Jizai Okimono, A russet-iron articulated figure of a hawk Edo period, 19th century,
Giuseppe Piva Japanese Art

There's still time to register for this evening's AWNY LAUNCH!

Tonight at 6pm EDT, join Asia Week New York for an online preview of the wonderful Asian art exhibitions and engaging programs that will be available online and in person. We'll give you a bird's eye view, so that you are sure not to miss a thing.

A Silver Betel Box with Scenes from the Sama Jataka, Lower Burma (Myanmar), 1909,
Estimate: $40,000-60,000, Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art Sale, March 22, 2022

The Noble Silver Collection: Treasures from the Burmese Silver Age
Bonhams
Exhibition: March 16-21
Online sale, March 14-24
Highlights on sale live, Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art Sale, March 22

This Asia Week, Bonhams offers for sale The Noble Silver Collection, the finest and most comprehensive private collection of Burmese silver in the world. The collection charts a magnificent body of work produced by Burmese master silversmiths between the mid-19th and early 20th century, a period termed the Burmese Silver Age. This little-known genre of silver art is characterized by an exuberant decorative style achieved through superb technical artistry. Unlike other producers of silverware in Asia, Burmese silver catered largely to a domestic market, producing art objects designed for traditional Southeast Asian customs such as betel culture and temple offerings. Many in the Noble Silver Collection are embellished with beloved scenes from the Ramayana and the Jataka Tales.

One of the most popular Jataka Tales, according to David C. Owens, author of the collection's catalogue, Burmese Silver Art: Masterpieces Illuminating Buddhist, Hindu, and Mythological Stories of Purpose and Wisdom is the Sama Jataka, an example of which is illustrated above. In an interview with Bonhams, Owens commented “The Sama Jataka is one of the most popular narratives featured in Burmese silver art from the late 19th to early 20th centuries. It is a Buddhist allegory on the virtue of loving kindness as exemplified by the character of Sama and the selfless care he gives to his blind parents who live an ascetic life in the forest. The narrative is linear and cogent and therefore particularly instructive as a simple moral lesson for the ages.”

David Owens, who is also the collection's owner, along with his wife Kathleen, was born in England and emigrated to Canada. A career in the metal mining industry included 25 years working in Southeast and East Asia, an experience that stimulated Owens’s interest in Asian history, culture and art. A frequent visitor to Myanmar since 1992, Owens assembled The Noble Silver Collection over an eight year period. Owens's particular expertise is deciphering the iconography of the archetypal visual narratives that decorate Burmese silverwork. To read more of his interview, click here.

Highlights will be sold live as part of Bonhams Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art Sale on March 22nd and the rest is being sold online now through March 24th. For more information, click here

Buddha Attended by Two Bodhisattvas, Gandhara, Peshawar region, Pakistan, inscribed and dated
' Year 5,' schist, private collection

Annual Distinguished Lecture on the Arts of South and Southeast Asia
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Friday, March 18, 2022 at 4:30pm
Buddhist Art of Gandhara and the 'Year 5' Buddha: New Studies in Chronology and Iconography
Juhyung Rhi, Professor of Buddhist Art History, Seoul National University, Korea
Live at the museum and live-streamed on Facebook and YouTube

The 'Year 5' Buddha is one of only five dated Gandharan sculptures known to exist. This masterpiece, which has been widely studied and exhibited and was acquired at Christie's New York in September 2020, is of singular importance for both its dated dedicatory inscription and innovative iconographic features. This talk explores the diverse questions raised by this image within the unfolding setting of Buddhist art in Gandhara in the early centuries of the Common Era.

Professor Juhyung Rhi, who received his PhD from University of California, Berkeley, focuses on the Buddhist art of India, Central Asia, and Korea, especially the art of ancient Gandhara and the Korean tradition. 

Read more, click here

Reflections of a Collector by George Mann
Japanese Art Society of America (JASA)
Sunday, March 20 at 11am at Japan Society
Live lecture and Zoom webinar

JASA hosts a lecture by renowned Chicago print collector George Mann, who will share his perspective on putting together one of the finest Japanese print collections in private hands. The lecture will be held at Japan Society in New York, 333 E 47th St, and on Zoom. The lecture will be followed by JASA's business meeting.

As recalled in his recent memoir, Sixty Years with Japanese Prints, George Mann, who had a career as a lawyer, was set on his long engagement with Japanese prints by the Cottle family, whose son Tom was a school-friend of Mann. Over the decades, he encountered many scholars, dealers, and collectors, all of whom shared his passion for Japanese prints .

Advance registration is required for this event. For those who visit in person, their ticket will also give access to Japan Society's current exhibition Shikō Munakata:
A Way of Seeing. Read more and to register, click here

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