Opium pipe, China, Qing dynasty to Republican period, inscribed with cyclical date corresponding to 1868 or 1928. Water buffalo horn, metal, and ceramic. Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop, 1943.55.6. Photo: © President and Fellows of Harvard College; Courtesy of the Harvard Art Museums

Zoom Webinar
Unintended Consequences: An overview of Objects of Addiction: Opium, Empire and the Chinese Art Trade at the Harvard Art Museums
Wednesday, December 13 at 5pm EST

In collaboration with the Harvard Art Museums, join us next Wednesday afternoon for a captivating talk with guest speaker Dr. Sarah Laursen as she delves into her exhibition, Objects of Addiction: Opium, Empire and the Chinese Art Trade, on view there from September 15, 2023 to January 14, 2024.

This intriguing exhibition explores the entwined histories of the opium trade and the Chinese art market between the late 18th and early 20th centuries.  Dr. Laursen will provide a historical context to the complex opium and Chinese art trades, presenting a comprehensive timeline of events in China, Europe, and the United States.  Opium and Chinese art, acquired through both legal and illicit means, had profound effects on the global economy, cultural landscape, and education—and in the case of opium, on public health and immigration—that still reverberate today.

SPEAKER:
Dr. Sarah Laursen, the Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art at the Harvard Art Museums and oversees the Chinese art collection as well as parts of the Korean and Central, South, and Southeast Asian collections

MODERATOR:
Lark Mason, Jr., founder of iGavel Auctions, Emeritus President of the Appraisers Association of America and former Chairman, Asia Week New York

To join us for this free event, sign up here.

Participant’s Biographies:

Dr. Sarah Laursen serves as the Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art at the Harvard Art Museums, overseeing the Chinese art collection and portions of the Korean and Central, South, and Southeast Asian collections. Specializing in early medieval China, her research interests include Chinese archaeology, digital humanities, technical art history, collecting history, and contemporary Asian and Asian American art. Dr. Laursen co-curated “Earthly Delights: 6,000 Years of Asian Ceramics” (summer 2022), curated “Objects of Addiction: Opium, Empire, and the Chinese Art Trade” (fall 2023), and collaborated with students to develop the virtual exhibition “Reframing Tianlongshan.”

Lark Mason, Jr. the owner, and CEO of iGavelAuctions, served as a General Appraiser from 1979 until 1985, and as a Senior Vice President and specialist in Chinese art with Sotheby’s Chinese Works of Art Department from 1985-2003. From 2000-2003 he concurrently was a Director of Online Auctions for Sothebys.com. He also served as a consulting curator at the Trammell and Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art in Dallas, Texas from 2003-2009. A generalist in American and European works of art and paintings, as well as an expert in the field of Chinese art, Mason has valued and advised many private collectors and institutions.

Lark Mason Associates has a history of record sales of Chinese and other works of art and holds the record for the highest price achieved for any work of art in an online sale–a Chinese handscroll–that realized close to $4.2m. He is noted for his regular appearances on “The Antiques Road Show.”

Mishima Kimiyo (b. 1932), Sculpture of charcoal box filled with newspaper, 2005, glazed stoneware, 15 x 16 x 13 1/2 in. overall; Photo by Richard Goodbody; Courtesy of Joan B Mirviss LTD

Zoom Gallery Talk hosted by Joan B Mirviss LTD
Taking Space, Making Space: Japanese Women Ceramic Artists
Thursday, December 14, 2023 at 5pm ET

Coinciding with Radical Clay: Contemporary Japanese Women Artists, which opens at the Art Institute of Chicago just a few days later, Joan B Mirviss LTD‘s upcoming Zoom talk will explore the vital role of 20th and 21st century Japanese women clay artists within Japanese ceramics today.  Drawn from the Carol and Jeffrey Horvitz Collection and featuring work by 20 of their gallery artists, the museum exhibition celebrates the achievements and profound influence of these creative visionaries in a traditionally male-dominated ceramics field.

Panelists for this event include key figures who contributed to this important exhibition, including: collector and museum patron Carol Horvitz, curator and Radical Clay catalogue contributor Hollis Goodall, and two prominent gallery artists featured in the exhibition, Tashima Etsuko and Tomita Mikiko, who represent different generational perspectives.

PANELISTS:
HOLLIS GOODALL, Former Curator of Japanese Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), CA
CAROL HORVITZ, Japanese art collector and museum patron, MA
TASHIMA ETSUKO, Gallery artist and Professor of Ceramics at Osaka University of the Arts, Japan
TOMITA MIKIKO, Gallery artist
Moderated by JOAN MIRVISS

To register for this free event, click here.

Female Gaze: Peng Wei’s Feminine Space
China Institute’s Contemporary Art Lecture Series
Thursday, Dec 7 from 6:00-7:15 pm
40 Rector St, 2nd Floor
Tickets, $10; Members & Students, Free

Join the China Institute tomorrow for an immersive exploration into the captivating world of Peng Wei, an artist renowned for her unique approach to representing the diversity of female perspectives. This lecture is a key part of the lecture series for the China Institute’s contemporary art exhibition, showcasing the multifaceted nature of Chinese contemporary art and its dialogues with history and identity.

Moderated by Jane DeBevoise, the Chair Emeritus of Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong and Chair of Asia Art Archive in America in New York, their talk will delve into the multiple dimensions of Peng Wei’s art. Whether expansive or intimate, three-dimensional or flat, her work consistently centers around women. Rather than simply portraying real or fictional female figures, Peng Wei engages in a dynamic process of responding to and reshaping these representations.

This nuanced interplay between response and remodeling in Peng Wei’s art blurs the lines, demanding a closer look and deeper understanding. Join Jane and Peng Wei in this artistic exploration, where each piece is a dialogue, a story, and a celebration of women’s diverse experiences throughout history.

To register, click here.

Paul Binnie (Scottish, b. 1967), Flowers of a Hundred Years: Bubble Era [of 1990] (Hyakunen no hana: Baburu Jidai), dai oban tate-e 18 1/2 x 13 in. (47 x 33 cm)

Paul Binnie: 30 Prints for 30 Years of Printmaking
Online Exhibition

Scholten Japanese Art is pleased to celebrate Paul Binnie’s new print releases, as well as his highly prolific and accomplished 30 year career, with their special online exhibition, Paul Binnie: 30 Prints for 30 Years of Printmaking.

This online show not only features the recent print releases of Bubble Era of 1990, Tears (red-bronze variant), and The Moon Moth Suite, but also some of the artist’s most rare and sought-after designs, including such rarities as his 1994 Nocturne and the 2005 Butterfly Bow, both of which have long proven (nearly) impossible to acquire by his most ardent collectors.

To view these works and others in the exhibition, click here.

A Pair of Magnificent Famille Verse Double Gourd Vases with Ormolu Bases and Gilt Brown Lacquer Stands, the porcelain Kangxi, the French gilt bronze mounts probably 19th century, the lacquer stands probably early 19th century; Estimate: US$50,000-US$70,000, The Alan and Simone Hartman Collection: The Inaugural Sale

Bonhams New York
The Alan and Simone Hartman Collection: The Inaugural Sale

Viewings:
December 8 (10am-5pm)
December 9-10 (12-5pm)
December 11-13 (10am-5pm)
December 14 (10am-12pm)

Auction: December 14 at 5pm EST

Bonhams is proud to announce the landmark auction, The Alan and Simone Hartman Collection: The Inaugural Sale, this winter in New York. The esteemed art and antique gallerist Alan Hartman (1930-2023) and his wife Simone amassed an extraordinary personal collection of Impressionist works of art by the greatest names in art history, as well as a stunning and extensive array of Asian Art. Following a world tour to Bonhams salerooms in Paris, London, and Hong Kong, 23 works of Fine Art and 70 works of Asian Art will be presented as a single-owner sale on December 14 in New York, with Part II of the Asian Art collection to be presented during March Asia Week 2024 and in future Chinese and Japanese auctions at Bonhams.

While the Hartmans delighted in collecting impeccable Impressionist and Modern artworks, the core of their collection was built around Chinese and Japanese works of art. Highlights from this category include two rare and massive Imperial Jiajing mark and period (1521-1567) blue and white porcelains, a stunning pair of imposing ‘Famille Verte’ double-gourd vases, Kangxi (1662-1723) set in ormolu mounts, an important group of Chinese archaic bronzes, and a spectacular selection of Japanese lacquer suzuribako.

Dessa Goddard, VP and US Head of Asian Art, Bonhams, said, “Alan Hartman was one of the most influential dealers of Asian Art, and together with Simone created a preeminent collection of Chinese jade, bronzes and Asian works of art. We are thrilled to offer highlights from their personal collection in this Inaugural December auction in New York and in forthcoming sales worldwide.”

To learn more and view the sale, click here.

Women across Asian Art, Selected Essays in Art and Material Culture, Edited by Ling-en Lu and Allysa B. Peyton, 2023, University of Florida Press

Women across Asian Art, Selected Essays in Art and Material Culture
Edited by Ling-en Lu and Allysa B. Peyton

Women across Asian Art, the newest volume of the David A. Cofrin Asian Art Manuscript Series, examines an underserved aspect of Asian art history by discussing women artists, collectors, archaeologists, and architects. The essays in Women across Asian Art cover a wide geographical area from Japan to Pakistan, as they draw attention to people whose efforts have largely been left out of scholarship.

Filled with exquisite color illustrations, The volume begins by looking at iconography representing the goddess Marici in Chinese art as well as ancient Chinese characters related to gender roles during the Shang dynasty. Contributors then discuss topics including women’s participation as hangeul (Korean alphabet) calligraphers, artists in Japanese Saison culture, and early archaeologists in China. Shedding light on individuals such as poet and painter Luo Qilan, collector Brenda Zara Seligman, architect Lin Huiyin, neo-miniaturist Saira Wasim, painter Tseng Yuho, and sculptor Tayeba Begum Lipi, these essays represent a broad range of contributions from pioneers in their respective fields to current-day activists.

Using primary sources, museum collections, and archival material, the contributors—curators and independent scholars—investigate their collections and fields with new strategies and present original research. As museums are intentionally turning their attention to overlooked narratives of women, this volume continues the important work of uncovering their stories in Asian art history.

To learn more, click here.

Paul Binnie (Scottish, b. 1967), The Moon Moth Suite, each print signed in sumi ink within composition, Binnie, numbered and titled in pencil on bottom margin, 3/30, Moon Moth Mask, Scarlet Sabre Bills of Sirene, and Sea Dragon Mask, followed by pencil signature, Paul Binnie, 2023, dimensions variable

Scholten Japanese Art is pleased to announce the release of an exciting new set by Paul Binnie, The Moon Moth Suite, comprising of a set of three woodblock printed illustrations, Moon Moth Mask, Scarlet Sabre Bills, and Sea Dragon Mask. The designs are featured in a 2023 re-release of the 1961 science fiction book, The Moon Moth, by Jack Vance (1916-2013).

Binnie was commissioned by the publisher Cordes Press in the United Kingdom to provide the prints for a new edition of the famous and influential novella. The Cordes edition features three black and white illustrations which are based on Binnie’s keyblock prints of the designs, and there is also a (sold-out) luxury edition limited to only fourteen copies of the book with hand-printed color woodblock prints. Inspired by this unique project, Binnie used the same blocks to produce this small edition limited to thirty impressions of the suite of three full-color prints utilizing slightly variant color schemes embellished with the addition of mica, embossing, gold metallic printing, and extra bokashi shadings.

To learn more about this exciting new release, click here.

Komago Tetsutaro, Group of polychrome guinomi, 2023

Winter Kogei Collection
Exhibition of Japanese Contemporary Sake and Tea Ceramics
November 22, 2023 – January 4, 2024

Dai Ichi Arts’ upcoming holiday collection features new ceramic works that are a tribute to the joys of small and tender objects. Exploring form, function, decoration, and traditions, the artists’ expressions of “Kogei” serve as vibrant tributes to the joys of form and function in expansive objects.

Their 3 gallery artists – Kim Hono, Ikenishi Go and Komago Tetsutarou – each bring unique perspectives to the concept of “Kogei,” crafting honest objects from the heart.  This exhibition showcases the debut collections of Ikenishi Go and Komago Tetsutaro at Dai Ichi Arts and in the United States, as well as a highly anticipated new ceramic collection by Kim Hono.

The exhibition is available to view online and in-person by appointment only.

To learn more, click here.