What's Happening in Asian Art...
August 12, 2021
Utagawa Hiroshige. Ferry Boats on the Fuji River in Suruga Province. Japanese. ca. 1832. Color woodblock print. 9 1/4 x 14 5/8 inches (23.495 x 37.1475 cm). Courtesy of Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
Origins: Collecting to Create the Nelson-Atkins
August 14 - March 6, 2022
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City opened its doors in 1933, but the collection was beginning to be built at a frantic pace three years prior. The new exhibition, Origins: Collecting to Create the Nelson-Atkins, explores the very beginnings of the collection as well as the people who made choices about what types of art to collect, the challenges and opportunities of acquiring art during the Great Depression, and the vast diversity of the museum’s first objects. There are more than 50 artworks in the exhibition, most of them acquired in the museum’s first 10 years.
The Nelson-Atkins is the legacy of two Kansas Citians: newspaper publisher William Rockhill Nelson and retired teacher Mary Atkins. Both left funds upon their deaths to create an art museum in Kansas City: Atkins’ money for a building, and Nelson’s to acquire art. The group who managed Nelson’s estate were responsible for assembling the future museum’s art collection.
“Laurence Sickman was one of the museum’s first advisors on Asian art,” said MacKenzie Mallon, Provenance Specialist at the Nelson-Atkins. “He acquired much of the museum’s foundational Chinese art collection, including some of its most important works, and became our first Curator of Asian Art in 1935.”
For more details, https://nelson-atkins.org/exhibitions/origins/
August 9, 2021
A Safavid cobalt-backed blue-and-white pottery dish, Persia, probably Kirman, mid-seventeenth century, 41.5 cm., 16 1/8 in. diameter; 8 cm., 3 1/8 in. height, courtesy of Oliver Forge & Brendan Lynch Ltd.
This dish is one of the works of Asian art featured in the exhibition, illustrating the beauty and range of material where the color blue is used as the primary decorative motif. Others include Chinese blue and white porcelain, contemporary Japanese ceramics and glass, Japanese prints and more.
The recording of our July 29th Zoom webinar, The Color that Changed the World: The Impact of Blue in Asian Art, a fascinating discussion by five expert panelists about this topic, will be available to view on our website very soon.
Object in Focus
Oribe Mukouzuke-Chaire, Momoyama - Early Edo Period, Early 17th century, Japan, 10cm High x 8.2cm Wide, courtesy of Zetterquist Galleries
This delightful little object illustrates the playful, innovative side of Oribe ceramics in the Japanese Tea Ceremony. Originally produced as a small basket-form food bowl in the early 17th century, it was later repurposed as a tea caddy, with the addition of the lacquered ebony lids. A combination of the russet glaze of the handle and the green glazed stripes on the body have melded during the firing and created ruby red drips at the bottom, a fortuitous gift from the kiln gods!
It is an early Narumi-type Oribe basket-shaped bowl of double lozenge form, with high-arched rust colored handle that spans the center. The underside is flat, and has a recessed circular underfoot with turned pin lines typical of Oribe pieces of this early period. The underside is unglazed, revealing a light brown clay body. The interior is buff and white, with soft transitions from flat bottom to vertical walls. The exterior sides are buff colored and decorated with stripes, hanging fruit and a single plum blossom outlined in black and highlighted in white and celadon green glaze. The celadons mix with the iron oxide to pool in rare ruby-red droplets near the foot. A flat wooden lid is custom fitted to the top, and splits in two at the handle, to allow use as a tea caddy for the Japanese tea ceremony. In a fitted lacquer box with silver inlay inscription, “Oribe”.
A double-lozenge form bowl with handle was excavated in the Nakano-cho site in Kyoto City, and is published in “Momoyama Tea Utensils: A New View”, Nezu Museum Tokyo 2018. pg. 60. Another larger example is published in “Turning Point; Oribe and the Arts of the 16th Century Japan”, Yale University Press 2003. pl. 64. See Nippon Touji Zenshu, Chuo Publishing 1976 pl. 16 for similar countersunk foot with pin lines on a similarly dated mukouzuke.
Provenance: Niiseki Kinya Collection, Yokohama Japan.
For more information, click here.
August 9, 2021
Shimaoka Tatsuzō, (1919-2007), Living National Treasure, H9" x Dia 8.5" x Lip 5" (H22.8 x Dia 21.5 x Lip Dia 12.7cm), Glazed stoneware with signed wood box, Ash Glazed Jar With Carved Design, Courtesy of Dai Ichi Arts, Ltd.
Shown above is one of the new arrivals at Dai Ichi Arts, Ltd. An original early creation of Shimaoka Tatsizo, LNT (1919-2007), this wheel thrown jar showcases a rich green ash glaze. The three waved pattern carved underneath the glaze adds to the dynamic character of the jar. A student of Hamada Shoji, Shimaoka Tatsuzo is nominated as Living National Treasure as well for his contribution to the Mingei movement in Mashiko ceramics.
For more information, click here.
July 28, 2021
Blue and white ceramic jar with phoenix design, 29.5 x 41cm , Yi Dynasty, 18th century, Published; “Blue and White Ceramics from Late Choson Dynasty” (Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka), Courtesy of Hiroshi Yanagi Oriental Art
July 17-August 17
Hiroshi Yanagi Oriental Art will launch a new online exhibition from 17th July in conjunction with Asia Week New York Summer 2021 Exhibition: Shades of Blue. The gallery usually introduce Japanese art at Asia Week New York in March, but they also handle Korean art. This is Hiroshi Yanagi Oriental Art's first exhibition of Korean works. Shown above is another blue and white piece in addition to their Dragon jar in Asia Week New York Summer 2021 Exhibition.
For more detail, https://www.h-yanagi.com/korea/
July 26, 2021
BLUE AND WHITE OHI CEREMONIAL VESSEL “SONSU 01", 2021, stoneware, h. 8 1/2 x w. 13 1/2 x d. 6 1/4 in., (21.6 x 34.4 x 15.8 cm)
From 3 July to 31 August, Onishi Gallery is pleased to present, The History of Ohi Ware: Ohi Chozaemon XI, featuring works from the 11th generation head of the iconic pottery ware family based in Kanazawa. Steeped in rich history and tradition, Chozaemon XI uses the generational knowledge passed on by his ancestors to elevate Ohi ware to a contemporary realm.
In 1666, Lord Maeda Tsunanori of the Maeda clan requested Senso Soshitsu, the fourth-generation Urasenke tea master to teach him the art of tea ceremony in the Kaga Domain. Ohi Chozaemon accompanied Senso on this assignment and started producing tea bowls with clay sourced from Ohi, an area outside of Kanazawa.
Ohi Chozaemon I was a direct descendant of the master potter Raku Chojiuro. Combining his learned Raku techniques with the tutelage of Senso Soshitsu, Ohi established a unique kiln of Raku tradition that was unprecedented in Kanawawa at the time.
Click here to explore the viewing room
July 24, 2021
Manish Pushkale, River, Acrylic on canvas, 2021, 122 x 297 cms, courtesy of Akar Prakar
Manish Pushkale (b. 1973 in Bhopal, India) lives and works in New Delhi. As an artist, Pushkale has made significant contributions to contemporary art practices through his unique approach. He has developed a language of abstraction that carries an imprint of his own, rooted in the Indian aesthetics.
His works have been widely exhibited in India and Internationally over the last 25 years. He represented the country at the Festival of India in France (2016), with an exhibition at Musée de Guéthary, with Akar Prakar and ICCR. He has also exhibited his work along with his guru S.H. Raza on multiple occasions, including the Venice Biennale (2010). He is the recipient of many awards and residencies, such as a fellowship at the Nantes Institute of Advanced Study (2014), and Grand Award, Bharat Bhavan Biennale, Bhopal (2018). He is a trustee of The Raza Foundation and has written books and columns on art.
To view Akar Prakar's current show of his work, click here.
July 24, 2021
Mizusashi (Fresh Water Jar) with Handle, Ko-sometsuke ware, Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province, China, Ming dynasty, 17th century, Porcelain decorated with underglaze cobalt blue, D 20.3 x H 26.4 cm, Courtesy of Koichi Yanagi Oriental Fine Arts
First produced by the Egyptians over 6,000 years ago, blue pigment has been a prized component in some of the greatest works of art in world culture and Asia ranks high among them. A distinguished panel of specialists and curators in Asian art will present perspectives on the development and impact of cobalt blue, indigo and dayflower in their specific fields of Chinese and Japanese art.
Says Dessa Goddard, Chairman of Asia Week New York and discussion moderator: “Asia Week New York is delighted to host this lively presentation with some of the world’s top authorities on the history, composition, use and aesthetic appeal of the color blue in Asian art.”
To reserve a spot, for Thursday July 29, at 5:00 p.m. (EST) click here
Monika Bincsik is Diane and Arthur Abbey Associate Curator for Japanese Decorative Arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. She has organized several exhibitions for the museum, notably Discovering Japanese Art: American Collectors and The Met (2015), Japanese Bamboo Art: The Abbey Collection (2017), and Kyoto: Capital of Artistic Imagination (2019). She has published numerous articles on Japanese decorative arts and collecting history and was co-author and co-curator of The Tale of Genji: A Japanese Classic Illuminated (2019).
Steven Chait is the President of Ralph M. Chait Galleries, Inc. in New York City. The gallery, founded by their namesake and Steven’s grandfather, Ralph M. Chait in 1910, is the oldest specialist dealing in fine antique Chinese porcelains and works of art in the United States. Over its remarkable long history, the gallery has worked with and sold to museums and private collectors throughout the world.
Joe V. Earle was Vice-President and Director of Japan Society Gallery in New York from 2007 to 2012 and has held leadership positions in Asian art departments at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Now based in London, he works as Senior Consultant for Bonhams in the U.S. and UK and advises collectors and dealers on three continents. He has also resumed his former career as an author of Japanese art catalogues, with ten titles published over the last six years.
Denise Patry Leidy who received a doctorate from Columbia, is currently the department head, and Ruth and Bruce Dayton Curator of Asian Art, at the Yale University Art Gallery. She has also served as a curator in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Asia Society, as well as in The Metropolitan Museum of Art where she was the Brooke Russell Astor Curator of Chinese Art (emerita). Leidy, who is an active lecturer, has also curated numerous exhibitions including Ceremonial Dress of Southwest China, Japan’s Global Baroque, Global by Design: Chinese Ceramics from the R. Albuquerque Collection, Silla: Korea’s Golden Kingdom, The World of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty, Mother-of-Pearl: A Tradition in Asian Lacquer, and Defining Yongle: Imperial Art in Fifteenth Century China. Her publications include How to Read Chinese Ceramics, The Art of Buddhism: An Introduction to Its History and Meaning, Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mandala: The Sacred Architecture of Enlightenment, and the forthcoming Celadon on the Seas.
Veronica Miller has been a specialist in 18th-20th c. Japanese prints since she began training with Herbert Egenolf in Düsseldorf, Germany in 1992, following a brief career in marine biology. She has been the owner of Egenolf Gallery Japanese Prints (member of the IFPDA and Ukiyo-e Dealers Association of Japan) since 2002. Museum clients have included the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Portland Art Museum, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, to name a few. A specialist in the art of Kawase Hasui (1883-1957), she has been the main source of René and Carolyn Balcer’s near-complete collection of Hasui, which now resides at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. She lives with her husband, David Mota, in California.
July 22, 2021
The award-winning luxury hotel group, Songtsam Hotels Resorts Tours in the Tibet and Yunnan Provinces of China announced the opening, this August (2021), of a Youth Wildlife Photography Training Camp in Southeastern Tibet. Songtsam and its partners will continue the 17-year-old Chinese Wildlife Photography Training Camp of Wild China, and combine the professionalism of Qixing Camp Education for youth nature education with photography to create a brand new, Youth Wildlife Photography Training Camp. In this training camp, young people will have the opportunity to follow the master photographers/nature teachers and learn about the wild animals and plants living in this area of Tibet where glaciers and forests are intertwined, and snow-capped mountains and meadows echo. This photography training camp will enable these young photographers to locate and photograph rare and beautiful species such as the brown-tailed rainbow pheasant, red goral, and the Tibetan Cypripedium. This unique photography camp will encourage them to discover the beauty and vitality of the world around them, not just through a lens, but in real life.
Golden snub-nosed monkey
After 20 years of growth and expansion, Songtsam now plans to establish four Nature Centers which will also play a major role in the Youth Wildlife Photography Training Camp program. One will be located in Jingdong and the others in Shangri-La, Bome, and Namcha Barwa. Most of the staff at Songtsam Lodge Bome and Songtsam Lodge Namcha Bawa are already very knowledgeable about local habitat, nature, and environment since most are from the surrounding villages. With Songtsam’s exquisite cuisine, comfortable rooms and warm hospitality, camp participants will have an opportunity to relax and recharge while they discover more of nature’s wonders. Songtsam’s Nature Centers "from rainforest to snow mountain" will provide a rare opportunity to be surrounded by natural wonders and be used as a gateway for more people to observe and understand nature firsthand.
For more information about Songtsam visit www.songtsam.com/en/about
July 21, 2021
RARE CHINESE TURQUOISE GLAZED PORCELAIN FIGURE OF A YOUTH RIDING UPON A LEAPING CARP, Ca: early 19th century, Height: 7 inches (18 cm.), Courtesy of Ralph M. Chait Galleries.
The Show runs from August 6 - 9 with a Preview Party on the evening of August 5 at the Nantucket Boys & Girls Club, located at 61 Sparks Avenue.
Ralph M. Chait Galleries will be displaying a fine variety of antique Chinese porcelain, pottery, export silver, scholar's rocks, and works of art. They look forward to exhibiting in-person once again, and seeing many of you there!
Click here to view show website
July 16, 2021
Saitō Kiyoshi, 1907–1997, Shinadera Nagasaki, Designed in 1955, printed 1956, Woodblock print; ink and color on paper, 60 × 84 cm, John & Mable Museum of Art, Gift of Charles and Robyn Citrin, 2014, SN11412.83
Saitō Kiyoshi: Graphic Awakening
John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art
March 14-August 15, 2021
Saitō Kiyoshi’s (1907–1997) keen sense of design, superb technique, and engagement with a variety of appealing themes made him one of the best-known and most popular Japanese print artists of the twentieth century.
In the wake of the Second World War, Saitō emerged as a seminal figure of the modernist creative print movement, in which artists claimed complete authorship of their work by carving and printing their own designs. He flourished as the movement attracted patrons among members of the occupying forces and, later, Western travelers for business and pleasure. Honors at the 1951 São Paulo Biennial launched him and the creative print movement to prominence at home and abroad. When new diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Japan provided opportunities for Japanese artists to exhibit, teach, and live abroad, Saitō was among the first to do so, thus further broadening his audience.
Presenting recent donations of artworks by Saitō from Charles and Robyn Citrin to The Ringling and other collections, Saitō Kiyoshi: Graphic Awakening is the first comprehensive exhibition of this artist's work in the United States. The exhibition focuses on prints Saitō created in the 1940s and 50s, arguably the most vibrant period of his career, and includes several rare, early designs.
The exhibition is accompanied by a 200-page illustrated catalogue edited by Rhiannon Paget and with essays by Paul Binnie, Noriko Kuwahara, Rhiannon Paget, and Judith A. Stubbs, and published by Scala.
For more detail
(https://www.ringling.org/events/sait%C5%8D-kiyoshi-graphic-awakening)
Exhibition catalogue
(https://bookshop.org/books/saito-kiyoshi-graphic-awakening/9781785513015)
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