscapes are recurring points of familiarity, cross-generational recollection, and natural transformation.

Yamakawa Shūhō (1898-1944), Beauty in the Snow, Showa-era 1930s, ink and mineral colors on silk

Modern Masterpieces from the Taisho-Early Showa Eras, Thomsen Gallery
March 18-25, 2022

The exhibition will feature masterpieces of screens, hanging scrolls, bamboo baskets and gold lacquer objects from the Taisho and early Showa eras.

Okazaki Seiho, Mountains in Clouds, Showa era (1926-1989), 1920s-30s, H. 68¼ x W 68½ in.
(173.5 x 174 cm.)

Read more, click here

A Pair of Lion and Guardian Dogs, Kamakura period, 13th century, pair of wooden statues
Shishi: H. 43 cm., Komainu: H. 48 cm.

Selection of Japanese Art, Hiroshi Yanagi Oriental Art
March 16-23, 2022

Exhibiting at:
Nicholas Hall
4F, 17 E. 76th Street
New York, NY

As part of Asia Week New York 2022, Hiroshi Yanagi Oriental Art returns to New York from Kyoto and presents Selection of Japanese Art, an exhibition of masterpieces of painting, sculpture, ceramics, and other artworks, ranging from 300 BCE to the 20th century. Highlights include a statue of the Buddha of Wisdom, a scroll painting of Jurojin (the god of longevity) by Kamisaka Sekka and a pair of screens, six panels each, depicting Noh dramas. Other important works comprise an Imari-yaki big bottle and a pair of Hokkai containers with crests of the Tokugawa family.

Anonymous, Young Men Enjoying Pastimes (detail), Edo period, Kanbun era (1661-1673), eight-panel folding screen, ink and mineral pigments on paper

Read more, click here

The National Museum of Asian Art's new Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room is organized and installed to reflect Tibetan Buddhist concepts and customs.

Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room
National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution
Now open to visitors ongoing for the next three years

The Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room includes more than two hundred bronzes, paintings, silk hangings, and carpets that were created in Tibet, China, and Mongolia between the thirteenth and early twentieth centuries. Arranged to reflect Tibetan Buddhist concepts and customs rather than museum conventions, the glittering room evokes the Himalayan portals that bridge the mundane and the sacred worlds. A counterbalance to traditional museum displays of sacred art, the shrine room is an immersive environment that invites visitors to encounter Tibetan Buddhist art in a manner evoking the sacred precincts of the Himalayas. The experience is multisensory, as flickering lights evoke butter-lamp offerings and the sonorous chanting of Tibetan monks fills the room. More than two hundred objects are exhibited on painted furniture rather than in glass cases, hung among traditional textiles rather than on white walls, and presented without the mediation of labels.

The assemblage of objects comprising the Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room is the result of Dr. Alice S. Kandell’s longstanding appreciation and collecting of Tibetan sacred art, combined with her persistent desire to share this important collection with the public. Over decades, Kandell acquired hundreds of bronze sculptures, thangkas, textile banners, painted furniture, and ritual implements. Kandell’s interest in Tibetan art and culture began during her college years, when she took the first of many trips to Sikkim, Tibet, and Ladakh. Throughout her career as a child psychologist in New York, she continued to pursue her love of Tibetan Buddhist sacred art. Along with traveling and collecting, she documented the region’s works and culture in two books of photography, Sikkim: The Hidden Kingdom (Doubleday) and Mountaintop Kingdom: Sikkim (Norton). By 1994, Kandell had amassed one of the most comprehensive Tibetan art collections in the United States, which is documented in the book A Shrine for Tibet (Tibet House US). She made her first significant gift of objects to the Freer and Sackler in 2011, the same year she donated three hundred photographs taken on her Himalayan travels to the Library of Congress.

Supporting and expanding the visitor's experiences when visiting the Shrine Room itself, the museum's website offers a variety of informative multimedia educational materials to study and enjoy. Read more, click here

Emil Orlik (1870-1932), Japanese Resting on the Mountain (Japaner bei der rast im gebirge),
color woodblock print, oban yoko-e 10 1/8 x 13 3/8 in. (25.6 x 33.9 cm.)

Influencers: Japonisme and Modern Japan, Scholten Japanese Art
Asia Week March 16-25

Scholten Japanese Art's presents their new exhibition as part of Asia Week New York, Influencers: Japonisme and Modern Japan, an exploration of the influence of Japanese art on Western art and the development of modern international art modes such as art nouveau and art deco.

In March of last year, the Asia Week exhibition at Scholten Japanese Art examined the impact of the West on Japanese art and culture during the Meiji Period (1868-1912). This year attention is turned in the opposite direction to consider the influence of Japanese art on the West, popularly known as Japonisme, while also contemplating the subsequent effect of influences traveling in both directions, resulting in the blending of art modes into an international style.

Paul Jacoulet (1902-1960), Beauté Japonaise Moderne (Kobé), color woodblock print, obaiban tate-e,
19 x 14 3/4 in. (48.3 by 37.5 cm.)

This is Scholten's largest exhibition to date and includes 102 works presented in two sections, with 44 works in the Part 1, and 58 works in Part 2. The international roster of artists includes representation by important French, Austrian, German, British, American and Japanese artists, and features paintings and prints with an emphasis on the development of Japanese-style color woodblock printing in the West.

This engaging exhibition can be viewed at the gallery during Asia Week and online now. Read more, click here

Yufu Shohaku, Meota Iwa (The Wedded Rocks), 2020, madake bamboo, rattan

Yufu Shohaku Solo Exhibition; Selected Works of Japanese Bamboo Art
TAI Modern
March 16-25, 2022
Opening reception: Thursday, March 17, 5-9pm
Exhibition talk: Saturday, March 19, 2:30pm

Exhibiting at:
Colnaghi
38 East 70th Street
New York 10021

For the 2022 edition of Asia Week New York, TAI Modern travels to New York from Santa Fe to present Japanese bamboo artist Yufu Shohaku’s first solo exhibition outside of Japan. Yufu Shohaku (born 1941) turned eighty years old earlier this year. A second-generation bamboo artist from Beppu, Yufu began making baskets in elementary school and achieved mastery by middle school. Today, he is known for his robust and energetic rough-plaited baskets that incorporate bamboo branches and roots, half-split chunks of bamboo, and bamboo ropes.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is the magnificent and unusual Meoto Iwa (The Wedded Rocks). Yufu recreates in bamboo these sacred rocks, tied together with a rope, representing the union between Izanagi and Izanami, the two central deities in Japan’s creation myth. The artist spent much of 2020 working on this sculptural homage to connection and new beginnings.

Maeno Koyo, Tatezashi Flower Basket, 1960s-1980s, madake bamboo, rattan

Also on view in New York are selected works from over 40 bamboo artists working in a broad range of styles and techniques.

Read more, click here