Paul Binnie (Scottish, b. 1967), Travels with the Master: Pittsburgh Night (Meishou to no tabi: Pittsubagu no Yuro), chuban yoko-e 8 5/8 by 12 in (22 by 30.4 cm), signed in silver kanji, Bin-ni, followed by red circular artist’s seal, BINNIE, with series title in upper left margin, Meishou to no tabi, followed by print title, Pittsubagu no Yoru, with Binnie embossed at center bottom margin, and titled, numbered, and signed in pencil, Pittsburgh Night, 6/100, Paul Binnie, 2024

Scholten Japanese Art is happy to announce the eighth design from Paul Binnie’s ongoing Travels with the Master series which pays homage to the shin-hanga landscape artist, Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950).

Inspired by Yoshida’s 1929 small format print, Evening in Pittsburgh (Pittsubaagu no yu), Binnie visited the Pittsburgh in 2013 while en route to Ohio for the opening of the landmark Fresh Impressions shin-hanga exhibition at the Toledo Museum of Art, where he gave a lecture and print demonstration, and his own work was on view in a related installation on contemporary Japanese prints.

Hiroshi Yoshida, Evening in Pittsburgh, 1929

The two versions of Pittsburgh show what a difference a hundred years can make; at the time Yoshida visited, Pittsburg was a major industrial town and his work conveys the smog and pollution that plagued the city during the 1920s. Binnie’s print on the other hand captures a much cleaner and modern city, which no longer counts steel as its major industry. The air is clear, and the purples and blues of the night are vibrant and bold. The print features complex bokashi shadings to capture the transition of light on the illuminated buildings, and the support columns of the bridge are printed in black urushi-e (lacquer printing) to highlight the solid structure and to stand out against the blue keyblock.

To learn more, click here.

Installation view, Literati and Rocks Amidst Verdant Bloom, courtesy Fu Qiumeng Fine Art

Literati and Rocks Amidst Verdant Bloom
Closing Saturday, April 13, 2024

There’s still time to view Literati and Rocks Amidst Verdant Bloom, a meticulously curated selection of classical and contemporary art works that embodies the soul of Asian artistry at Fu Qiumeng Fine Art before it closes this Saturday, the 13th.

The exhibition explores the appreciation of rocks, nature, and calligraphy in Chinese literati paintings, which served as a silent form of communication among the scholars–reflecting aesthetic, cultural, and intellectual pursuits.

Highlights include Ruan Ji’s Poems in Running Script by Dong Qichang (1555-1636) and Scholar Rocks by Sun Kehong (1532-1610), which exemplify the pinnacle of literati taste in Chinese brushwork. Works by Wang Fu’an (1879-1960), C. C. Wang (1907-2003), and Wang Fangyu (1913-1997) further illuminate this rich lineage.

Bridging past and present, the exhibition showcases contemporary artists who carry the torch. Arnold Chang (b. 1954) offers his latest breathtaking boneless landscape, while Michael Cherney (b. 1969) presents his powerful bilingual work that resonates with audiences navigating cultural intersections. Zhang Xiaoli (b. 1989) and Yau Wing Fung (b. 1990) contribute pieces that connect with younger generations, bridging the generational gap.

Additional established artists include Hisao Hanafusa (b. 1937), Fung Ming Chip (b. 1951), Wang Mansheng (b. 1962), and Tai Xiangzhou (b. 1968), ensuring a diverse and enriching experience.

Be sure to experience this engaging exhibition before it closes this weekend!

To learn more, click here.

Negozio Olivetti in-situ images courtesy of Adriano Cisani, Bianca Vannucchi, Massimo Micheluzzi and Ippodo Gallery

Massimo Micheluzzi: New Works
Featuring Works from Negozio Olivetti by Carlo Scarpa
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 11, 6-8pm
April 11 – May 2, 2024

This Spring, Ippodo Gallery is pleased to present two Italian Venetian artists: Massimo Micheluzzi this month, followed by Laura de Santillana in May.

Italy and Japan. Surrounded by seas, and stretching similarly great lengths from the north to the south, the two are both mountainous lands that share characteristics of geographical boundaries and climates. While the two countries differ dramatically in their histories and cultures, there is a shared sympathy between the fine elements of culture and art where craftsmen of both cultures value tradition, innovation, and expertise. There’s great anticipation to see what kinds of dialogue and impressions these exhibitions will induce.

The first will be Massimo Micheluzzi: New Works Featuring Works from Negozio Olivetti by Carlo Scarpa, the artist’s second solo exhibition of Murano glass, in collaboration with legendary dealer Barry Friedman LTD. The exhibit will feature 30 glassworks, including 11 pieces that showed at the architectural marvel Negozio Olivetti, designed by Carlo Scarpa, in Venice, Italy following the show’s conclusion in autumn 2023. The character of Micheluzzi’s sculptural works in relation to the greater architectural and decorative history of Italian craftmanship bears a close resemblance to the aesthetic harmony between people and space emphasized in Japanese culture.

Massimo’s works are mosaics of exciting patterns, uniquely Italian in sense of color, and a gentle size that fits between one’s palms. Though certainly eye-catching, the presence of each mosaic harmonizes with their surroundings, echoing architectural elements: lines, curves, and colors; materials such as cobblestones, tiles, wood; and light and shadow.

To learn more and view his new works, click here.

Online video A Collecting Dynasty: The Rockefeller Family, courtesy The Winter Show and YouTube.com

Asia Week New York in partnership with The Winter Show is pleased to present the online video of our panel discussion, A Collecting Dynasty: The Rockefeller Family, here in the Webinars and Video section of our website.

For those of you who missed this in-person conversation with experts closely associated with the Rockefeller family during the Winter Show a few months ago, here is your chance to view this fascinating discussion on the legacy of the Rockefeller family, their remarkable collections, and lasting contributions to the world of art and antiques.

The video was also just named as a ‘Critic’s Pick’ by the editors of The New Criterion in their culture dispatch published this past Tuesday. Click here to read the article.

As passionate art collectors and philanthropists with an incredible range of interests that spanned the globe, the Rockefeller family in so many ways epitomizes the pinnacle of patronage in the country. Throughout several generations, beginning with Abby and John D Rockefeller, Jr., their unwavering support for the visual arts was critical to the development of many cultural institutions focused on the family members’ individual collecting interests, such as Asia Society, the Cloisters, Colonial Williamsburg and its Folk Art Museum, Japan Society, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art.

Panelists included:

Cynthia Bronson Altman, Independent Scholar, Kykuit Curator, 1992-2018
Michele Beiny Harkins, President Michele Beiny Inc.
Vishakha Desai, President Emerita, Asia Society, Senior Advisor for Global Affairs, Columbia University
Moderated by Joan B. Mirviss, President, Joan B Mirviss LTD and art historian

Click here to watch the video.

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi 芳年 (1839-1892), “Looking Delighted: The appearance of a present-day geisha of the Meiji Era,” Series: Thirty-two Types of Women (Fuzoku sanjû-ni sô), 1888, ôban (36.9 x 224 cm)

Capital Art Print Fair
April 5 – 7 2024
Cocktail Party Preview: Friday, 5-8pm
Saturday (10am-5pm) and Sunday (11am-5pm) Free Admission
1135 16th St NW, Washington DC 20036

Egenolf Gallery returns to the Capital Art Print Fair in DC this weekend after five years away with a curated selection of fine 18th-20th century Japanese prints, including a number of works not yet available on the website.

The Capital Art Fair, started more than 40 years ago, is the oldest Fair in America devoted to fine prints and drawings.  Plan a weekend in DC amongst the cherry blossoms and browse original works from fifteen fine print dealers in one beautiful space!

To learn more and reserve your tickets, click here.

Wu Guanzhong (Chinese, 1919-2010),  Rooted Willow on River Bank, ink on paper, ca. 1980, Estimate: US$200,000-US$300,000, Asian Paintings and Works of Art from the Collection of Bruce and Barbara Sullivan, Birmingham, Alabama

iGavel is pleased to present their newest auction, Asian Paintings and Works of Art from the Collection of Bruce and Barbara Sullivan, Birmingham, Alabama, now open for bidding.

There is also time to bid on their other wonderful Asian Art auction, The Collection of Charles A. Coolidge: Commander, American Legation, Peking, Circa 1900 before it closes next week!

Asian Paintings and Works of Art from the Collection of Bruce and Barbara Sullivan, Birmingham, Alabama
Presented by: Lark Mason Associates
Online Auction: April 2–April 18, 2024

Bruce and Barbara Sullivan were patrons of the arts, having established The Sullivan Collection at the Birmingham Museum of Art. Dr. M. Bruce Sullivan served under his father-in-law in the United States Medical Corps, where he met Barbara. Barbara had lived a military life herself. As the daughter of Admiral and Mrs. Clyde Wyndham Brunson, at the age of 14 she witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Dr. and Mrs. Sullivan spent their early years of marriage in Japan. Here, Barbara started her interest in and study of Asian Culture that would go on for years, amassing Asian Art across all categories. Highlights include a work by one of the founders of Modern Chinese Paintings, Wu Guanzhong.

To learn more and bid, click here.

 

Chinese Gilt Bronze Cloisonne Circular Box, Qianlong Mark and Period, Estimate: US$5,000-US$8,000, The Collection of Charles A. Coolidge: Commander, American Legation, Peking, Circa 1900

The Collection of Charles A. Coolidge: Commander, American Legation, Peking, Circa 1900
Accompanied by his personal ledger and inventory of the collection acquired during his Beijing Assignment
Presented by: Lark Mason Associates
Online Auction: Closes April 9, 2024

Charles Austin Coolidge, Jr. was a Brigadier General in the United States Army, serving in the American Civil War and the Spanish-American War, and as the commander of the American Legation in China during the Boxer Uprising. According to Arlington Cemetery records, after being stationed in the Philippine Islands, his regiment was transferred to China in 1900 as part of the China Relief Expedition Campaigns, where he took command of the American Legation quarter in Beijing. The Arlington Cemetery records list Coolidge as the first American to enter Peking during the Boxer Uprising. He kept a personal ledger and inventory of works he collected during this time, and lots are offered with copies of relevant pages. The ledger itself will be featured as an available lot.

To learn more and bid, click here.

Shin Sung Hy (1948-2009), 88050 and 89017, installation view Korean Artists in Paris, HK Art & Antiques

Korean Artists in Paris
Closing Friday, April 5, 2024
Monday-Friday, 11am-5:30pm (by appointment only)

Be sure to catch Korean Artists in Paris at HK Art & Antiques before it closes this Friday, April 5th. Curated by Heakyum Kim and Pierre Cambon, the former curator at the Musée Guimet, this exhibition showcases the work of Chung Sanghwa, Shin Sung Hy, Nam Kwan and Kim Sang-lan, four Korean artists who have lived and worked in Paris. Known in both Korea and France, their successful careers cover a great span of time, from the 1950s to the present. Each artist demonstrates how the two countries impacted their work.

To learn more and make an appointment, click here.

Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797–1858), Plum Estate, Kameido (Kameido Umeyashiki), no. 30 from 100 Famous Views of Edo, 11th month of 1857. Woodblock print, 14 3/16 × 9 1/4 in. (36 × 23.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum; Gift of Anna Ferris, 30.1478.30. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

Hiroshige’s 100 Famous Views of Edo (feat. Takashi Murakami)
April 5 – August 4, 2024
Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing and Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery, 5th Floor

What are the must-see locations in your favorite city? Where do you go when you need a breath of fresh air? What makes certain neighborhoods famous? Join an artist-insider on a tour of nineteenth-century Tokyo (then known as Edo), from lumberyards to destination restaurants, and see if his choices illuminate your own relationship with the cities you know well.

For the first time in twenty-four years, Utagawa Hiroshige’s 100 Famous Views of Edo—one of the Brooklyn Museum’s greatest treasures—returns to public display. The Museum’s complete set of these celebrated prints is among the world’s finest, full of vibrant colors preserved by decades in the dark.

While most presentations have centered on the prints’ technical sophistication and influence on European artists, here they focus on the urban subject matter. Originally published in 1856–58, the series captures the evolving socioeconomic and environmental landscape of the city that would become Tokyo. Through both the prints and complementary objects drawn from the Museum’s collection, you’ll be immersed in mid-nineteenth-century Edo and see it through the eyes of the ordinary people who populate Hiroshige’s settings. You’ll encounter all four seasons in scenes of picnics beneath cherry blossoms, summer rainstorms, falling maple leaves, and wintry dusks. The exhibition also includes modern photographs to show how Hiroshige’s scenes morphed into today’s Tokyo.

Artist Takashi Murakami (born Tokyo, Japan, 1962) takes Hiroshige’s views into a more fantastical realm with a set of his own paintings. Created in direct response to 100 Famous Views of Edo, these works invite us to reconsider Hiroshige’s world and his contributions to global art history.

There are also many, exciting programs accompanying this exhibition sponsored by the museum and the Japanese Art Society of America for its members, including printmaking workshops, artist talks and tours starting this week.

To learn about events for Japanese Art Society of America members, click here.

To learn more about the exhibition and Brooklyn Museum events, click here.

Installation view, Cosmic Sound: Master Paintings by Ken Matsubara, Ippodo Gallery

Cosmic Sound: Master Paintings by Ken Matsubara
Closing Thursday, April 4, 2024

There’s still time to experience Cosmic Sound: Master Paintings by Ken Matsubara at Ippodo Gallery before it closes this Thursday, the 4th.  This exhibition is a culmination of the artist’s concepts featuring twenty of the beloved painter’s unique artworks and showcasing series spanning his long and illustrious career, including three works depicting the auspicious and fearsome dragon zodiac, the spectacular 12-panel Kūkai’s View and versions of Scenery and the Moon Sound.

Ken Matsubara (b. 1948) came to the medium of painting as a young man living amongst monks at a Buddhist temple in north-central Japan. Now residing in Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture, a natural landscape of rivers and waterfalls, Matsubara sojourned across the Japanese archipelago, finding inspiration through researching local imaginations of the dragon—sometimes a sky god or spirit of the water. The transcendental themes of his youth continue to permeate his works. One universal symbol is the circle, symbolizing the resonant sound of a ringing prayer bowl. The repetitive shape muddies the separation between sun or moon, sky or sea, or foreground from background: all is one and one is all.

For this exhibition, Matsubara chose 明 “mei” as the underlying theme. The Chinese character is composed of two radicals: “day” and “moon,” representing brightness, clearness, and intelligence. Just as tomorrow will surely dawn, even after a pitch-dark night, there is hope that in the darkness of today’s world, people will mature, become wise, and illuminate the way ahead for those that come next.

To learn more and watch Ken Matsubara’s Artist Talk, click here.

Folio from a Company School album of botanical paintings, Mango (Mangifera indica), India, circa 1830, watercolor on paper, 17 x 22 in. (43.2 x 56 cm), courtesy Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch Ltd.

Asia Week New York wrapped with another splendid year where our galleries were extremely active and sold a great deal of important works of art. Below is a survey of some of the many successful sales, with wonderful Asian art pieces being placed in both private and public collections.

Ralph M. Chait Galleries, Inc.
Spring Exhibition of Chinese Porcelain and Works of Art
Amongst their healthy sales of porcelain, wood sculpture, and Chinese export silver was this Chinese Famille Verte Plate from the Kangxi period with stunning butterfly and flower decoration.

Egenolf Gallery Japanese Prints
Supernatural: Cat Demons, Ogres and Shapeshifters
Visited by curators from many national museums, the gallery sold a number of woodblock prints including Woman Wearing an Under-sash by Itō Shinsui.

Oliver Forge & Brendan Lynch Ltd.
Gods, Gardens, and Princes: Indian Works on Paper
Included in the sales going to a London collector, an American museum, and a non-Indian Asian museum were Mango (Mangifera indica) and The King of Afghanistan Zaman Shah Durrani leaving Lahore.

Fu Qiumeng Fine Art
Literati and Rocks Amidst Verdant Bloom
With more curators and clients visiting Asia Week New York this year, especially collectors traveling from Asia, one of their many sales was Box Unlimited by contemporary ink artist, Zhang Xiaoli.

Francesca Galloway
Indian Panting: Intimacy and Formality
There was overwhelming enthusiasm for Indian painting and decorative arts by both collectors and museums, including four whimsical early 18th century Bikaner paintings joined together to make a composition that recalls a 17th century Mughal floral painting.

Ippodo Gallery
Cosmic Sound: Magnificent Paintings and Screen by Ken Matsubara
Numerous private collectors and museums purchased pieces from this exhibition, including Sun & Moon–one of the featured paintings by Ken Matsubara–which is going to an important public institution.

Sebastian Izzard LLC Asian Art
Japanese Paintings, Prints, and Illustrated Books: 1760-1810
Among the mix of paintings (both hanging scrolls and a six-panel screen), prints, and illustrated books that sold to museums and private collectors was Suzuki Harunobu’s, Narihira’s Journey to the East.

Kapoor Galleries
Time is a Construct
Dozens of viewers, buyers, scholars, and curators visited the gallery with a great number of works sold, including Illustration to the ‘Large’ Guler-Basohli Bhagavata Purana:The Liberation of Nalakuvara and Manigriva Attributed to Manaku Guler-Basohli.

Joan B Mirviss LTD
Eternal Partnership: Japanese Ceramics and Blue and White
This collaboration with Porcelains in the Mist: The Kondō Family of Ceramicists at the Brooklyn Museum, along with private events and their gallery artist Kondo Takahiro in attendance saw over 70 works placed in  both private collections and major institutions, including this rare calligraphic vase by Kitaōji Rosanjin (1883-1959).

Thomas Murray
Recent Acquisitions: Patola, Ainu, Boro
Visited by numerous national museums and informed private collectors, the gallery sold Indian patola silks and Ainu robes, one of which is a rare striking geometric white on indigo Kaparamip Robe.

Scholten Japanese Art
COLLECTING THE MASTER: The Binnie Collection of Hiroshi Yoshida Paintings
Many collectors and curators appreciated this very special private collection of paintings by Hiroshi Yoshida, assembled by the artist Paul Binnie. Among the works sold was Boats, a sumi ink on silk scroll painting.

TAI Modern
A Pause in Time, An Emptiness in Space: Ma in Japanese Bamboo Art
Among the many sales of historic and contemporary works in this exhibition was a Peony Basket by Kajiwara Koho.

Thomsen Gallery
Japanese Modern Masterpieces 1910-1950
Many of the Japanese lacquer boxes, bamboo baskets, and screens in this exhibition found buyers, including Beauty with Fan, a hanging scroll by Yamakawa Shūhō (1898-1944), from the 1920s.

Zetterquist Galleries
Chinese and Vietnamese Ceramics from Private and American and Japanese Collections
With many national museum curators visiting throughout Asia Week, seventy-five percent of this exhibition was sold, including this large 15-16th century blue and white jar with Ruyi decoration, from the Le-So dynasties in Vietnam.

Read more about the feedback from our AWNY dealers and combined sales between the twenty-one galleries and five auction houses in the recent Press Release here.