Asian Art Newspaper March 2021

ASIAN ART

The newspaper for collectors, dealers, museums and galleries

june 2005

£5.00/ US$8/ €10

RARE RU WARE FOUND IN GERMAN COLLECTION The Porzellansammlung in Dresden has announced a new find. Ru ceramics come from the time of China’s Northern Song dynasty (9601127), and were only produced for a very short period of some 20 years.

Today, only a few pieces have survived around the world. Fired in one of the five famous kilns of the Song dynasty, they are a great rarity. The bowl in the porcelain collection was long believed to have originated in Korea in the 10th to 13th centuries, as Korean porcelain and ceramics of that era are very similar to Ru ware and it is often difficult to differentiate between the two. Staff from the Palace Museum in Beijing had suggested that the bowl in Dresden could be a Ru piece back in 2018 – this has now been confirmed by Regina Krahl, an expert in Chinese ceramics.

The bowl is now the 88th piece of Ru ceramic known to date.

Commenting on the find, Krahl says, ‘Out of the wealth of Chinese ceramics from every era, Ru ware are the rarest of all and have always been considered the absolute pinnacle of

the art, not just because of their simple beauty, but also, above all, due to their historical significance.

Worldwide, fewer than a hundred pieces have survived, and every single one has been registered and published upon’.

A digital catalogue of the porcelain collection is now being created with the cooperation of more than 20 international experts.

Krahl’s attention was initially drawn to this low-key piece on a trip to Dresden at the start of 2020. Its simple elegance and beauty lies in the quality of the design, the intensity of the colour, and quality of the glaze. Probably made for washing brushes, it has a vertical rim and stands on a narrow foot which curves outwards. The glaze has a subdued bluish-green glaze with the crazing typically found in Ru ceramics: a pattern reminiscent of crackled ice.

The bowl was originally part of the collection of the doctor Oscar Rücker-Embden, acquired when he was staying in China from 1913 to 1914. In 1927, it was bought by Ernst Albert Zimmermann, the then

Bowl, Ru ware, probably made for washing brushes, bluish-green glaze with the crazing typical of Ru ceramics, diam. 13 centimetres, Porzellansammlung

NEWS IN BRIEF

Lacquer Works by Yoshio Okada March 11– 20, 2021

Inside

KATHMANDU TRIENNALE

Kathmandu Triennale 2077 has announced new dates for the fourth edition, which will now take place from 27 October to 27 November, 2021. The triennale, which was due to take place in December 2020, made the decision to delay due to the ongoing pandemic. As an acknowledgement to the event’s deep roots in the art and viewpoints of Nepal, as well as of the multiple temporal displacements the pandemic has brought, the Triennale has decided to mark its next edition as Kathmandu Triennale 2077 – the current year of the Nepali calendar. The change of emphasis towards this ancestral system of counting time is in solidarity with the many efforts to decolonise references that the event seeks to present in its programme. More information on kathmandutriennale.org

KERALA MUSEUM, INDIA

Yoshio Okada (b. 1977)

Thomsen Gallery

9 East 63rd Street

Maki-e Lacquer Box with

Japanese Art, New York, NY 10065

Design of Jellyfish, 2020

Contemporary Art Phone 212 288 2588

Size 5½ × 5½ × 5½ inches

info@thomsengallery.com

(14 × 14 × 14 cm)

www.thomsengallery.com

director of the Porzellansammlung, and entered the Dresden collection of Chinese and Korean ceramics.

Ernst Zimmermann was considered an internationally respected authority on East Asian porcelain.

Julia Weber, director of the director of the Porzellansammlung: ‘We know that there are precious treasures to be found in Dresden’s Porzellansammlung, some of them little-known, but the fact that they include one of these legendary Ru ceramics is a real sensation. The bowl was one of the very first ceramics to be made exclusively for the Chinese imperial court more than 900 years ago. As the Song dynasty was driven into the south of China by invaders shortly afterwards, Ru ceramics had already became a mythologised memento of an idealised lost past immediately after their creation.

This small bowl is steeped history and is very much at home in the Dresden, where Augustus the Strong (1670-1733) assembled the largest collection of Chinese porcelain outside Asia’.

Keen to become the country’s museum hub, Kerala is on the course to update their heritage building to include interactive spaces to attract a modern audience. A key element of the ‘New Museum Movement’ is to promote mini museums across the state. The Hill Palace Museum in suburban Tripunithura will open galleries that re-explore the ruling dynasty of Kochi. The 54-acre Hill Palace is the state’s biggest museum, 15 km east of Kochi and has been open to the public since 1986. The galleries, known for their historical, architectural, and botanical sections, have not completed their modernisation programme and are open to the public. At the other end of the spectrum, the Bastion Bungalow, in the city’s western pocket, has adopted a distinct perspective to Kerala’s mercantile trading network from the ancient to modern era. Since last month, the Bastion Bungalow in Fort Kochi functions as the Ernakulam District Heritage

2 Profile: the artist Mandy El-Sayegh 6 The kimono in print, 300 years of Japanese design 8 Celebrating the anniversary of Henri Mouhot, the French explorer in Southeast Asia 10 A studio visit with the artist Xue Song, in Shanghai 12 The Ramayana, tracing its footprint through Sri Lanka 14 From the Archives, splendours from the Yongle and Xuande reigns, held in Beijing 16 Asia Week New York, gallery shows and online exhibitions 19 New York exhibitions: Japan: A History of Style; The Year of the Ox; Awaken: A Tibetan Journey Towards Enlightenment; and Carpentry Tools from Japan 20 New York and London auction previews 22 Yayoi Kusama in Berlin, Miao silver in California, and Indian paintings in Zurich 23 Islamic Arts Diary

Next issue April 2021

Scan me

To visit our home page. For contact details see page 2

Continued on page 2

asianartnewspaper.com #AsianArtPaper |

asianartnewspaper |

asianartnewspaper |

Asian Art Newspaper

2 Profile Contact us The Asian Art Newspaper Vol 24 Issue 4 Published by Asian Art Newspaper Ltd, London Editor/publisher Sarah Callaghan The Asian Art Newspaper PO Box 22521, London W8 4GT, UK sarah.callaghan@ asianartnewspaper.com tel +44 (0)20 7229 6040 Advertising Kelvin McManus Commerical Manager tel +44 (0)7877 866692 kelvin.mcmanus@cksmedia.co.uk Send advertising to Asian Art Newspaper PO Box 22521 London W8 4GT info@asianartnewspaper.com tel +44 (0)20 7229 6040 Art direction Gary Ottewill, Editorial Design garyottewill.com Subscriptions manager Heather Milligan info.asianart@btinternet.com tel +44 (0)20 7229 6040 Subscriptions and administration Asian Art Newspaper PO Box 22521 London W8 4GT United Kingdom info.asianart@btinternet.com tel +44 (0)20 7229 6040 Changes of address Information as above SHOP ONLINE at asianartnewspaper.com for back issues, subscriptions, and digital editions Annual print subscription (8 issues a year) UK £55 Rest of Europe £65 Rest of World £75 US residents US$100 (including airmail postage) Monthly except for Winter Quarter (Dec-Feb) and Summer Quarter (June-Aug) DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION £35 digital subscription per year Copyright 2021 © The Asian Art Newspaper The Asian Art Ltd All rights reserved. No part of this newspaper may be reproduced without written consent.

The Asian Art Newspaper is not responsible for the statements expressed in contributed articles and commentaries.

Advertisments are accepted in good faith, but are the responsibility of the advertiser and The Asian Art Newspaper is not liable for any claims made in advertisements.

Price guides and values are solely for readers’ reference and The Asian Art Newspaper accepts no legal responsibility for any such information published.

ISSN 1460-8537

Looking for something to read?

Explore our extensive archives at asianartnewspaper.com

asian art | march 2021 |

MANDY EL-SAYEGH

by Olivia Sand

Mandy El-Sayegh.

Photo: Eva Herzog

If we needed an actively involved artist, who is outspoken and trying to make sense of the world around us, Mandy El-Sayegh would be our ambassador.

She contemplates where we humans stand within our environment and what type of relationship we have with our own body. With her work adopting perspectives that go from the global to the microscopic, her work and thoughts evolve around the body on all possible levels, be it personal, biological, political, or sociological. She is a multidisciplinary artist, who works in painting, sculpture, installation and performance. At the centre of her practice is the preservation of the body, and in a broader sense of people, their thoughts, memories, traditions, and cultures.

Born in 1985 in Malaysia, and based in London, Mandy El-Sayegh relentlessly questions meanings, connections, headlines, and concepts, relying on her work to manifest this undertaking.

The following discussion gives an insight into her world, highlighting the issues she is addressing and that affect us all.

Asian Art Newspaper: How has the pandemic, with its constant unexpected relapses, affected your practice over the past months?

Mandy El-Sayegh: I think I will know

more retrospectively, but I have been lucky as I could shelter, and my practice has always been quite solitary. I am one of those artists who is just continuing work and carrying on. In this sense, my studio practice has not been impacted, but the psychological weight of the situation has, of course, affected the work.

AAN: Has the pandemic also impacted the issues you address in your work, or your personal approach towards it?

MES: The pandemic has highlighted

certain uses of language engrained in my practice. I use biological axioms, so this idea of mutation, contamination, and spread, has always been essential to my work.

I use the family as a starting point: my father’s kidney failure acts as a metaphor without poetry, a lesson in how to protect borders and boundaries, and to a larger extent, what it means to be half Palestinian and Malaysian-Chinese, and how that affects subjectivity. All these things that existed in my practice were further highlighted by the language and terminology we are presently using,and becoming familiar with, as the pandemic goes on. Needless to say, the virus is

news in brief Museum. The bungalow’s galleries now explain the interventions of the colonial Portuguese, Dutch, and the British powers into the political domain of Kerala’s kingdoms.

Overall, 11 museums have been updated and their missions revised to attract and engage new audiences.

ART DUBAI

The major art fair in Dubai is taking placein a new venue from 29 March to 3 April, with about 45 participating galleries. It coincides with the UAE’s Golden Jubilee celebrations for the country’s 50th anniversary. Scheduled is a line-up of galleries from diverse location, inventive programming and a more artist-led approach that aims to bring communities together. The three main sections of the fair are Contemporary, Modern and Bawwaba (gateway), which features works created since 2020. For more information, visit artdubai.ae

aga khan museum, toronto

Launched in January 2021, the museum’s new podcast series, This Being Human, explores the arts of Muslim cultures and the contributions of Muslim civilizations to world heritage.

The podcast’s name nods to The Guest House, a poem by the beloved 13thcentury Iranian poet Rumi. Dr Ulrike Al-Khamis, Interim Director and CEO of the Aga Khan Museum, explains ‘Rumi’s poem encapsulates the goals and the spirit of this project perfectly. With This Being Human, as with all of our public programmes, we #AsianArtPaper |

asianartnewspaper |

aim to spark curiosity, connection, and an openness to people and experiences that may be new to us’. Among the first guests are cultural luminaries such as art collector and impresario Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, two-time Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, and author and New York Times contributing op-ed writer Wajahat Ali.

lumiere gallery, moscow

The Lumiere Gallery has a new venue with the new space housing two exhibition halls, the educational Lumiere Club and a bookstore on the ground floor. The Gallery will concentrate on working with collectible photography of Soviet and Western photographic heritage, and also launch new offline and online projects, as well as continue its active exhibition programme of world-wide photography. More information on lumiere.ru

chinese coins found in uk

A medieval Chinese coin, the second ever found in Hampshire, points to the possible existence of a vast medieval trade route spanning much of the Eastern hemisphere. The copper-alloy coin dates to the Northern Song dynasty, between 1008 and 1016, and would have likely circulated through the 14th century. The find follows the discovery of a similar coin, dated from 1068 and 1077, in Cheshire in 2018.

Originally thought to be lost coins from a collection, this second find is beginning to change experts’ minds – asianartnewspaper |

and that the case for medieval trade links between China and the UK has become much more convincing, especially since both coins turned up in areas where medieval and early post-medieval material has previously been discovered. However, as they were both metal-detector finds rather than from an organised archaeological dig, the coins may have made their way to the UK in later centuries.

french tomb to be restored, india

The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage has resumed a project to restore the tomb of French soldier Major Jean Etienne, on the outskirts of Delhi, who is believed to have served for about 35 years in the mercenary army of Begum Samru.

Located in the middle of a park in Gurgaon, just southwest of New Delhi, the neglected tomb was erected in memory of Major Jean Etienne, who hailed from Bordeaux, France, and died in 1821 at the age of 75. The large white structure brings a focus to an important ruler of pre-independent India. The estate where Etienne’s memorial is located was once owned

by Begum Samru, the legendary warrior who rose from being a dancing girl to the leader of a mercenary army which saved Mughal emperor Shah Alam – twice. Historians claim Begum Samru, born in 1750 with the given name Farzana, was the daughter of a Muslim nobleman; others contend that she was an orphan raised as a nautch dancing girl. Begum Samru was the supreme commander of 3,000 troops, including at least 100

Asian Art Newspaper

European mercenaries in 18th-century northern India.

hara museum of contemporary art, tokyo

The private Hara Museum of Contemporary Art has closed its doors in Tokyo, after four decades devoted to the promotion of Japanese contemporary art and international exchange. The museum will continue its activities including the preservation of its Tokyo collection at its Gunma branch, Hara Museum ARC. The primary reason for the closure is the deterioration of the 1938 building.

A number of prominent Japanese artists were commissioned to create works for the Tokyo space before gaining international attention, including Yoshitomo Nara in 2004, Yayoi Kusama in 1991, and Hiroshi Sugimoto in 2012. The Gunma branch has been closed for renovations since November 2020, but it is scheduled to reopen next month, April. More information on haramuseum.or.jp/en/arc/

prix pictet

Prix Pictet, has announced ‘Fire’ will be the theme of its ninth cycle.

The shortlist will be announced at Les Rencontres d’ Arles in early July 2021. An exhibition of work by the shortlisted photographers will be held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in December 2021, where the winner of the 100,000 Swiss francs (£85,000) prize will be announced on 15 December 2021.

Profile 3 something that does not respect boundaries and that represents a challenge: both good and bad.

AAN: You just mentioned your family background with a Palestinian father, a Malaysian-Chinese mother, and your journey ending in London. What happened in between, from your early childhood until you started your studies in the UK? MES: When my mother was working

in Sharjah, she met my father, however, she wanted to get us a Malaysian passport in order to avoid concerns about immigration. She therefore decided to give birth in Malaysia, getting our identity cards there. As soon as she was able to travel, we went back to Sharjah, her place of work. Then, there was a call from the UK for nurses and midwives, which led us to move to the UK, when I was around five years old. As a result, I am a Londoner. Looking back, my formative years were a broken syntax, even more so having to understand all these immigration issues: with my father holding a Palestinian passport and my brother having an Egyptian passport. Now, to some extent, everyone faces these issues. Before, we might not have had any collective empathy, but we are forced to now. The idea of checkpoints (as they exist in Palestine) is now being exported everywhere due to the pandemic, and this has fostered a necessity to start caring and looking into these restrictions. Today, my family members have British passports, a free pass to the world. I had to give up the Malaysian citizenship as one cannot have both. Basically, there is this amnesia of past difficulties, depending on one’s status.

AAN: Have you visited Palestine recently?

MES: The last time I went there was

in 2016, which was very difficult because I had not been there since I was a child. Therefore, I am still processing it. Going there was a shock, as I went through the whole spectrum: from the most bourgeois part, Tel Aviv, to Ramallah, Jerusalem and then to Hebron.

There was deterioration from start to finish. It was quite a journey, as all the places were so radically different.

AAN: Is it still extremely complicated for artists to get their work out of Palestine?

MES: Absolutely. It is almost

hopeless.

AAN: Your dual background is very interesting, as both universes are extremely rich in terms of poetry and calligraphy. Is that something you explore in your work?

MES: All these ‘fragments’, as I call

them, are interesting because I am not fully tabulated in either, or any, of these cultures. Therefore, my relationship to them is an ambivalent one. What I mean by this is that it is a broken syntax: I spoke broken English or broken Arabic when I was in Sharjah, then I forgot the Arabic when I went to Chinese Sunday school in the UK. Forgetting all about a language is not the same as not having learned it at all. This clearly has something to do with how one identifies, how one is alienated, and how one sees things from the outside. Let us take the example of my face: I do not look like an Arab woman and I do not speak Arabic. Therefore, when I go to a place like Qatar, there are assumptions embedded in the optics of an Asian-looking face – I am considered to be part of the

workforce. Again, considering the work and these rich tapestries of culture, the relationship I have with them is one of ambivalence and alienation.

When it comes to calligraphy, it is interesting as my father is selftrained and, on my mother’s side, my uncle is a calligraphy master in his village. My relationship to calligraphy is similar to a language to which I do not have access: it is stroke-based, formal, and abstract, but I am very intrigued by the idea of asemic writing (writing without meaning). Strangely enough, my father relies on asemic writing, because he does not want the traditional calligraphy of the Qur’an to serve as mere practice that ends up in the garbage. Within Islamic traditions, there are beautiful sayings and blessings from the Qur’an, and he would change the strokes in order for them not to bear such meaning.

As for my background, I am sometimes embarrassed, because I am so unaware of my own history.

I am unaware of where exactly my father was born in Palestine, where his family lived (somewhere in Gaza), where my mother is from (Canton), and what these geographic and cultural signifiers mean. All these fragments, this alienation, and broken parts or snippets of histories, come into my work and slide out again.

Overall, my practice has been characterised by a state of fragmentation. That is how I would describe my relationship with all these things that represent little treasures, like my father’s or my uncle’s fragments of calligraphy, which remain quite opaque to me.

Access is unquestionably an issue.

For example, if I show a work in London that script is inaccessible, but in Beirut, I cannot show that explicit writing, because the words overtake the visual field that I have created for myself. I therefore always need to adapt to each setting, making a contingent practice.

AAN: Not being fully immersed also allows you to keep a certain distance that is necessary in order to pull the various fragments together in your practice. Would you consider your work as a diary, say, autobiographical?

MES: I keep a journal to track my

AAN: Your use of painting, sculpture, installation, and performance, makes you a true multi-disciplinary artist. Most performance artists stick to their practice and rarely cover the whole spectrum, as you do. Has it always been this way, or was there a time when one medium was the main pillar of your practice, which then led you to others?

MES: Strangely enough, I started

Net-Grid (Winona), 2020, oil and mixed media on linen with silkscreened collaged elements, 235 x225 cm. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London • Paris • Salzburg. Photo: Jack Hems interested in contemporary art from China, they immediately wanted that ethnicity to be visible and recognisable within the painting either through Chinese characters, or a Mao reference, for example. Although these wishes were linked stereotypes, some artists embraced them as there was clearly a market for it.

MES: I view this as a performance:

once you start, you are obliged to continue. I have been making it hard for myself from the beginning, as I have been rejecting these things.

That means rejecting visibility, but in order to have more freedom for the future. At the moment, I am reading Anne Anlin Cheng. She is writing about the yellow woman, and how ornamentation is part of this imaginary, a tied-in ideology of what the feminine ornamental is.

On another level, I think the black body has a very different relation to skin – of over-visibility of skin – in our imagery. Such observations lead me to think about how they feed

into aesthetics and what a relic is.

Even the word ‘fragment’ is a loose idea. What does it mean when it is put into different contexts? Words such as Asia, or the Middle-East, or the ‘Middle World’, what do they actually mean? It is very vague and entrenched in ideology.

I keep a journal to track my dreams. Dreams are absurd and nonsensical, which is why I enjoy them.

with a medium other than performance. My medium has always been drawing, as it has more to do with economics of space.

What it meant for me is that in a small space, in close quarters to other people, I could still draw. I am a hoarder: I like to keep what I have drawn and paper has the advantage that it can be folded up. In addition, every discipline uses drawing and it can be translated into many forms.

To some extent, part of what feeds my practice is not knowing about any of these disciplines at all. For example, not knowing about the history of performance allows me this freedom not to have the anxiety of influence. I can be fluid with all these fragments that are still being processed within me. Let us, for instance, look at the female body in the Western context and what that means in performance. I do not want to be constrained by those histories, I want to move through them, thinking about a really simple act. This could refer, for example, to the strokes used by my uncle when he creates these ephemeral calligraphic works on the floor with water. I can see how performative and fluid it is, and how the body can be an extension of that. That is a simple starting point – without the weight and pressure of history.

AAN: This is probably why many artists say that the best thing that could happen to them would be to forget everything they learned at art school…

MES: I always think about amnesia

and forgetting. I used to say it was pointless to go to art school, that it was a waste of my time. I never turned up for classes and failed my first year, but I have come to realise that learning and then unlearning is not the same as not knowing at all.

Continued on page 4

dreams. Dreams are absurd and nonsensical, which is why I enjoy them. The way I see autobiography is as a narrative – and I am always trying to get away from that. It took me a while to realise what a privilege it was to be able to play and evolve within the realm of nonsense. As artists of colour, we are expected to tell our stories, with our ethnicity serving as the dominant framework.

However, on the contrary, I want the permission to be a child, to be more experimental and fluid, without having to first give access through that lens. Of course, autobiography is embedded within my practice, but it is just a part of it, and not the whole. I see a lot of artists, who use narrative and poetry as a main element within their practice, but that does not interest me. I am a painter in the old-school sense, where I want to have the freedom to explore the plasticity of the material first. This is a privilege, a right I claim for myself, even though I am often coerced to perform my ethnicity, which I cannot properly represent, as it is still an evolving process.

AAN: It is interesting that you would emphasise ethnicity. Back in the 1980s, when Western collectors became

Net-Grid (my dad knows nothing), 2020, oil and mixed media on linen with silkscreened collaged elements, 235 x225cm.

Courtesy the artist and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London • Paris • Salzburg. Photo: Jack Hems

asian art | march 2021

4 Profile

My colour palette is a direct reference to the body

AAN: Your canvases have become more colourful lately. What is your approach to colour and what initially led you to use red for the grid?

MES: Initially, I wanted to do the

Gravity As Fiction (2020), floor installation, part of A Focus on Painting, curated by Julia Peyton-Jones, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London, 2020. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London • Paris • Salzburg. Photo: Eva Herzog

simplest thing. I was not thinking about what a white ground meant for priming a canvas, but I wanted it to be present. As for the colour red, it is connected to my original reference point which is the grid used by stitch cutters. Indeed, pattern cutters rely on templates when making pieces. With my mother being a pattern cutter, it is something closer to me and my history. That is why there is always a red grid on a white paper. My colour palette is a direct reference to the body. It is almost like looking at the bruising and the changing of colour that happens over time when a body decomposes. At that stage, the colours of the haemoglobin separate out, and one gets this beautiful ‘post-mortem marbling’. Again, all of this is based on decay and the beauty of that process.

AAN: Do you work on different series at the same time?

MES: I am always working on three

Gravity As Fiction (2020), detail of the installation

The same applies to the broken syntax. I do actually appreciate art school, how it taught me, but I do not want to restrict and frame myself within its walls. However, it is important to know what a frame is and does. There is a complexity, a nuance there. Having gone through art school, I feel I am in a much better position to choose what to accept, or reject, rather than forgetting completely.

is key. It is a simple structure that is a virtual schema or theme, using grid systems to make three-dimensional optics. However, it is also something literal, for example, a net that can capture objects. I was interested in this spectrum, how abstraction works from a schematic to something object-based and material in the

tangible world. I was also intrigued by the fact that you cannot have one without the other: it is a very slippery journey, with a back and forth feedback loop. I always want to involve the reality of decay. We are born, yet we are dying. It is about trying to reassert all this complexity of thought in all my work.

things at once – from hoarding objects and making vitrine cases to painting or performing. As they all have a structure that is repetitive, it can lead me to go a little insane.

I need variety at any given time.

Working on the grid, for example, is a laborious and meditative practice.

As a result, I feel the agitation in my body and so I might go and do a performance work, which is quite natural and simple. I put music on when I am painting. If you feel restricted when completing these lines, this feeling can manifest itself in the body. However, with performance, there is not enough physical mark-making on a canvas, so I will go back to painting, creating a continual process of cross-fertilisation.

AAN: So far, you have created several series: Net-Grid, Piece Paintings, and Recombinant. Are all these ongoing, or have you reached a point where you feel you have got everything possible out of them and it is time to move on? Also, why did you start using a grid in your work?

MES: In my practice, repetition is

essential. Therefore, these series can be continued until I give up, or die!

I specifically made them to preoccupy me, since I would always be learning from the mutations. In spite of rigid parameters, there is still room for variation and new possibilities. The same thought applies to my recent Recombinant series, which is similar to a language-based experiment: how headlines can recombine to make words form different phrases.

For the Net-Grid series, my idea is to work with something rigid but Call For (2020), Recombinant series, resin, oil silkscreened muslin, acrylic, newspaper and wood in artist’s brass frame, allow some plasticity to flow within it diptych each: 54,6 x 47 cm. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London • Paris • Salzburg asian art | march 2021 |

#AsianArtPaper |

asianartnewspaper |

asianartnewspaper |

Asian Art Newspaper

Boundary Work (2017), detail, mixed media in steel tray tables, dimensions variable.

Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation.

Courtesy the artist and Sharjah Art Foundation

AAN: You just mentioned the cases, the vitrines. How do they fit within the paintings surrounding them?

MES: To me, there is a direct link,

with the idea to expand the field of painting and sculpture. Looking at the grids, they are shown vertically on a wall. If one puts them horizontally, they resemble topographical maps. It is almost like seeing a war zone and how one would go about finding a certain village. They are maps. The vitrines are also like that, a different way to understand the vertical and horizontal. Ideally, in order to photograph the vitrines, I photograph them as if they are paintings. Then, by constantly zooming out, one has the layout of the entire gallery floor, which is almost like a fractal, a never-ending pattern, of the table itself. Using magnification allows me to explore what it means to see from above with an aerial vision, and discover how this affects our understanding of visual and cultural fields.

AAN: Your Piece Paintings are rich, bearing a broad narrative. They seem to be a continuation of the ‘Combine’ paintings of the 1960s. Do you agree ?

MES: When I talk about the spectrum

between abstraction and figuration, schematic and literal, I am intrigued by the different ends of these scales.

When I am in the grids, I am missing the figurative element. It is all part of the same spectrum. To me, Piece Paintings are combinations of body parts. It is almost like playing the game ‘Exquisite Corpse’, where everybody contributes a part towards assembling a body that is made from different fragments. I often use the fragments I have incorporated in silk-screened elements for the first layer. Then, I create the body through an anatomical study – on top of which is actually a fantasy body. The bodies are invented, modified, relying on my various anatomy books taken from different parts of history. My book collection is a good reference point, providing me with many possibilities to capture a subject visually. In medieval times, it would often be criminals and males whose bodies were dissected, documented, and drawn from life. Now, we have digital MRI scans that offer a more futuristic perception of what the body means. As a result, death with its

Profile 5 fleshy parts, is more and more obscured. The Piece Paintings are a way for me to reclaim these vulnerable bodies in pieces, constantly being unmade and remade. These works are how I started, my obsession for collecting pictures and images in books. When I was younger, I would go to libraries where I loved the anatomy books. I would look at the pictures and, being a very anxious child, I would try to identify and pinpoint where the different ‘feelings’ in our bodies came from in order to somehow have mastery over this anxiety that could attack at any time. Although that endeavour was absurd, I found it pacifying.

AAN: Earlier, you spoke about the gallery floor, which leads me to the gallery space. For some exhibitions, you also covered the walls with newspapers.

What type of contrast are you creating between your paintings on the wall and the newspapers in the background?

MES: Each space dictates how the

pieces are sewn together. There is no hierarchy. It is more about how to activate the space in a way that is impactful. I respond in a different way to the space if it is small, or if it has high ceilings. I always want to include the juxtaposition of the horizontal and the vertical, the paintings versus the tables, because I see this idea of a continuum as a fluid process. When visiting the space, I decide whether it needs to be activated by a floor and, sometimes, there is so much going on that there is no floor, only sculptural objects. I like this idea of an immersive experience: entering the space is like going inside the body. I struggle to see a painting in isolation. It has to be part of a series,

that such things can occupy the space of desire, although they are about total violence, is an ambiguity that needs to be explored.

AAN: Looking at your work, the issues you address are extremely broad. Is there a subject you would be reluctant to touch upon in your practice?

MES: Access is key, as we all have

Health (2020), Net-Grid Study series, oil and mixed media on linen with silkscreened collaged elements, 150 x 105 cm. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London • Paris • Salzburg. Photo: Eva Herzog

Click here to see A Focus on Painting, including Mandy El-Sayegh

of a system. If I imagine I am creating a body with a digestive system, or a respiratory system, then there is a circulatory system. In order to go inside, one has to be part of this network of things relating to one another. It is all related.

AAN: Every day, we are surrounded by all kinds of images, especially on social media. What is your selection process for the images you include in your work?

MES: I do not have a strategy, rather

my process is about digesting and

Mail (2020), Net-Grid Study series, oil and mixed media on linen with silkscreened collaged elements, 120 x 115 cm.

Courtesy the artist and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London • Paris • Salzburg.

Photo: Eva Herzog

framing an overflow of images, which I experience as a kind of psychosis. This relies on the act of scrolling through social media, endless Google results, ‘fake’ news, or visuals of over-sexualised bodies.

I try to contextualise the violence of what I see, of bodies that dangle like meat in a market of visual language.

For instance, we circulate images of exaggerated plastic surgery, another form of excess that also fascinates me. In Piece Paintings, I have highlight this exaggeration, the

murderous nature of something that is meant to be attractive, an ideal female form, which is then mutilated and restructured.

I call on the same process with words. For example, I often draw on code names of Israeli operations within Gaza, which I feel have the same effects as monstrous silicone lips. For instance, Summer Rains was an Israeli operation that took place in 2006, however, it sounds like the name of a fashion collection in an editorial for Vogue. The fact

bodies and we are all dying. Some artists are great speakers and writers, which is fabulous, but at times, it cuts out a whole set of people from entering the work. In my case, conversations largely contribute to my work. There is nothing off limits and I truly enjoy conversations – like the one I had with Sohrab Mohebbi, curator at SculptureCentre in New York, about my hoarding problem.

Starting from the personal is always a nice entry point, something I can be completely honest about. One can see it translate into the formal space of aesthetics, how I need to include this kind of spread in my work, with the objects on the table following a certain structure that seems rigid or formal, but actually comes from a pathological compulsion of not wanting to be deprived or left in precarious conditions.

AAN: If you had to describe who Mandy El-Sayegh is and what her work is about, what would you say?

MES: This is a challenging question!

I am trying to examine what the body means when subjectivity becomes precarious, how it can look, and how vulnerable it is. It is a strategy for survival – and my practice is a form of that.

• Mandy El-Sayegh’s work will be the subject of a solo show at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Paris from 28 November 2021 to 15 January 2022

Foremost in the Field of Asian Art March 11– 20 , 2021

Dealer Participants The Art of Japan Art Passages Prahlad Bubbar Ralph M. Chait Galleries, Inc. Chambers Fine Art Dai Ichi Arts, Ltd. Egenolf Gallery Japanese Prints Oliver Forge & Brendan Lynch Ltd. Francesca Galloway Nicholas Grindley LLC Hara Shobo HK Art & Antiques, LLC INK Studio Sebastian Izzard LLC Asian Art Kaikodo LLC Kapoor Galleries Joan B. Mirviss Ltd Thomas Murray Susan Ollemans Onishi Gallery Akar Prakar Scholten Japanese Art

@asiaweekny

Runjeet Singh TAI Modern Thomsen Gallery Hiroshi Yanagi Oriental Art Koichi Yanagi Oriental Fine Arts MIYAKO YOSHINAGA Zetterquist Galleries

Auction House Partners Bonhams Christie’s Doyle Heritage Auctions iGavel Sotheby’s

2021 Presenting Sponsor

asiaweekny.com

asian art | march 2021

6 Prints

Modern Figures on a Snowy Day by Keisai Eisen (1790-1848), early to mid-1820s, from the series The Four Seasons, publisher: Sanoya Kihei, colour woodblock print with graduated colours (bokashi) and blind-printing (karazuri). John Chandler Bancroft Collection

The Kimono in Print

The Kimono in Print: 300 Years of Japanese Design is the first show by the Worcester Art Museum devoted to examining the kimono as a major source of inspiration, style, and experimentation in Japanese print culture, from the Edo (1603-1868) to the Meiji period (1868-1912). This dialogue between print and kimono design is shown in approximately 70 Japanese prints, as well as a selection of illustrated woodblock printed books and paintings, primarily drawn from the museum’s 3,000 Japanese ukiyo-e, woodblock prints, from John Chandler Bancroft (1835– 1901), gifted in 1901.

In Japan, artists from the 17th to 20th century documented everevolving trends in fashion, popularised by the many trends and styles of dress and accoutrements.

The exhibition begins with prints from the late 17th century, when a more complex and sophisticated attitude towards clothing first appeared, as can be seen in the lavish prints of the Floating World’s famous kabuki actors and geisha courtesans. At the other end of the spectrum, modern design books and prints from the early 20th century, inspired by or made for kimono, demonstrate how the boundaries between print and textile fashion and design became more fluid.

Among the earliest works in the exhibition are a number of different textile pattern books by, or attributed to, Hishikawa Moronobu (1618-94) that date to the 1680s. Moronobu, was the son of a dyer and brocade artisan who not only learnt his father’s craft of dyeing and gold and silver-thread brocade making, but also studied Tosa and Kano-style painting. His first works were illustrations for books, but by the mid 1670s he had become an important ukiyo-e master. These woodblock- printed books, such as Kimono in a Looking Glass (Kosode no sugatami) from 1682, were popular asian art | march 2021 |

Youth (wakashu) Unrolling a Hanging Scroll by Suzuki Harunobu (1725-70), circa 1765-70, benizuri-e, publisher: Iwatoya Kenpachi.

John Chandler Bancroft Collection

for their imaginative depictions of people and designs, but also served as the illustrated catalogues for potential buyers to select fabrics, patterns, and adornments in vogue for their own kimonos. The sumptuous kimono designs that appear on the left-hand pages of Moronobu’s book follow the diagonal sweeping kanbun style popular (a form of classical Chinese writing) at the time the book was published, while figures of women and young men on the right-side pages serve as models to help the reader visualise themselves in the latest fashions.

Similarly, Moronobu’s Mirror of Patterns of the Four Seasons for Various Activities (Shiki moyo shorei e-kagami), also from the early 1680s, shows kimonos appropriate for each season. In one page spread, two kimono designs on facing pages represent winter and spring – in the kimono on the right-hand a sinuous arare (hailstone) character along the hem of the kimono contrasts with the two large snowflakes on the

#AsianArtPaper |

asianartnewspaper |

shoulder. In the kimono on the lefthand wisteria appears behind the Noda character referring to Noda in Osaka, an area which is famous for viewing wisteria in the late spring.

Two centuries later, these motifs began to be part of Japan’s modernisation. The Collection of Weaving Designs (Shokumon ruisan) (1892-93) by an unknown artist includes more than 1,000 woven textile patterns grouped according to subject type, such as celestial, animal, floral, and plant. Assembled by the Imperial Museum in Tokyo (today the Tokyo National Museum), the often brightly coloured prints reflect related interests in this period both to codify a national visual identity and to create an archive to inspire modern art and design. Similarly, Tsuda Seifuu’s (1880-1978) Spirals (Kamonfu), from 1900, was the debut work of the then twenty-yearold artist. It reflects the enormously inventive milieu of Kyoto in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as traditional approaches to kimonomaking confronted industrialisation and modernisation. Seifu’s bold, saturated palette, as well as the striking use of repetition, organic and flowing lines, and rich patterning, references Art Nouveau, which influenced Japanese arts and crafts at this time.

In the Edo era, at the height of the popularity of the Floating World, social rank and society went handin-hand with the display of personal adornment that was accurately portrayed in these period prints.

Geisha and kabuki actors were constantly in the limelight and leaders of fashion in their class. The townswomen who, unlike the nobles and other elite, were less bound by tradition, were able to copy the latest trends generated by copying the popular prints produced at the time of these glamorous pleasure-quarter figures and arrange their garments, hairstyles, and in make-up in their asianartnewspaper |

The Courtesan Yoyoyama of the Matsubaya with Her Two Young Female Attendants Standing Under Branches of Cherry Blossoms by Kikugawa Eizan (1787-1867), circa 1830, publisher: Sanoya Kihei, colour woodblock print with blind-printing (karazuri) and graduated colours (bokashi).

John Chandler Bancroft Collection

own way, using these new styles as their models. However, fashion may have influenced some levels of society, but there were still general strict rules in place for dress and decoration in a population that was divided into distinct social classes.

This distinction allowed a visitor to learn to distinguish a married woman from a young girl, a nobleman from a middle-class woman, or a highranking courtesan. Subtle differences in rank can also be found in the prints depicting the demi-monde of the pleasure quarters in these prints.

Asian Art Newspaper

Oiran, for example, the great courtesans at the top of their hierarchy, were considered fashion experts and cultural leaders, highly regarded for their lavish fashionconscious outfits and elaborate hairstyles. Prints show these women in public and private settings, on outings, celebrating a special day at a shrine, or writing a poem in their home or dressing to receive a visitor.

As Edo society was based entirely on a hierarchical system of classes, various rules abounded and were linked to social rank, age, profession,

Prints 7 and stages of life. Fashion was not just for the entertainers of the Floating World, who generated great competition to create and wear the latest fashions, it also had a general social-branding function that helped distinguish an individual’s status in society. This complex link between fashion, society, and hierarchy in society can be clearly seen in the development of nishiki-e, the polychrome prints that were developed to allow artists to more easily portray the elaborate fabric patterns and styles of the day. This more complex print, often referred to as ‘brocade pictures’, was developed around 1765 by Suzuki Harunobu (1725-70). This transformation took place when some artists, led by Harunobu, decided to develop colourblock printing techniques to expand the possibilities of expression portrayed in prints. It was Harunobu that developed techniques to guarantee a consistent registration for colour blocks for the more complex prints, enabling more blocks to be used. In doing so, he revolutionised printing that, in turn, helped the popularity and sale of these new, colourful ukiyo-e. The nishiki-e prints evolved from the older benizuri-e print (pink-printed picture), which used more subdued vegetal colours and incorporated less detail.

More blocks allowed more colours and encouraged the use of brighter dyes and more contrast, including dayflower blue, beni (safflower) pink, gamboge – a yellow or green, and sumi black ink, as well as lead and oystershell whites.

An example of Haronubu’s earlier style is on display in the exhibition – Youth (wakashu) Unrolling a Hanging Scroll. Harunobu’s prints often recalled Japan’s courtly past. This benizuri-e shows Harunobu’s signature preference for combining pale, dilute colours of the textiles with the black keyblock of the figure.

It has a more restrained and limited palette using two to four blocks rather than the more complex nishiki-e he developed later that allowed a more brilliant and detailed depiction of the kimono and related textiles.

In the exhibition, courtesans wearing the latest fashions are found in the prints of Kikugawa Eizan (1787-1867). The print Kashiku of the Tsuruya, shows the courtesan with her kamuro (attendant) showing off the newest styles with an elaborate hairstyle. Another print by the artist, The Courtesan Yoyoyama of the Matsubaya with Her Two Kamuro, sees the courtesan during the popular seasonal pastime of cherry-blossom viewing, parading in public in the latest fashion – a heavily patterned multi-layered kimono – whilst sporting an intricate hairstyle with combs and a plethora of hair pins. By the 1830s, Eizan’s representation of beauties, bijin-ga, had fallen out of fashion and he was replaced in popularity by his student Keisai Eisen (1790-1848) – and Eisen’s rival in ukiyo-e, Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865). Eisen beauties are also represented in the exhibition with Modern Figures on a Snowy Day, early to mid-1820s, from the series The Four Seasons.

Another element of the exhibition is the exploration of the kimono in the world of theatre and kabuki.

More prints depicting actors of the kabuki theatre were produced in Edo than all other subject combined.

Kabuki fans had an enormous appetite to see their favourite actors in favourite roles in print. The prints helped maintain the cultivated notion of celebrity and helped keep the fan base active and engaged. It

SEBASTIAN IZZARD LLC ASIAN ART

UTAGAWA KUNISADA (1786-1865): HIS WORLD REVISITED Woman with Marumage Hairstyle (1924)

by Ito Shinsui (1898-1972), colour woodblock print on mica (kirazuri) ground, publisher: Watanabe Shozaburo.

Gift of Edward Kenway

Prints perfectly documented the ever-evolving trends in fashion

Paintings, Prints, and Illustrated Books March 15-26, 2021 Daily 11AM to 5PM, by appointment only (closed Sunday)

also allowed fans to have a visual memory of a particular emotional or memorable moment of a popular play – showing the actors stylised expressions and gestures, frozen in a moment of time. The character and particular portrayed may be the most important reason for the print to be created, but its secondary role was to show the costumes and latest styles created by the theatres.

Moving forward to the 20th century, the exhibition also explores the world of Taisho and Showa period prints. Ito Shinsui was a master of the Shin Hanga movement that was founded early in the 20th century to revive the styles and techniques of ukiyo-e and the portrayal of bijin-ga. Shinsui’s woodblock print from 1924, entitled Woman with Marumage Hairstyle, shows a beauty showing off her upto-the-minute, modern look. We know she is married by her choice of hairstyle, the modern equivalent of a fashion early in the Edo period (as can be seen in the prints of Eizan), kastuyama-mage which was an elaborate, formal style favoured by the Edo courtesans of the floating world. The kimono of Shinsui’s beauty has also been updated to reflect modern tastes – the many layers have gone and a simpler form and pattern have been used to echo society’s modernisation.

Throughout the ages, woodblock prints have echoed the fashions and culture of the time, revealing not only the day-to-day activities of the characters portrayed, but also showing a constantly evolving taste, feeding the public’s desire for the latest fashionable styles.

Onoe Shõroku as the Manifestation of Princess Osakabe (Osakabe henka Onoe Shõroku) Color woodblock print: õban tate-e vertical diptych, 30¼ x 10¼ in.

(76.8 x 26 cm) overall; 1814 Signed: Kunisada ga Censor’s seals: Iwato (Iwatoya Kisaburõ); kiwame (approved) Publisher: Yamaguchiya Tõbei (Kinkõdõ) Catalogue available

• Until 7 May, Worcester Art Museum,

Massachusetts, worcester.org.

A catalogue is available.

• A virtual exhibition: Kimono Couture: The Beauty of Chiso. The Worcester Wedding Kimono explores the kimono that was commissioned as part of the exhibition. Chiso, is the revered 465-year-old kimono design and production house based in Kyoto, Japan. Due to travel restrictions caused by the pandemic, Kimono Couture will now be presented virtually at kimonocouture.worcesterart.org

17 E 76th Street, Floor 3 New York NY 10021 Tel: (212) 794 1522 info@izzardasianart.com www.izzardasianart.com

asian art | march 2021

8 Archaeology Henri Mouhot in the Forests of Laos, from Travels in the Central Part of Indochina (Siam) Cambodia and Laos

by Henri Mouhot published by John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1864

Celebrating Henri Mouhot

by Denise Heywood This year marks the 160th anniversary of the death of Henri Mouhot (18251861), whose name is associated with two of the greatest artistic discoveries of Asia: Luang Prabang in Laos and Angkor in Cambodia. In 1861, this intrepid Frenchman travelled into the remote mountainous regions of northern Laos to be the first Western visitor to the religious-royal kingdom of Luang Prabang. Undaunted by physical hardship, the 36-year-old explorer and naturalist had already braved the jungles of Cambodia the previous year to see the ruins of Angkor, swathed in tropical forest.

Before that, Mouhot had spent two years journeying through old Siam, visiting Ayuttaya.

Although French, Mouhot had connections with England. He was sponsored for his expedition to ‘The Land Beyond Siam’ by the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) in London, althoug he also part-funded it himself. He wrote diaries, illustrated with his drawings, that would be published posthumously in London in 1864 (thanks to his brother Charles) as Travels In The Central Part of Indo-China (Siam) Cambodia and Laos by John Murray.

Read out at the Royal Geographical Society, and then later in France, Mouhot’s account marvelled at the majesty of Angkor, describing it as ‘grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome’ and extolled the beauty of Luang Prabang, calling it a ‘little paradise’.

A true Victorian polymath, Mouhot was a naturalist, botanist, entomologist, ethnologist, ornithologist, philologist, zoologist, linguist and conchologist, as well as a gifted artist and writer. He recorded everything he found with inspiring drawings and lyrical prose which would bring to England and France vivid descriptions of ancient artistic civilisations almost unknown in the asian art | march 2021 |

Henri Mouhot (1826-1861)

by H Rousseau after a photograph from Travels in the Central Part of Indochina (Siam) Cambodia and Laos

by Henri Mouhot published by John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1864

West. But he would not live to see the significance of his revelations that would dazzle artists, archaeologists and travellers all over the world. His life was cut tragically short by tropical illness.

Alexandre Henri Mouhot was born in Montbeliard, France, on 15 May 1826, the year of the death of that other discoverer of Southeast Asian civilisations, Stamford Raffles.

Mouhot studied Greek and philology and went to St Petersburg at the age of just 18 years old to teach French and Greek. During his 10 years there, he learned Russian and Polish. As his brother Charles writes (in the Introduction to Travels), he began as a teacher but became an artist, mastering the technique of the photographic process of Daguerrotypes, invented by Frenchman Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787-1851). He even photographed Tsar Nicholas I on his deathbed, an image now in Britain’s Royal Collection Trust.

#AsianArtPaper |

asianartnewspaper |

He and his brother Charles moved to England in 1856 where they both married, Henri to Annette Park, a descendent of Scottish explorer Mungo Park (1771-1806), at St Marylebone in London, and Charles to her sister Jenny. Henri then moved to Jersey, living at 3 Hampton Place, St Helier. The Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey had a considerable influx of French writers, poets and artists, especially in the 19th and early 20th century, with Victor Hugo, for example, residing in Guernsey during his exile from France. So Mouhot must have felt at home there. Then, in April 1858, he sailed from England to explore Indochina, having heard about it, via the RGS, in accounts of the travels of a French missionary, Charles Emile Bouillevaux, and of Portuguese historian Diogo de Couto, and possibly inspired also by the writings of Sir John Bowring, a traveller and Governor of Hong Kong.

Mouhot’s journey was described with much feeling. As Dawn Rooney writes In The Footsteps of Henri Mouhot, he took his little King Charles spaniel called Tine-Tine with him ‘which afforded him great comfort’ as he slept with him under what he called the ‘counterpane’ (an old word for ‘bedspread’). His fear that the dog would perish before long was unfounded since ironically, as Rooney remarks, Tine-Tine outlived Mouhot and was found in the care of a Lao family years later.

In 1859, Mouhot stayed in Bangkok and was able to continue his travels with assistance from the Consul and set off for Cambodia. He travelled by ox cart, elephant, horses, boats and walking (sometimes barefoot). Always plagued by mosquitos: ‘these insects are the curse of all tropical countries’, he wrote. He praised the ‘bountiful nature’ and the clear tropical night skies where he watched a comet shining ‘with increased brilliancy’ asianartnewspaper |

Luang Prabang in 1867 by Louis Delaporte, from Francis Garnier’s book Voyage d’exploration en Indochine 1868-88

and timber and added that he amid the shrill chirpings of myriads believed that under French influence of nocturnal insects. These he it would become a ‘land of plenty’. studied as an entomologist, also France had already set its colonial making notes on spiders with a sights on this region and he believed silken thread of ‘such strength that it it would be advantageous. ‘I wish her never breaks’, and beetles, among to possess this land, which would others. When he reached Cambodia add a magnificent jewel to her crown he had been given an introduction to the King (Norodom 1860-1904). … And that the name of France, my dear and beautiful country, may be Mouhot hesitated to visit loved, respected and honoured in the immediately on arrival when invited extreme East as it should be by two royal pages, objecting that he everywhere’. was still in his ‘travelling dress’. They Of Angkor, which he approached replied: ‘Oh, that is nothing; the by boat via the great lake in January king has no dress at all, and he will 1860, he recorded a great deal, having be delighted to see you’. The monarch read about it in his studies at the received him with pomp on a palanquin at the Palace of Oudong, RGS. He wrote lyrically of Angkor Wat’s grandeur, observing that inviting him to a theatrical presenting itself to the eye of the performance, which would have traveller it made him ‘forget all the included dance. Mouhot described it fatigues of the journey … filling him as a ‘phantasmagoria tolerably well with admiration and delight, such as managed, and accompanied by music would be experienced on finding a more noisy than harmonious; but verdant oasis in the sandy desert. which appeared perfectly to satisfy Suddenly, as if by enchantment he the public’. seems to be transported from He was given royal assistance to barbarism to civilisation, from continue his journey in July as he planned to cross the Tonle Sap lake. darkness to light.’

With his prose he made extensive Throughout, he wrote on many factual notes. ‘Nokhor or Ongkor aspects of Cambodian life, of the natural produce, in particular pepper, was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Cambodia, or Khmer, rice, ginger, sugar, coffee, silk, cotton

Asian Art Newspaper

Archaeology 9

formerly so famous among the great states of Indochina’. He mentioned the empire as having 20 kings who paid tribute to it, having kept up an army of five or six million soldiers and claiming that the buildings of the royal treasury occupied a space of more than 300 miles. He wondered what had become of so powerful a race that filled him with profound admiration, ‘so civilised, so enlightened, the authors of these gigantic works?’ He went on to say (of Angkor Wat) that ‘One of the temples – a rival to that of Solomon, and erected by some ancient Michael Angelo, might take an honourable place beside our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome, and presents a sad contrast to the state of barbarism in which the nation is now plunged.’ The locals told him it had been built by angels, or giants, or the leper king, or had built itself. ‘The work of Giants!’ exclaimed Mouhot.

The expression, he claimed, would be fitting for such prodigious works. He marvelled that they had not been made for human habitation but ‘as temples of Buddhism.’

Spending three weeks among the ruins, Mouhot marvelled, drew,

measured and noted as much as he could of the majestic monuments that emerged from the jungle. His descriptions were lengthy, highly detailed, minutely observed. He considered his role to be one of scholarly exploration and exposition.

He speculated as to whether or not the edifice ‘was the world of a single genius … for no part of it is deficient, faulty or inconsistent’ and conjectured to what epoch it owed its origins.

He never claimed to have ‘discovered’ Angkor, a misguided notion that has clung to the legend of his visit, as he knew of those visitors that came before him. But his reports on Angkor Wat, read out two years later, accompanied by his evocative drawings of the ruins shrouded in forest, outshone others and would stir the imagination of the West and bring travellers, archaeologists, artists and photographers to an area hitherto hardly known. Mouhot stayed three weeks and the next visitor would be the Scottish photographer John Thomson (18371921) in 1866, who took entrancing photos of Angkor, done with the cumbersome wet-collodian process of early photography. The images are still used today by scholars.

Mouhot’s next journey was into Laos, in 1861. He travelled through the tropical forests with half a dozen elephants, covering about 13 miles a day, following the Mekong River and completed a journey of 500 miles from the borders of Laos to Luang Prabang. In the jungles he collected many insect specimens, including a beetle that was named after him, Mouhotia gloriosa. Finally he arrived at the remote royal capital. ‘On 25th July I reached Luang Prabang, a delightful little town,’ he wrote.

‘Were it not for the constant blaze of a tropical sun ... the place would be a little paradise.’ The dream-like capital, sometimes described as a Shangri-La, was a treasure trove of magnificent carved wooden temples, glittering with ornate gold paintwork, vivid frescoes, and low-sweeping, multi-tiered roofs, dating back to the 16th century when Luang Prabang was the capital of the Kingdom of Lane Xang, Land of a Million Elephants. He was received by King Chantharat (1851-72) and the Henri Mouhot with the King of Luang Prabang, from Travels in the Central Part of Indochina (Siam) Cambodia and Laos by Henri Mouhot published

by John Murray, 1864

Façade of Angkor Wat, print, 1860, from Travels in the Central Part of Indochina (Siam) Cambodia and Laos by Henri Mouhot published by John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1864 Print of the tomb of Henri Mouhot, from Francis Garnier’s book Voyage d’exploration en Indochine 1868-88.

Mouhot contracted malaria and died while in Luang Prabang and was buried by the riverside – some years later a tomb was built for him on the spot.

It was rediscovered in 1989

viceroy, King Thianta, presenting an appearance of a rugged explorer with beard and flowing clothes, in contrast to his simply attired hosts.

Meanwhile, his tender letters to his wife Annette, and to his sister-inlaw Jenny, beseeched them to await his return. Leaving Luang Prabang in October, he continued on his journey towards China with remarkable bravery. His diaries reveal his responses to a ‘splendid night’ in the tropics, ‘the moon shines with extraordinary brilliancy, silvering the surface of this lovely river, bordered by high mountains, looking like a grand and gloomy rampart’, but revealed his loneliness.

However, by 19 October the diaries recorded a change of circumstance as he had fallen ill. He wrote to Annette begging her not to forget him.

Feverish and weak, he decided to turn back to Luang Prabang. But by 10 November, just 10 days later, at 7 o’clock in the evening, while still en route, five miles east of Luang Prabang, he succumbed to malaria and died. He was only 36 years old.

His last entry read ‘Have pity on me.

Oh my god’. He was buried on the banks of the Nam Khan river, a tributary of the Mekong, by his two loyal servants and guides, Phrai and Deng, who ensured that his diaries, specimens and belongings were returned to the French Consul in Bangkok. A certain Dr James Campbell, at the British embassy in Bangkok, had the unfortunate task of informing Annette of her husband’s fate. He praised him as a

‘martyr to science’ and urged her to inform the RGS. Mouhot’s possessions were transported back to Annette and to his brother Charles.

They would later donate them to the RGS in London, where they are now kept in the archives.

Between 1866-68, the French Mekong Exploration Team, a courageous group of officers, came to map the Mekong, which they did with the help of Mouhot’s maps.

Captain Ernest Doudart de Lagrée, head of the expedition, was asked in 1867 to build a fitting colonial-style monument to mark the spot where their French compatriot had died on the Nam Khan river. The team’s artist, Louis Delaporte, did a drawing of it, depicting, in a romantic manner, the solitude and loneliness of the final resting place, albeit in a luxuriant sylvan setting. In 1887, the first French Consul, Auguste Pavie, who would become the Governor General of the French colony of Laos, helped to rebuild a more lasting tomb.

Yet, with Laos’s troubled history during the 20th century, this monument was forgotten and lost as jungle reclaimed the spot. But in late 1989, it was rediscovered by another Frenchman, Jean Michel Strobino, Director of the Centre du Patrimoine in Nice, who was fascinated by Laos.

With help from the nearby village of Ban Phanom and a guide, Mongkhol Sasorith, they made their way through thick undergrowth along the river bank to find the site. With all the excitement of discovery, they

eventually came upon a broken, dilapidated monument covered with vegetation, its cracks filled with a tree trunk that had grown through the structure and twisted its way out of it the other side.

Moved by the find, Strobino hastened to inform the French Ambassador in Vientiane, Marc Menguy, who offered assistance.

Strobino, on his return to France, went to Montbeliard, Mouhot’s birthplace, to request help for restoration of the tomb from the Mayor, Louis Souvet. Like Strobino, he was deeply touched by the significance for the city of the whereabouts of their faraway ‘son’.

‘Ville de Montbeliard, Proud of her son, 1990’ reads the plaque they financed and created the following year, along with that of the tomb’s renovation and a grant for its upkeep.

Strobino’s mission was a success. The dates of Mouhot’s short life, 18261861, appear on the front. The explorer and artist who described Luang Prabang as a ‘little paradise,’ did not realise his words would be prophetic and that he would lie close to that paradise for eternity.

The modesty of this solitary riverside monument belies the extent of his extraordinary travels and the recognition he deserves. For it was his bravery and fortitude 160 years ago this year, combined with his lyrical prose and evocative drawings, that brought to the Western world revelations of some of Asia’s greatest artistic heritage: Angkor and Luang Prabang. asian art | march 2021

10 Profile

Exhibition view of Xue Song Phoenix Art from the Ashes, held in 2019 at Long Museum, Shanghai

Xue Song in his old studio at M50 in May 2019, which he had moved into in 2001, with views of works in progress in the old studio

Xue Song

by Michael Young Later this year Chinese mixed media artist Xue Song celebrates 20 years working in studios at Shanghai’s M50, the contemporary art hub located at 50 Moganshan Road, a few kilometres west of central Shanghai. Built in the 1930s, the buildings today still possess their raw steel structures and exposed brick walls that have given the complex a shabby-chic character. But in 2001, Song was the first artist to move into the semi-derelict complex that had once been productive textile factories that had seen better days. Production had ceased and an air of desolation hung in the air. M50 attracted artists looking for cheap studio space and they were quickly followed by galleries and boutique-art businesses, never slow to miss a trick. ShanghArt were the first gallery on site and chichi design studios and cafes soon

The process of making collage was, and is, time-consuming

asian art | march 2021 |

followed all happy to exploit the site’s La Bohème atmosphere. Today, M50 has become the go-to venue in Shanghai for cultural tourists and locals alike.

‘When I was looking for a studio space in 2001, the site was more or less derelict, the rent was cheap, the space was good, and the ceilings were high. I thought, I can work really efficiently here,’ Song said recently by telephone from Shanghai.

But the influx of boutique art businesses that followed on from the artists themselves, by default, helped push up rents and many artists have since left, no longer able to afford the escalating rents. ‘Many have gone,’ Song commented. But many, perhaps over 100, Song thought, have managed to hang-on, even during such a year as 2020 when Covid 19 has paralysed the city – and the world – for months. A commitment from local government, however, that the whole site should survive as an arts centre, has helped, as had a three-month Covid 19 moratorium on rents.

Since Song moved into M50, he has had two on-site studios and the contrast between the two could not be more dramatic. The original studio (that I was fortunate enough to visit in 2019) was a 250-squaremetre, second-floor space reached by an external concrete staircase over which a massive cast-iron water storage tank loomed. Located at the end of a secluded alley at the back of

#AsianArtPaper |

asianartnewspaper |

the site, the studio was not easy to find and few tourists penetrated that far. The ostensibly gloomy exterior opened onto a light filled space with cathedral ceilings held in place by huge oak beams that Song had installed himself. There were several small rooms off the main studio housing antique furniture and office equipment and in the main space dozens of canvases were stacked against walls. In various corners was the accumulated detritus of nineteen years working with collage – Song’s preferred medium – with myriad clippings from newspapers and magazines, candle wax, tubs of varnish and various glues, all of which had coagulated into concretehard bizarre shapes, a sort of Arte Povera assemblage. Books and newspapers were stacked, or randomly strewn across rubbish fill tables that Song would plunder, scissors in hand, for his collages. The studio seemed dizzyingly Dickensian and attractively chaotic.

Song clung to this original studio for 19 years, a period that saw his collages become increasingly popular, until a sprawling development of high-rise apartments at the back of the studio marched close to his building. The vibrations caused by the excavations digging a subterranean carpark eventually cracked the walls and rattled the cathedral ceiling timbers. ‘They were digging down three levels,’ Song confided. Eventually the site’s asianartnewspaper |

landlords deemed his studio to have become uninhabitable – if not dangerous – and insisted he move to a newly renovated space, just a few minutes’ walk away, which he did 18 months ago.

Born in 1965 in Anhui, west of Shanghai, Song arrived in the city in 1985 where he studied stage art at the Shanghai Drama Academy, from where he graduated in 1988. As a boy, he had always been interested in art, but his father, a music teacher, had hoped his son would go on to play a musical instrument. ‘But I loved painting and drawing too much,’ Song explained. After graduation, he landed a job at the Shanghai Opera and for 10 years worked as a stage designer, while he searched for his own artistic language. He started experimenting with collage in his graduation year, inspired by the early collage work of Pop Art by Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008). ‘In the early days, I did not make much money. My palette was dark. No one bought anything. At that time I could not find how to express myself in art. I had no language,’ he said.

He left the opera in 1998 to become a fulltime artist and to give himself time to wrestle with how he could bring together Western Pop Art and collage with an East-Asian visual aesthetic. The bright colours, which are now such a feature of Song’s contemporary work, came later.

By the late 1990s, he was flirting with collage even using candles to singe the edges of images cut from various publications. But it was all somewhat ad hoc. This change of direction came through an extraordinary event when, in the winter of 1991, a fire swept through his studio destroying everything in its path. All that was left were

Asian Art Newspaper

charred scraps of paper, the remains of books and picture albums, fragments of calligraphy and bits of canvases. Everything was reduced to ashes. But a period of reflection made Song realise that he could use these burnt fragments and ashes to evoke themes of remembrance, mourning, and rebirth.

‘I lost everything in the fire: canvases, calligraphy, fabric, everything,’ he remembered. What would have proved a devastating experience for many artists, proved to be an epiphany for Song, even though he expressed some culpability in starting the fire with a neglected candle.

As he poked among the ashes and the singed and charred collage fragments he realised that he could use the burnt remnants as a medium.

His future art trajectory had taken shape and the ash soon morphed into what was to become his signature black-lined calligraphy, another major trope in his work and something that has fascinated since a young boy. ‘I decided to collect the ashes and use them in my art work,’ he said. Once all the ashes from the fire were gone, he reverted to candles singeing cuttings from newspapers, books, and old photographs that he would them apply painstakingly to canvases which he then overlaid with translucent varnishes.

His art edged toward a synthesis that echoed the vivid colouration of Pop Art, but merged with classical Chinese landscapes; distant mountains, sparkling rivers, promontories with bridges, often populated by literati-type staffage, were created from tiny fragments of collage that, when viewed close up, presented an imagery that overwhelmed with waves of nostalgia.

The process of making collage and gathering the imagery from various sources was, and is, time-consuming.

Song’s appetite for books and old newspapers, vintage photographs, became prodigious. ‘Every year, I cut images from maybe a thousand books and from piles of old newspapers and photographs searching for the right images.

Maybe it could be an image of Chairman Mao or Shanghai beauties, women playing mah-jong, scenes from the Cultural Revolution, or it could be of contemporary events,’ he said. All of which have made an appearance in his art.

While the old studio was ostensibly packed with such detritus the new studio appears, in its infancy at least, to be surprisingly devoid of clutter.

Slightly larger than the earlier studio at 350 square metres, the new space has the feel of a New-York loft, with atrium, mezzanine floor and acres of open-plan, white walls that ooze artistic success. It is also tastefully furnished. In fact, the perfect venue for an artist who has seen his work increase in value and popularity over the previous two decades.

Back in 2019, when I visited, Song was physically exhausted. The exhaustion had set in after 18 months of late nights preparing a survey show for Shanghai’s Long Museum located at the West Bund arts precinct on the banks of the Huangpu River. Xue Song: Phoenix Art from the Ashes showed 30 years of Song’s oeuvre, including his most recent large-scale series Gene Geneaology 2019, where 100 smaller paintings, each bearing a calligraphic Chinese surname that spell out the map of China. ‘The ceilings at the Long Museum are very high. I had to work hard every night to make enough work to fill the space,’ he explained with humour. The Long

Profile 11

Xue Song working in his new studio in January 2021

Museum show proved immensely popular with a large crowd at the opening, as well as attracting 34,000 internet hits over five days. Song was astonished.

The monumentality of Gene Geneaology would be repeated in Song’s 2020 solo show DNA at the relatively new private Powerlong Art Museum, bank rolled by the Powerlong Property Group, where crowds also flocked for opening night. ‘Some 500 people turned up on opening night, but we had only catered for 300. There seemed to be a need for people to go out and visit an art opening,’ Song remembered. A phenomena attributable no doubt, to the global onslaught of Covid 19 that had kept people confined in their apartments. Last year had seen – in Shanghai at least – a growing hunger for art with people visiting museums in large numbers.

The stand out work at Powerlong was the enormous Dragon Totem 2020, 100 smaller paintings arranged over several metres in the shape of a dragon, the propitious symbol in China of good luck and power. Each individual painting represented one of the top 100 surnames in China – 89 percent of the population of China’s 1.39 billion people share one of these 100 surnames.

Confinement, albeit voluntary, has also affected Song over the last year.

‘I used to go out a lot to openings but not now. The worry surrounding Covid has kept me home. Now I just concentrate on my art,’ he said. As a result, he has adopted a disciplined working day: An 8 am start and a 6 pm finish; and then a stroll back to his apartment close by.

Later this year, yet another solo show is planned this time at the Ho Art Museum in Wuhan in Hubei province, a city on everyone’s lips as the seeding site of Covid 19, although that view is hotly disputed by Chinese authorities. ‘I am thinking that I will construct some sort of archive. However, in the main space there will be a new large art work composed of at least 20 pieces,’ he said with some nonchalance.

As for the future of M50 and Song’s new studio, who in China really knows what might happen?

Artists lose their spaces without notice and move on. ‘Twenty years ago, no one thought the future at M50 would be secure. There was always the threat of having to move

Gene Genealogy (2019), from the exhibition Xue Song Phoenix Art from the Ashes, held in 2019 at Long Museum, Shanghai

Visualizing Dunhuang The Lo Archive Photographs of the Mogao and Yulin Caves Edited by Dora C. Y. Ching

Four Seasons: Spring Summer Autumn and Winter (2018), from the exhibition Xue Song Phoenix Art from the Ashes, held in 2019 at Long Museum, Shanghai

out. Now the Shanghai government has already said that the complex is a cultural site,’ Song commented.

Conferring on the complex an official imprimatur and a permanence of sorts. ‘Maybe no problem for at least the next few years,’ Song added with a touch of irony.

Song’s art is predicated on debris and rescuing images from newspapers, books, and magazines.

The debris left by fire he has turned into an artistic medium where dazzling colour and nostalgia achieve a synthesis of western sensibility and eastern aesthetic. The collages are easy on the eye and alluring and outrageously beautiful, attributes that have been lost in so much contemporary art. He unites a pastiche of the past with a thoroughly contemporary present. His work exudes a visual exuberance with an easy to comprehend symbolism that is tempered by allusions to simple traditional Chinese landscapes.

Works that are part of loss and renewal – mirroring life itself.

A stunning nine-volume presentation of the incredible Buddhist caves at Dunhuang in northwestern China Hardcover $1200.00* 9.63 x 13.5 in. | 3,128 pg.

106 color + 3,392 tritone + 50 duotone + 388 b/w illus.

Available June 2021 *Enjoy the special pre-publication price on this set until April 30, 2021. The full price of $1500/£1200 takes effect May 1, 2021.

Click here to see Xue Song in the studio

Visualizing Dunhuang Seeing, Studying, and Conserving the Caves Edited by Dora C. Y. Ching A beautifully illustrated study of the caves at Dunhuang, exploring how this important Buddhist site has been visualized from its creation to today Paperback $65.00 8.25 x 11.5 in. | 400 pg.

101 color + 178 tritone + 13 b/w illus.

Available June 2021

Published in association with the Tang Center for East Asian Art, Princeton University

Click here for more information

asian art | march 2021

12 Indian Paintings

Tracing Rama’s Footsteps Through Lanka’s Landscape

by Rita Dixit The Ramayana, or Rama’s Journey, is India’s first great Sanskrit poem, composed by the Indian sage Valmiki in 400 AD, who based his epic work on stories, songs and prayers connected to Rama and Sita.

Whilst the Ramayana’s origins are in Hinduism, it has since been retold in many different languages and art forms and is celebrated in cultures spanning South and Southeast Asia.

The epic tells the journey – both geographic and spiritual – of the dutiful Lord Rama, Prince of Ayodhya. Rama was exiled from his father’s kingdom for 14 years along with his wife Sita and brother Laxmana. His beloved Sita is later abducted by Ravana, the demon king of the island of Lanka – an act that leads to war, the burning of the capital city of Lankapura, and the besieging of Ravana’s fabled island fortress.

Though an ancient story, rooted in universal themes such as love, valour, duty and human frailty, the Ramayana lives on in our present through the arts, architecture, and historic lore and legend. In Sri Lanka, widely identified as Valmiki’s mythical Lanka, the epic continues to inspire the faith of millions of people on the island and beyond.

Parts of the island are steeped in the Ramayana – it lives on in people’s beliefs, their religious practices, and the landscape itself. This article considers the places and spaces that celebrate the Ramayana as a living tradition with some examples of Indian miniatures as a visual guide, which reflect the creative skill and imagination of the artist in capturing these episodes, as well as the landscape, flora and fauna, and symbolism of the Ramayana.

None of the early Ramayana versions, or the Mahabharata

Sita Shies Away from Hanuman, Believing He is Ravana in Disguise, Ramayana, 1594, The David Collection, Copenhagen. Sita is initially fearful of Hanuman, but once she realises who is he, she gifts him a jewel to take back to her husband

Sri Lanka is widely identified with the epic story of the Ramayana (another Hindu text which mentions Lanka), provide geographical certainty that Lankapura was actually Sri Lanka and the debate amongst scholars remains polarised.

In Sri Lanka, meanwhile, there has been a nationalist and cultural revival of interest in the Ramayana story – and in particular – Ravana.

Over the last decade, Ravana has become something of a cult hero and

devotional figure among Sinhalese Buddhists, who claim that he is a distant ancestor and founder of the island’s legendary founding monarchy. The Ramayana trail for tourists and pilgrims encourages the island’s association with the epic, promoting famous religious Buddhist and Hindu sites that mark significant episodes in the story, such as the place where Sita was kept following her capture; the route taken across the ocean by Rama aided by the Monkey God Hanuman; and the site of the final battle where Ravana is killed.

Some of the finest examples of Indian miniature manuscripts bring to life what is essentially an oral tale, with exquisite portrayals of an artistically imagined landscape surrounded by the ocean with mountains and rocky crags, inhabited by bears, monkeys, and demons. The scriptures tell us that Kubera, the God of Wealth, once ruled Lanka, but was overthrown by his demon half-brother Ravana, who had built a ‘City of Gods’, as well as an impenetrable fortress made of gold and precious gems that was surrounded by a system of treacherous moats and trenches.

Among the finest works depicting this epic are the Imperial Ramayana, translated into Persian and painted for the Mughal emperor Akbar, circa 1591, that is now held in the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum in Jaipur; and the British Library’s Mewar Ramayana painted for the Maharana Jagat Singh, in the mid-17th century.

Sita was abducted from Panchavati Forest (Maharashtra, India) and flown by Ravana to Wariyapola, northwestern Sri Lanka, in his ‘miraculous air chariot’ (Pushpak Vimana), described as resembling a peacock in flight. However, for Sri Lankans, Ravana was not a demon Hanuman returns the mountain with the four healing plants to the Himalayas,

by Abd al-Rahim, created 1597-1605, folio from The Freer Ramayana, vol 2, folio 236, ink, opaque watercolour and gold on paper, 15.2 x 27.5 cm.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer, National Museum of Asian Art, Washington DC © Smithsonian Institution

Lord Rama Victorious, Kangra or Guler, circa, 1800, opaque pigments with gold on paper, 37.5 x 29 cm. Courtesy of Rita Dixit Indian Miniatures. This painting captures the joyous fanfare in the heavens above, as Rama, holding the cosmic arrow stands triumphant in Indra’s chariot

asian art | march 2021 |

#AsianArtPaper |

asianartnewspaper |

asianartnewspaper |

Sita in the Garden of Lanka, from the Ramayana epic of Valmiki, circa 1725, Guler, opaque watercolour and gold on paper, 55.5 x 79 cm.

Gift of George P Bickford, Cleveland Museum of Art. King Ravana, the villain of the epic Ramayana, has 10 heads and 20 arms and lives on the golden island of Lanka. He is shown twice in this painting: enthroned with demon guards at left and approaching the heroine Sita at right, whom he has abducted and imprisoned.

Guarded by demonesses, Sita sits steadfast in her refusal to become his queen and to remain faithful to her husband Rama

Asian Art Newspaper

Indian Paintings 13 Dolukanda, in Central Province, the Sri Lankan mountain linked to the Ramayana’s Medicine Mountain, where Hanuman went to search for magical herbs to heal Laxmana

The Monkeys and Bears Build a Bridge to Lanka, circa 1850, Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, opaque watercolour and gold on paper, 30.2 x 43.8 cm.

Gift of Mr and Mrs Lessing J Rosenwald, Philadelphia Museum of Art

Click here to view the Mewar Ramayana

but a learned statesman and brilliant monarch, who not only invented the aeroplane, and also made great strides in engineering and architecture.

During her captivity, Sita was kept at various locations such as the fabled garden of Ashok Vatika in the central highlands near Nuwara Eliya. Today, on the outskirts of town, there is the much-visited and venerated Seetha Amman Temple. The current temple only dates to 2000, but is built on the site of a much older temple and area devoted to the honouring of Sita.

Beside the temple is a stream with a large flat rock bearing a giant footprint believed to be that of Hanuman, who jumped into the garden to deliver Rama’s ring to a desolate Sita. The blackened soil is explained by the torching of Lanka

by Hanuman, who upon capture in the garden had his tail set alight. He escapes and burns the island with his tail before jumping back across the ocean to be with Rama and the bear

and monkey armies that had assembled and were poised for the crossing.

Rama, Laxmana, and the bear and monkey armies cross into Lanka by building a bridge – the ‘Ram Setu’, or Rama’s Bridge. Such is the enduring belief in the existence of the bridge, that in the 10th century, the invading Chola armies from Tamil Nadu thought of themselves as guardians of the bridge and Rama’s legacy. For some geologists, the presence of an area of limestone shoals – clearly visible from satellite imagery – is evidence of a former man-made land connection between India and Sri Lanka. The bridge would have been built across from Rameswaram Island – a place of Hindu pilgrimage, off the southeastern coast of Tamil Nadu opposite Sri Lanka’s Mannar Island in the northwest, at the eastern end the limestone shoals reaching across to India, commonly called Adam’s Bridge.

In Valmiki’s Ramayana, the god Brahma created an army of tens of thousands of super-intelligent warrior monkeys (vanaras) to construct the bridge over five days.

The drama of bridge-building is a popular artistic theme for painters.

The invasion of Lanka leads to the besieging of Ravana’s fortress and culminates in the final battle with its multiple twists and turns. At one point, Laxmana is fatally wounded and Hanuman is asked by Lord Rama to fly to the Himalayas to fetch sanjeevani – an ayurvedic herb with magical life-giving properties.

In one of the most iconic images, Hanuman, unable to identify the correct herb, lifts the entire Sanjeevani mountain, scattering splinters of the mountain across five places in Sri Lanka, including the sacred mountain of Dolukanda in Kurunegala District in the North Western Province, which is now the site of a Buddhist temple and an

ayurvedic institute. Locals believe that the abundance of ayurvedic herbs and alpine Himalayan plant species found in the area were scattered whilst Hanuman was in flight with the mountain in his palm.

Another location connected to the Ramayana in Sri Lanka is Ravana’s formidable fortress, which is described as being situated on a plateau between three mountain peaks known as the Trikuta Mountain. Some historians believe that the plateau is situated on top of Sigiriya (the Lion’s Rock) site of the ancient rock fortress and palace built by the 5th-century King Kashyapa I, near the Dambulla Buddhist temple complex in Central Province.

Once the great battle begins, Valmiki describes how there is no respite between Rama and Ravana, the demon army, serpents and ogres pitted against the bear and monkey troops who fight valiantly as missiles, arrows, thunder bolts shower them

from sky. The fierce fighting rages for seven days taking place in the sky, on the ground, and on the mountain.

The whole of nature stands still and the gods watch from the heavens. In direct combat, Rama is unable to cut off Ravana’s many heads as they magically regrow. Rama finally deploys the mystic missile – a blazing arrow gifted by the Gods. The missile, the Brahmastra, is believed to have been fired from Dunuwila, (in Central Province), killing Ravana by piercing his heart. Legend has it that Ravana is killed at Laggala, derived from the Sinhala name Elakke Gale, which means target rock, or the highest point of Ravana’s fortress. Once the battle is over, the monkeys and bears run through the ruins of Ravana’s palace, looking for Sita. They eventually find her and she is set free with great rejoicing.

Ravana’s younger brother, Vibhishana, has helped Rama defeat Ravana and his reward was to crowned king of Lanka. This is believed to have taken place near the modern town of Kelaniya, the closest site to the current capital city of Colombo.

And so from art to the landscape of Sri Lanka, the Ramayana endures the test of time – fusing a unique bond between faith, painting, and pilgrimage – a bond that provides valuable revenue to the island and its communities, whilst spreading the message of this glorious story, where evil is defeated by good.

• The British Library, which holds most volumes of the Mewar Ramayana, has now digitised the text pages and united text and illustrations for the first time in almost 200 years, so that Valmiki’s work can now be read in the original Sanskrit online at bl.uk/ramayana

Click here for the catalogue

An illustration to the Ramayana: Rama and Lakshmana; Attributed to Pandit Seu, Basohli, circa 1730

4 East 67th Street, Floor 3 New York, NY, 10065 • P. (212) 794-2300 Hours: Monday - Friday 11:00 am - 5:00 pm. Otherwise by appointment. www.kapoorgalleries.com

asian art | march 2021

14 From the Archives

Splendours from the Yongle and Xuande Reigns

by Yvonne Tan In October 2010, we featured the exhibition celebrating the Forbidden City in Beijing marking the 590th anniversary of its completion in 1420 as the seat of the Ming (1368-1644) capital. That year also celebrated the 85th year of The Palace Museum’s founding in 1925. Both events were commemorated by a monumental exhibition, Splendours from the Yongle (1403-1424) and Xuande (1426-1435) Reigns of China’s Ming Dynasty at the Wu Men, Meridian Gate at the Forbidden City. The two emperors’ reigns spanned some 33 years known as Ren Xuan zhi zhi, ‘The Rule of Ren and Xuan’, considered the most glorious of the Ming. A time of great artistic achievement, its highlights included the Ming-dynasty court treasures that were on public display for the first time. They come from 161 sets of artefacts from The Palace Museum Collection and comprise eight categories: Calligraphy and painting, jade, gold, porcelain, lacquer, gilt bronze statuary, cloisonné and the Xuande incense burner.

Dr Alfreda Murck, a consultant and researcher at The Palace Museum, now based at Columbia University in New York, explained that this important exhibition might be understood in the context of ‘dramatic changes’ precipitated by three events. First was the moving of the capital from Nanjing to Beijing by the Yongle Emperor, Zhu Di (1360-1424), the fourth son of Zhu Yuanzhang, founder of the Ming dynasty. ‘Yongle had usurped the throne and needed convincing evidence of his legitimacy,’ Dr Murck explained. ‘The Forbidden City was a splendid new complex and the Confucian equivalent of a Tantric Buddhist mandala. Every detail is ritually perfect in position, shape, colour, proportion and numerology.

It was so perfect that Yongle refused to move despite an omen of Heaven’s displeasure. In the spring of 1421, months after the new palace was dedicated,’ she continued, ‘lightning hit the grand throne halls – the highest buildings in the capital – and all three burned to the ground.

Although court officials urged a return to Nanjing, Yongle resisted and the capital remained in the north’.

Secondly, the emperor went on to extend Chinese influence abroad, sending the eunuch admiral Zheng He on six remarkable maritime expeditions, some reaching as far as Africa. The encounters had a direct influence on the Ming decorative arts. In 1424, the Hongxi Emperor, Zhu Gaochi (1378-1425), ascended the throne but died after an eightmonth reign. His successor was his eldest son, the Xuande Emperor, Zhu Zhanji (1399-1435), beneficiary of Yongle’s rule who maintained stability in the empire. A talented calligrapher and artist, he was a patron of the arts and gathered the finest artists around him. Five of the seven paintings by Ming emperors in asian art | march 2021 |

Silver-gilt double phoenix vase engraved with cloud and phoenix pattern, 1434, Xuande period (1426-1435), Ming dynasty © Collection of Palace Museum, Beijing

From top left: Underglaze blue and white stand, wudangzun, Yongle period (1403-1424), Ming dynasty; Seated gilt bronze Buddhist deity, Ming dynasty; Hexagonal cloisonné seat with, Xuande period (1426-1435), Ming dynasty; White jade unicorn belt plaque with a qilin design in openwork, early Ming (1368-1435); Carved cinnabar red lacquer dish with peony design, Yongle period (1403-1424), Ming dynasty; and Stem bowl in bright red glaze, Yongle period (1403-1424), Ming dynasty All images © Collection of Palace Museum, Beijing

The Palace Museum’s collection are his work.

Thirdly, the imperial workshops established by Yongle and Xuande set standards for subsequent connoisseurship. ‘The objects reveal a court heavily invested in Buddhist worship,’ said Dr Murck. ‘Many are embellished with Tibetan imagery and have been understood as the Yongle Emperor’s means to solidify the court’s relationship with the Tibetan lamas, although it is now clear that both emperors were devout Buddhists.’

Calligraphy and painting, the high arts of the brush, attain first place in the imperial pecking order.

The pre-eminent calligraphic style was the Court style identified with Shen Du (1357-1434), Yongle’s favourite calligrapher, the ‘Wang Xizhi of our time’. Wang (307-365) was a major Eastern Jin (317-420) master who had set a precedent for the written form thereafter. Shen Du’s text transcribed important Ming documentation from court dossiers to those of vassal state status.

The Epigraph of Qianyi Studio, executed with elegant and regular ideograms, is said to be his finest work.

Early Ming court painting was an

#AsianArtPaper |

asianartnewspaper |

extension of the Song (960-1279) academic style. Gradually a varied and ‘freer’ style emerged at the Zhe school named after Dai Jin (13881462) from Zhejiang. Compositions were balanced, forms accurately depicted and brushwork controlled.

Landscapes of textured mountains had axe-cut strokes inherited from the Southern Song (1127-1279). At the Xuande court, Dai Jin forged links between the Academic style and the Zhe school; Mist and Rain on the Xiang River, a joint work with Zhu Kongyang has both Song and Yuan literati influences. There is much restraint, the ink layers are richly nuanced, the pine branches, leaves and grass, swiftly executed.

The Yuan literati style was developed by the Wu school of Suzhou and later spread in the Yangzi region.

Hongya Mountain House (undated), is an early attempt and the only work

by Chen Zongyuan extant.

Jade remains one of the most exalted of Ming imperial art forms.

All the imperial seals were made of jade. It indicated rank at court and was used in ritual and as adornment, and also in the afterlife. Like previous Chinese dynasties, the Ming looked towards the past for a revival of court pomp; its ceremonial asianartnewspaper |

rites depended on the Zhouli, ‘Rituals of Zhou’ from antiquity. Sacrificial jades offered included the grey bi disc, to worship Heaven, the yellow tubular cong, Earth, the red zhang, the Sun and the white hu, the Moon.

Jade was a vital marker of status set by the Ming Code. The wearing of jade belts with 20 plaques reflected the wearer’s social rank. A rare set of jade pendants with the Hongxi (r 1425) reign mark is particularly valuable in view of his short reign. It was unearthed from the tomb of Prince Liang Zhuang (died 1441), the ninth brother of Xuande, in Hubei only in 2001. An exceptional jade mortuary tablet dated 1403, first year of the Yongle reign, documents the imperial titular system designed for benevolent governance. The titles that Zhu Di conferred upon founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang; the honorific title, posthumous title, temple name, era name and that of the mausoleum attest to his supreme imperial authority. However, limited jade resources mean only very rare objects might be confidently attributed to the Yongle and Xuande eras. Ming-style craftsmanship was designed to express the stone’s intrinsic qualities and multi-layer openwork carving was created by

Asian Art Newspaper

the Yuyong jian, ‘Directorate for Imperial Accoutrements’, one of 24 departments in charge of curios and furniture.

Gold never attained the status of jade, but secured a place in the imperial hierarchy. Ming sumptuary laws placed heavy restrictions on its use by commoners. The yinzuo ju, ‘Jewellery Service’ crafted the imperial family’s gold and silver objects based on drawing, filigree, hammering, engraving and welding.

Since Ming court gold was melted down for the Qing (1644-1911) emperors’ personal use, the rare objects extant have been excavated from imperial tombs. An important gold ingot dated 1419, 17th year of the Yongle reign, from Prince Liang Zhuang’s tomb, bears witness to one of Zheng He’s maritime expeditions to Asian and African countries. An inscription reads: ‘Bought on X Day, fourth lunar month, 17th year of the Yongle reign in Western Ocean areas.

80% gold, weight, 50 liang’ (One liang is approximately 50 gm). A gold vase with cloud and phoenix pattern (1434), ninth year of the Xuande reign, was unearthed in 1954 from a concubine’s tomb that was sealed in the Tianqi era (r 1621-1627).

Porcelain attained a rare

From the Archives 15 distinction, becoming synonymous with the Ming dynasty. The Imperial kiln in Jingdezhen was built already in 1369, the second year of the dynasty’s founding and dedicated to special court porcelains. The finest raw materials and the best talent available contributed to a distinct Ming style, described as wellproportioned with balanced compositions in underglaze blue and white decoration. Some had an Islamic element.

A Yongle underglaze blue and white wudangzun, a base for candle sticks, has an Arabic inscription suggesting Chinese contact with the Arab world.

The tianbai, ‘sweet white’ glaze whose texture was likened both to lard and snow was designed purely for Yongle court use. When copper oxide was added to dark red glazes during high temperature firing, a much admired bright red glaze surfaced.

As the Ming was the first indigenously Chinese dynasty after the Yuan (1279-1368), Yongle was anxious to establish his credentials in the decorative arts. One of his most enduring achievements was the custom of attribution and a few marks and inscriptions appeared for the first time on several categories of imperial wares. An early effort, Yongle nianzhi, ‘Made in the Yongle reign’ in four seal script characters on two lines, appeared on the base of a bright red stembowl.

The proliferation of the nianhao, ‘reignmark’ as a convention was a significant achievement seen on the finest imperial Xuande porcelains.

Lacquer, a Chinese high art for more than 6,000 years, reached a new intensity. ‘The carved and inlaid lacquers are time and labour intensive in ways unimaginable today,’ Dr Murck pointed out. ‘A coat of lacquer, a resin from the lac tree was brushed over an object, usually wood, allowed to dry, followed by more coats with periods of drying between each application. When thick enough, craftsmen carved designs specified by the court. Remarkably in an era of great outside influences in the decorative arts, designs on lacquer show no influences from other cultures.’

‘Yongle also initiated the custom of adding official reignmarks to lacquer,’ she said. ‘Thereafter lacquerware had reignmarks that contribute to considerations when dating a piece.’

Xuande era carving was confined to thinner lacquer layers, and left visible but acceptable surface knife strokes.

Official reignmarks were enlarged and knife-incised on monochrome red lacquer grounds filled with gold paste. A rare red lacquer Buddhist scripture folder has surface patterns applied with gold leaf in the Xuande court style. Layering, painting and carving eventually produced a major three-dimensional art form in monochrome as well as polychrome lacquer with gold inlay.

The Yongle and Xuande emperors were devotees of Tibetan Buddhism, a legacy from Mongol China. Gilt bronze statuary produced during their reigns was strongly Tibetan in inspiration. They were constructed ‘in the round’, had smooth surfaces and crisply formed Tibetan Buddhist details. Inscribed reignmarks were badges of honour. ‘Offered in the Yongle reign of the Great Ming’ distinguishes a gilt-bronze statue of Vajrasattva, a Bodhisattva from Tantric Buddhism seated in full lotus posture. Gilt-iron was used to correspond to the deeper skin tone of the three-eyed Tibetan protector deity, Nagpo chenpo; his Sanskrit name Mahakala, transliterated as

the Chinese Mahagala. The Green Tara, a goddess of liberation and compassion was also a popular female deity during the Ming dynasty.

Visiting Tibetan Buddhist dignitaries paying homage to the Ming court were bestowed with special tributary wares, reflecting the close ties between them. Shavkyaye-shes (1354-1439), a disciple of Tsongkapa, founder of the Gelug school was its earliest guru to visit China. A silk thangka, Kesi Thangga of Byams-chen chos-rje, bearing his portrait and title, ‘Great Mercy Prince of Dharma’ is historically important and was specially commissioned by the Xuande emperor upon conferring the title in 1434.

Cloisonné is a form of enamel decoration wherein surface cloisons, ‘metal or wired outlines’ contain coloured glass paste. These objects had copper or bronze bases and were made in the Yuyong jian, ‘Directorate for Imperial Accoutrements’. Xuande cloisonné wares were the earliest to have reignmarks. They were regular forms with thick bodies and bright enamels of pure colour usually on a light blue enamel ground. Enamels might be categorised according to manufacturing process and design featuring cloisonné, champlevé, bassetaille, painted enamel and grisaille, also called ‘baked blue’ or ‘painting in grey’. A champlevée container in the exhibition is a masterpiece with an entwined lotus design. Seven cloisonné lions in red, yellow, blue and green also distinguish a cloisonné container set for shuanglu game pieces of Indian origin.

Ming inscriptions are important tools for scholarship, and particularly valuable as aids to dating. A pair of bells, dated 1430 and cast in bronze alloy, was a court gift to the Qutan Monastery in Tibet. It bears the inscription, ‘Made with gold and silver in the 5th year of the Xuande reign of the Great Ming’, which establishes a change in usage from at least that date, when bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, was replaced by bronze alloy that includes gold. A court manual contains supporting evidence that gold, silver and other metals were used in bronze casting from 1428, third year of the Xuande reign.

Finally, the focus falls on the socalled ‘Xuande incense burner’. ‘It has long been admired and endlessly replicated for its pleasing shape and proportions, and for its association with a peaceful reign,’ commented Dr Murck. However, the object generates intense debate and scholarly opinion remains divided about its origins. A court record states incense burners were cast in 1428, but its detractors say none were made since bronze censers extant date from the mid-Ming and after.

‘It is an elegantly simple, low-slung bronze incense burner with a pair of curved handles and a wide mouth ideal for adding sand or removing ash,’ she clarified. ‘Imitations began to be made in the Ming, so the Xuande incense burner might be thought of as a generic designation for this type of object with, or without, the Xuande reignmark.’

• Splendours from the Yongle and

Islamic Art & Manuscripts Auction Fine Art Auctioneers & Valuers

Wednesday 31 March

A large Safavid cuerda seca tile panel, Iran, late 17th century.

Provenance: Private collection UK since the 1980s.

Estimate £8,000 - £12,000* Please visit our website to view the fully illustrated catalogue www.roseberys.co.uk 70/76 Knights Hill, London SE27 0JD | islamic@roseberys.co.uk | +44 (0) 20 8761 2522

*Plus Buyer’s Premium +VAT (30% inclusive of VAT)

Olivia Sand

CONTEMPORARY VOICES From the Asian and Islamic Art Worlds

Click here to order this book

The first comprehensive book to cover the Asian and Islamic contemporary art scenes featuring more than 80 interviews and 250 color illustrations Available for purchase at bookstores and on skira.net

Xuande Reigns of China’s Ming Dynasty took place from 26 September 2010 to 1 April 2011, at the Meridian Gate, The Palace Museum, 4 Jingshan Qianjie, Beijing 100009, dpm.org.cn.

A catalogue accompanied the exhibition.

asian art | march 2021

16 AWNY Gallery Shows & Online

Asia Week New York It is very good news, indeed, that Asia Week New York is going ahead, despite the difficulties involved in arranging the event this year during the pandemic and Covid 19 restrictions. To overcome the many hurdles, this year is a hybrid event – by appointment only supported by online exhibitions. Some dealers, who have galleries in New York City, are choosing to open their spaces whilst complying with Covid 19 state safety laws, as well as an online presence on Asia Week New York’s website. Other participants, obviously including the overseas dealers, are having online contributions only this year.

This is the 12th annual week and, as usual, it coincides with the Spring sales at the auction houses – with physical and online sales.

We have been able to include museum exhibitions in the guide, some are currently open, but please check with each institution on their safety policies and opening times.

Asia Week New York’s online hosting for the event goes live on their website on 11 March and continues until 20 March.

Asian Art Newspaper is also posting our Asia Week guide on the website with all the relevant links. click here for the latest AWNY website info

Utagawa Kunisada His World Revisited

Four bronze long-horned bulls and a horse, Western Han dynasty, 3rd-1st century BC, lengths 17.8 to 24.8 cm, Kaikodo

Sebastian Izzard 15 to 26 March, by appointment only and online

Shingu Sayaka (b 1979), is a highlight of the show – Erosion, a ceramic sculpture from 2021. The artist is recognised for her ceramic flowers series, in which she expresses a feeling of transience, fleetingness, and immortality.

click here for the latest Asian Art Newspaper

• 18 East 64th Street,1/F, NY 10065.

For gallery hours, tel 212 230 1680, daiichiarts.com

Figure seated on a lotus, Buddhist bronze, Ming dynasty (1368-1644), height 13 cm; and bronze sculptural group of the Birth of Sakyamuni, Ming dynasty, height of bronze without base 18.2 cm, Zetterquist Galleries

Chinese Imperial, green-ground, porcelain bowl, Kangxi mark and period, circa late 17th century, decorated inside and out with ‘eight sacred horses leaping over waves strewn with precious things’, diam. 15.8 cm, Ralph M Chait Galleries

Chinese Art

particularly useful as end tables in a domestic setting, but also strong enough to stand on their own in a museum installation.

Chinese Porcelains and Works of Art

• Tel 917 945 9293,

Ralph M Chait 11 to 20 March, by appointment only and online

or UK +44 (0) 7810 647258, nicholasgrindley.com

A highlight of the show is an Imperial Chinese green porcelain bowl with the Imperial mark from the Kangxi period.

A rare type that is usually dated towards the beginning of the Kangxi reign. The decorative motif of eight sacred horses leaping over waves strewn with precious things originates from the early Ming dynasty.

• 16 East 52nd Street, 10/f,

NY 10022.

For gallery hours, tel 212 397 2818, rmchait.com

Chinese Scholar’s Objects

Nicholas Grindley 11 to 20 March, online only

A pair of early 18th-century, hongmu, square stools, from the Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, is among the offerings at Nicholas Grindley’s online show. What is particularly interesting about these stools, especially when they survive in pairs, is their scale. They are rarely 22 inches square, making them not only

Earthly Agendas

Kaikodo 11 to 20 March, online only

Among European admirers of Asian art was the Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966). While conversant with Chinese painting, Giacometti might not have known that his signature cast-bronze sculptures with surfaces appearing rough, crusty, and eroded, the human and animal forms attenuated, their limbs stretched thin and spindly, had predecessors in the ancient art of China. From the standpoint of Asian art specialists, the oxen featured in Earthly Agendas at Kaikodo – are clear examples of a Han-dynasty regional artistic norm. They also serve as appropriate symbols of this lunar year, advancing under the spell of the metal ox.

• Tel 808 964 3229, kaikodo.com

Ceramics and Works of Art from China, Japan, and Korea Zetterquist Galleries 11 to 20 March, by appointment only and online

Pair of hongmu square stools, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, early 18th century, 47 x 55.6 x 55.6 cm, Nicholas Grindley

asian art | march 2021 |

In a departure from previous exhibitions, which have focused mainly on ceramics, this year includes ceramics, bronze, stone, painting and calligraphy, mostly sourced from American and Japanese

#AsianArtPaper |

asianartnewspaper |

collections. Highlights include two mini-collections of ancient Chinese and Southeast Asian objects ranging from the Shang to Ming dynasties. The first is housed in a custom fitted huanghuali scholar’s object box and includes a Yuandynasty ‘Revolving Stem-cup’, one of four known pieces in the world. The other group is displayed in an interconnecting grid of shadow boxes, which includes ancient gilt-bronze and stone objects. Other highlights include two Ming-dynasty bronzes, one sourced in Japan and the other in the US, from the same rare group, and reunited after centuries, to be offered as one lot.

They appear to have originally been part of a large tableau depicting Pure-Land Buddhist imagery.

Chiura Obata Woodblock Prints And Paintings Egenolf Gallery 11 to 20 March, online only

One of the highlights in this singleartist exhibition by Chiura Obata (18851975) is Evening Glow at Mono Lake, from Mono Mills (1930), one of the best prints from the World Landscape Series: America. Obata collaborated with the Japanese publisher Takamizawa, who employed more than 32 carvers and 40 printers for 18 months, for this project.

Although a professor at Berkeley, in 1942 Obata and his family were incarcerated at the Topaz internment camp, where he opened an art school for fellow internees. His colleagues at Berkeley were able to preserve much of his artwork and he returned to teaching there in 1945.

• Tel 661 821 0256, egenolfgallerycom

• 3 East 66th Street 2B, NY 10065.

For gallery hours, tel 212 751 0650, zettterquist.com

Japanese and Korean Art Japanese Prints The Art of Japan 11 to 20 March, online only

In the Foothills of the Mountains, Atagoyama 1932, Fall and Summer, are part of the selection of woodblock prints offered by The Art of Japan.

The prints depict views of Mt Fuji – and by altering pigments and an additional block to create the effect of rain, the publisher and artist worked together to create two completely different moods using essentially the same blocks and the same subject.

Glazed bowl decorated with the artist’s signature patterning of red and white camellia with bright green leaves,

by Kitaoji Rosanjin (1883-1959), circa 1940, glazed stoneware, 4 3/8 x 8 7/8 in, Joan Mirviss

• Tel 206 859 9940, theartofjapan.com

The Passage of Time Dai Ichi Arts 11 to 20 March, by appointment and online

In this exhibition, an example of the young emerging Japanese ceramicist, asianartnewspaper |

Asian Art Newspaper

On show is a selection paintings, woodblock prints, and illustrated books by the 19th century ukiyo-e master Utagawa Kunisada. The contents of this exhibition cover most aspects of Kunisada’s long career; many of them rare examples of his finest works.

Included are five of the seven prints that make up Greatest Hit Plays, a series from 1815 featuring images of leading Kabuki actors in celebrated past performances.

The set is notable for the reintroduction of mica backgrounds, a stencilled surface little used since the mid-1790s.

At the end of his career, between 1860 and 1864, Kunisada embarked on a large series of prints featuring close-up portraits of actors in their most famous roles. The set, Untitled Series of Okubi-e Actors Past and Present, was planned as a monument to his career, with no expense spared in the production of the prints and used the most expensive paper and elaborate printing techniques including burnishing and gaufrage, crushed mother-of-pearl, and on occasion even gold wash.

Also featured in the exhibition are prints from the series The Thirty-two Contemporary Types, long regarded as Kunisada’s masterpiece in the field of beauty prints, and Fashionable Makeup Mirrors, in which women from various walks of life are shown intimately engaged in preparing themselves for the day, their visages framed within the borders of a black hand mirror case.

Several illustrated books will round out the exhibition. Catalogue available.

• 17 East 76th Street, 3/F, NY 10021.

For gallery hours, tel 212 794 1522, izzardasianart.com

Tradition Redefined Rosanjin and His Rivals Joan B Mirviss 11 to 20 March, by appointment only and online

Rosanjin has long been hailed as a one of the greatest ceramists of the 10th century. His bold, eclectic ceramics emerged from the highly creative atmosphere of postwar Japan. Rosanjin forged a remarkable career, but it was not without first crossing paths, and even colliding, with many of his contemporaries who were themselves renowned ceramic masters and connoisseurs. In his own words, Kitaoji Rosanjin (1883-1959) came to ceramics as a gourmand; dissatisfied with the tableware options for presenting elegant cuisine, Rosanjin set about creating them himself for his exclusive eating club in Tokyo. Not wanting to imitate past traditional forms and glazes, he instead ‘remixed’ In the foothills of the mountains, Atagoyama, Fall and Summer (1932) by Takahashi Hiroaki (1871-1945), colour woodblock prints, ed. 200, The Art of Japan

AWNY Gallery Shows & Online 17 surface of the object is incised with a fine chisel, then inlaid with gold and lead.

Our Field Artillery Attacks the Enemy Camp at Jiuliancheng (1894), by Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847-1915), woodblock print triptych, 14 3/4 by 28 7/8 in, Scholten Japanese Art

• 521 West 26th Street, NY 10001.

For gallery hours, tel 212 695 8035, onishigallery.com

On the Vanguard Meiji Period Woodblock Prints Scholten Japanese Art, 11 to 20 March, by appointment only and online

Sawamura Sojuro III as Ume no Yoshibei, also Known as Tosshi by Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865), 7/1863, colour woodblock print, oban tate-e, 39.4 x 26.4 cm, from the series Untitled Series of Okubi-e Actors Past and Present, Sebastian Izzard

the elements in surprising ways that were defiantly unconventional and characteristically ‘Rosanjin’.

This show focuses on the creative expression seen in Meiji-era prints and the acceptance of new cultural ideas in the Japanese populace at large during this dynamic period in the late 19th and early 20th century. The Meiji period (1868-1912), defined by the reign of Emperor Meiji (1852-1912), was an era of rapid modernization as Japan transformed from a feudal society based on samurai culture into a modern nation.

The prints in this show explore how artists recorded and responded to the introduction of foreign elements, at times resisting the march toward modernity by embracing nostalgia.

Ultimately, the artists who prevailed were those that were on the vanguard –

• 39 East 78th Street, Suite 401, NY 10075.

For gallery hours tel 212 799 4021, mirviss.com

The Eternal Beauty of Metal Onishi Gallery 11 to 20 March, by appointment only and online

One of the most recent works that Osumi Yukie has produced, Araiso, or ‘Rough Shore’, references the artist’s signature motif: the ceaseless movement of nature. Osumi employs a centuriesold technique known as nunomezogan, or ‘textile imprint inlay’ in which the

Silver Vase (2020), Araiso (Rough Shore), by Osumi Yukie (b 1945), Living National Treasure, hammered silver with nunome zogan (textile imprint inlay) decoration in lead and gold, 27.1 x 25.3 x 25.3 cm, Onishi Gallery

leading the way – by balancing society’s intermittent longing for ‘Old Japan’ while adapting, and even embracing, a changing world.

One artist who successfully navigated that dichotomy was Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892). The exhibition features an impression of the iconic work popularly known as The Flute Player Triptych, published in 1883.

Providing fascinating context, the show includes prints illustrating the ‘Flute Player’ by his follower Yoshu Chikanobu (1838-1912) from the same year; his teacher, Utagawa Kuniyoshi (17971861) from 1845; as well as a later printing of Yoshitoshi’s first attempt at the subject which he designed in 1868.

Another section of the show looks at the military vanguard – literally on the front lines – with a group of prints related to the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05). Drawn primarily from a private collection, the avant-garde artist Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847-1915) is well-represented in the exhibition with examples of his innovative Westerninfluenced landscapes as well as several of his most evocative war prints, including the triptych from 1894, Our Field Artillery Attacks the Enemy Camp at Jiuliancheng.

• 145 West 58th Street, Suite 6D, NY 10019. For gallery hours, tel 212 585 0474, scholten-japanese-art.com

Japanese Prints Hara Shobo 11 to 20 March, online only

View of Pleasure Boats at Ryogoku, the Eastern Capital (toto ryogoku yusen no zu), is a polychrome triptych woodcut

by Utagawa Hiroshige, and a highlight of the online show at Hara Shobo in Tokyo. It is a traditional scene depicting pleasure boats on the Sumida River with people gathering to celebrate beginning of summer and view fireworks from the Ryogoku Bridge, on the riverbank of the Sumida River.

• Tel +81 3 5212 7801, harashobo.com

Yoshio Okada

Thomsen Gallery 11 to 20 March, by appointment only and online

The lacquer artist Yoshio Okada creates dramatic lacquer work that reflects the skills of the great masters of the Edo period. Reaching back to an era of Japan’s great cultural assimilation from the Asian continent during the 6th to 8th centuries, Okada frequently adopts the ancient, all-but-forgotten kanshitsu (dry lacquer) method, originally used to create Buddhist statuary. Combining layers of hemp cloth with the dark, sticky sap of the lacquer tree (Rhus verniciflua), he bends (so to speak) kanshitsu to his creative ends, kneading the fabric before the lacquer hardens and moulding it to form the special shapes

Maki-e gold lacquer box by Yoshio Okada (b 1977), 2020, from Tensho (Celestial Phenomenon) series, Thomsen Gallery

required for his extraordinary Tensho, (Celestial Phenomena) series. Alongside the Tensho series, the gallery is offering seven boxes with jellyfish designs, including a special set of five finished last year, each of them brilliantly exploiting the painstaking, progressive nature of lacquer decoration to create the illusion of creatures swimming at different depths in clear ocean waters.

• 9 East 63rd Street 2/F, NY 10065.

For gallery hours, tel 212 288 2588, thomsengallery.com

Selections of Japanese Art Hiroshi Yanagi Oriental Art 11 to 20 March, online only

A highlight this year from the online show is a 12th-century figure of Gozu-Tenno, a menacing Shinto deity depicted with hair rising up like flames and two bull horns emerging from its head. GozuTenno, known as Ox-Headed Heavenly King, is deity of disease and healing, who was thought to Continued on page 18

On the Vanguard: Meiji Period Woodblock Prints Asia Week New York, March 11 – 20, 2020 11 am – 5 pm by appointment 145 West 58th Street, suite 6D New York, NY 10019 tel. 212.585.0474 scholten-japanese-art.com

asian art | march 2021

18 AWNY Gallery Shows & Online Gozu Tenno, 19th century, wood, polychrome, height 54 cm, Hiroshi Yanagi Oriental Art

Khatamkari dagger, Turkey, Ottoman Empire, 17th century, overall 11 inches, wood, steel, gold, mother of pearl, ebony, ivory, Runjeet Singh

Portrait of a stallion, Kishangarh, circa 1740, brush drawing with colour and gold on paper, 16.6 x 22.6 cm, Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch

quell epidemics and has been worshipped since the Heian period.

The sculpture is unusual as it lacks the bull’s head that is commonly perched atop the deity’s human head.

• Tel +81 75 551 4128, h-yanagi.com

Kokon Biannual Spring 2021

One of 10 leaves from the Shahnameh, Rostam Kills the White Demon, Shiraz, Iran, circa 1570, opaque watercolour and gold on paper, 44 x 29 cm each leaf, Prahlad Bubbar

Koichi Yanagi Oriental Fine Arts 11 to 20 March, by appointment only and online

A highlight of the Kokon Biannual this year is an ink-on-paper hanging scroll by Kano Motonobu (14761559) depicting a landscape and dating from the MuromachiMomoyama period, 15th-16th century. Motonobu succeeded his father in the Kano school and developed a versatile style which was rooted in ink painting in the Chinese manner, but more suited to the of brighter colours. Its influence lasted for centuries and became the dominant style in Japanese painting.

• 17 East 71st Street #4, NY 10021; for gallery hours tel 212 744 5577.

The Scholar’s Study Sarangbang

HK Art & Antiques 11 to 20 March, by appointment only and online

On show in the gallery is a late 19thcentury inkstone case, or yeonsang, and a good example of the wood furniture used in a Sarangbang, a scholar’s study. In the Joseon dynasty, the study was a multifunctional room in the men’s quarters of an elite home. Made of persimmon wood, this inkstone case was used to store important scholar’s objects: inkstone, ink stick, brush, and paper, known collectively as the ‘Four Friends’.

• 49 East 78th Street, NY 100065.

For gallery hours tel 646 559 0231, heakyumart.com

Indian, Islamic, & Southeast Asian Art Islamic Works of Art

Art Passages, 11 to 20 March, online only

A Safavid period tile, circa 17th century, at Art Passages’ online exhibition is illustrated with a scene

moments from the flux of experience.

This is space where she can hold conversations with her inner self. As the eyes get used to this monumental twilight landscape, the details begin to reveal themselves. It is as if some natural formations were playing with your vision in the semi-darkness and creating fantastic images in your mind’s eye.

• Tel +91 98303 28558, akarprakar.com

francescagalloway.com

Gold pectoral, Marangga, Sumba, Indonesia, 19th century, 28 x 18 cm, Susan Ollemans

Indian Works of Art

Study of a bird, probably an Asian koel,

by Shaykh Zayn al-Din, from the collection of Lady Impey, Calcutta, 1777, opaque watercolour on paper, folio 48.5 x 60.5 cm, Francesca Galloway

featuring a multi-coloured bird in flight approaching a blossoming branch and a cypress tree. Originally part of a larger composition inspired by the natural world, the tile scene was used to decorate the walls of palaces and houses of the nobles in Isfahan, a city known for its Perso– Islamic architecture, with its grand boulevards, covered bridges, palaces, tiled mosques, and minarets.

• Tel 415 690 9077, artpassages.com

The Abundance of Nature Prahlad Bubbar, 11 to 20 March, online only

Prahlad Bubbar is presenting a series of outstanding works from the Persian, Indian, and Himalayan worlds, all connected to nature. The exhibition, The Abundance of Nature, reflects the innate generosity and regenerative power of nature, seen as a quiet observer in all these works.

Within the various tableaux we observe contrasting narratives informed by various movements and art schools. Present in all these works is the enveloping power of nature as it makes it restorative force felt and remains the ultimate arbiter of time and destiny.

• Tel +44 207 494 3144, prahladbubbar.com

Francesca Galloway 11 to 20 March, online only

asian art | march 2021 |

which is a perfect example of the many layers and influences found in Indian art. It was painted by Shaykh Zayn al-Din, a Muslim artist from Patna, who was commissioned in the 1770s by Lady Impey, to create an album illustrating her much-loved menagerie in Calcutta. In these depictions of flora and fauna we have a record of a kind of cultural crosspollination, with the dual threads of the English botanical illustration, and Zayn al-Din’s Mughal artistic training and masterful personal style.

• Tel +44 207 499 6844,

Indian Works of Art

A Bird and Blossoms, stonepaste tile with polychrome glaze, in cuerda seca technique, Safavid, Isfahan, Iran, circa 17th century, 9 3/8 x 9 3/8 inches, Art Passages

Meditation (2014) by Higashi Kiyokazu, madake bamboo, rattan, 10.25 x 15 x 7 in, Tai Modern

In all its depth and range, Indian art always has the ability to evoke wonder and curiosity, whether it was made for an Emperor, or for a whole village. On offer are an array of textiles, objects and paintings that convey this inventiveness and diversity. The show incorporates works made for or influenced by foreign markets, for the Rajasthani princely courts, and to entertain and celebrate the traditions of ordinary crafts people. A highlight is a painting from the Impey Album,

#AsianArtPaper |

asianartnewspaper |

Kapoor Galleries 11 to 20 March, by appointment only and online

Uma (Parvati) stands guard at Kapoor Galleries. This striking 11th12th century Chola bronze deity from Tamil Nadu, is representative of the most important of South Indian Hindu temple images; it is part of a ‘Somaskanda’ image which describes the divine family constituted by Shiva, Parvati, and Skanda. The present figure of Parvati, or ‘Uma’ in the native language of Tamil Nadu, seated in the posture of royal ease, belonged to a group of three portable bronze images essential to worship within each South Indian temple. The bronze figure is also processional, as indicated by the holes fit for poles enabling worshippers to carry the divine figures into the streets for all to experience darshan. Ring to book an appointment and gallery hours.

• 34 East 67th Street, NY 10065.

For gallery hours, tel 212 794 2300, kapoorgalleries.com

Indian Paintings

Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch 11 to 20 March, online only

Among the notable Indian paintings in this show is Rustam before Kai Kavus Having Knocked down Tus, a folio from a Shahnama, circa 1610, a rare survivor from the court of Ibrahim Adil Shah II (1571-1627), the fifth sultan of Bijapur, who was a great patron of music and painting.

Another highlight is a Portrait of a Stallion from Kishangarh, circa 1740.

Kishangarh is one of the most intriguing of the desert courts of Rajasthan and is this fine drawing of a stallion, short-headed and powerful of neck, whose court artists were at their zenith in the mid-18th century.

• Tel +44 207 839 0386, forgelynch.com

Asiatica/ Ethnographica Thomas Murray 11 to 20 March, online only

Thomas Murray is offering a 19thearly 20th-century Nuo mask of a wise leader, from southwest China.

Rooted in a shamanic/animistic tradition dating back thousands of years and preserved in remote mountains by the tribal minorities of this region, the dramas feature heroic battles between the forces of good asianartnewspaper |

and evil and serve as a means to drive out devils and malevolent ghosts.

This mask is thought to capture the character of a wise but strong leader; it comes from an old French collection and is one of the finest known.

• Tel 415 378 0716, tmurrayarts.com Recent Acquisitions of Asian Jewellery 11 to 20 March, online only Susan Ollemans

This online show at Susan Ollemans includes a 19th-century gold pectoral from Sumba, Indonesia. Made from a single rod of gold, it was hammered out into two triangular flanges. This piece would have been part of a nobleman’s treasury and exposed to daylight only for ritual purposes and under the guidance of a priest.

• Tel +44 7775 566 356, ollemans.com

Arms and Armour Runjeet Singh 11 to 20 March, online only

Made as a unique commission for a person of importance and taste, a 17th-century Khatamkari dagger from the Ottoman Empire is one of the works of Asian and Islamic arms and armour on view at Runjeet Singh’s online offering. The carved wooden handle and case is inlaid with gold, mother of pearl, ebony and ivory. Khatamkari refers to a technique that originated in Persia, most probably Shiraz and Isfahan, and travelled throughout the Middle East and India.

• Tel +447866 424 803, runjeetsingh.com

Contemporary

Ten Thousand Flowers Tai Modern 11 to 20 March, online only

This exhibition pairs works of Japanese bamboo art with flowers in a nod to the long-standing relationship between the two. Early masters created baskets with the understanding that they would most often be displayed with flowers. A familiarity with the principles of flower arranging was essential to the bamboo artist working 150 years ago.

Today, when a bamboo artist creates a flower basket, they do not necessarily expect that it will be used to hold flowers. However, the importance of functionality and relevance of ikebana is a matter of active debate, and each individual artist has a slightly different stance.

• Tel 505 984 1387, taimodern.com

In Between Manika Nagare

Miyako Yoshinaga 11 to 20 March, by appointment only and online

First-time participant, Miyako Yoshinaga, presents a solo exhibition

by Tokyo-based Manika Nagare (b 1979). In these works, Nagare strives to release her complex emotions much like nature flows in an irreversible order. Her dramatic use of unmixed colours such as orange, pink, green, and blue brightens and darkens each space like fire and ice.

Her biomorphic lines flow with smooth but unpredictable rhythm like water. Her brushstrokes on canvas are as light as a feather caressing skin. In Nagare’s painting, all these evocative elements coexist organically as in nature itself.

Furthermore, she conceives her painting as a two-way mirror to invite the viewer to become immersed in the painted image. This effort has been evidenced especially

Jayashree Chakravarty Akar Prakar 11 to 20 March, online only

Route Map of Experience (2003) by Jayashree Chakravarty is a monumental work in two parts, one measuring 10.5 ½ x 41 feet and the other 10.5 x 14.5 feet. Chakravarty creates immersive painted installations, comprising great, supple, and shape-shifting walls of rice paper, tissues, fabric and brown paper. In them, she arrests fleeting

Asian Art Newspaper

Unfoldings: The Route Map of Experience (2003) by Jayashree Chakravarty, textile, Nepali paper, tissue, brown paper, pigment, acrylic paint, glue, tea and coffee stain.

Installation in Kiran Nadar museum of Art, New Delhi. Courtesy: Jayashree Chakravarty, Akar Prakar

AWNY Gallery Shows & Online and NYC Exhibitions 19

Metropolitan Museum of Art

In a Deep Sleep (2020)

by Manika Nagare, oil on canvas, 89.4 x 81 cm © Manika Nagare.

Courtesy Miyako Yoshinaga, New York

in the public art projects she has produced for over a decade. From flat to spatial, from visual to corporeal, from intellectual to visceral, Nagare’s exuberant work expresses openended vistas, this time, literally in an ‘In Between’ realm.

• 24 East 64th Street, NY 10065;

for gallery hours, tel 212 268 7132, miyakoyoshinaga.com

Independents Ronin Gallery

11 to 20 March, by appointment only and online

This show explores the theatrical world of Kokei Tsuruya in Kokei Tsuryuya: Modern Master of Kabuki Prints. Born in 1946, Kokei Tsuruya holds a unique place among Japan’s contemporary woodblock print artists. Emotionally charged, bold and vividly rendered, his kabuki portraits blend the spirit of ukiyo-e with a distinctly modern angle.

With expressive faces and exaggerated gestures, contemporary stars of the kabuki stage bloom from the artist’s imagination, bold against delicate sheets of ganpi paper. As Kokei found inspiration in the actor prints of the Edo period, he reinvigorated the symbiotic relationship between the woodblock print and the kabuki theatre through his 22-year partnership with Kabuki-za, Tokyo’s premier kabuki theatre.

Between 1978 and 2000, Kokei produced around 12 limited edition designs annually, each sold during the production of the play depicted. Kokei completed each print from start to finish – designing, carving, inking, printing, and, ultimately, destroying each block himself. In 2019, the Pacific Asia Museum at the University of Southern California held the retrospective Tsuruya Kokei: Modern Kabuki Prints Revised & Revisited.

• 32 W 40th St, New York, NY 10018.

For gallery hours, tel 212 688 0188, roningallery.com

Herdboy with Water Buffalo, cloisonné, gilded bronze, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1662–1722), 42.9 x 41.9 cm.

Gift of Edward G Kennedy, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met’s new show for Spring is Japan: A History of Style (8 March to 24 April). The exhibition celebrates how gifts and acquisitions over the last decade have transformed the museum’s ability to narrate the story of Japanese art – both by expanding and deepening the range of artworks on display. Each of the 10 rooms that make up the Arts of Japan galleries features a distinct genre, school, or style, representing nearly every medium, from the

ancient to the contemporary.

A highlight includes a first-showing of a group of contemporary metalwork by Living National Treasures and emerging artists and a selection of woodblock prints from the Lee E Dirks Collection.

Opening on 17 March, is Bodhisattvas of Wisdom, Compassion, and Power. Within the Buddhist traditions of the Himalayas, three bodhisattvas emerge as personifications of Buddhist ideals.

Manjushri, who cuts through ignorance and personifies correct knowledge; Avalokiteshvara, a compassionate protector of the devout that helps reveal the true nature of reality; and Vajrapani as the embodiment of the energy of enlightenment. Focusing on dramatic images, a worshipper could first evoke the subtle knowledge that Manjushri personifies, then with Avalokiteshvara’s aid, it is possible to proceed in a way free from self-imposed delusions, while Vajrapani’s transcendent power aids in destroying jealousy and hatred that stand in the way of enlightenment. Venerating these

three bodhisattvas together has a long history, and they play an essential role in the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet. The exhibition draws together a dramatic group of paintings, sculptures, ritual objects, and illustrated manuscripts from the 11th to 18th centuries, made primarily for Nepal and Tibet’s monastic institutions. Beautifully cast sculptures and accessible paintings showing peaceful manifestations of the bodhisattvas intended for the public are juxtaposed with complex tantric images of the highest quality done in portable media made for monastic elites. Representations of

these bodhisattvas are at the centre of this great devotional tradition that is embraced across the Himalayas.

In the Chinese galleries, there is the new display to celebrate the lunar new year, the Chinese New Year, The Year of the Ox. Also continuing is Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Up Close (until 27 June), and Masters and Masterpieces Chinese Art from the Florence and Herbert Irving Collection (until 5 June), In the South Asian galleries is the continuation of the exhibition Sita and Rama: The Ramayana in Indian Painting (until 7 March).

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, metmuseum.org

Paperweight with Maple Leaves and Bugaku Hat from Beneath the Autumn Leaves (Momiji no ga), Chapter 7 of The Tale of Genji, porcelain with underglaze blue, hirado ware, second half of 18th century, 4.4 x 18.1 cm. Gift of Mrs V Everit Macy, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rubin Museum of Art

Mandala of Vajrabhairav, Ngor Monastery, Tibet, 1650-1750, colours on cotton, 41.9 x 40 cm, The Avery Brundage Collection, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco

Luxation 1 (2016)

by Tsherin Sherpa (b 1968, Nepal), acrylic on 16 stretched cotton canvases, each 45.7 x 45.7 cm, Adolph D and Wilkins C Williams Fund, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

At the Rubin, a new exhibition entitled Awaken: A Tibetan Buddhist Journey Toward Enlightenment opens on 12 March. Organised by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, this travelling exhibition guides visitors on a journey toward enlightenment, showcasing the power of Tibetan Buddhist art to focus and refine awareness, and highlighting the inextricable relationship between artistic endeavour and spiritual practice in Tibetan Buddhism. Featured works date from the 7th and 21st centuries, including stone, wood, and metal sculptures, traditional Tibetan hanging scroll paintings, illuminated manuscript pages, and vibrant contemporary pieces drawn largely from the collections of the Rubin Museum of Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

Designed as an introduction to the central teachings of Tibetan Buddhism, visitors progress through 10 milestones on the journey from the chaos of ordinary life to the awakened states of awareness.

At the entrance, visitors encounter a video collage

reflecting our fragmented, overstimulated contemporary world. It echoes the main idea in Tsherin Sherpa’s abstracted painting Luxation 1 (2016), which presents a split, incomplete view of a deity.

From the start, the exhibition points to a central question: Are we truly awake? Or are we blind to the true nature of reality and destined to suffer?

As a way out of the chaos, the show presents a path of transformation facilitated by Tibetan Buddhist art in which the practitioner progresses toward awareness and enlightenment with the help from a guide, allies, and a map.

Other highlights in the exhibition include a 9th- to 10th-century stone sculpture from eastern India of the seated Buddha at the moment of his awakening; a monumental, fearsome 500-year-old sculpture of the Destroyer of Death (Vajrabhairava), who symbolises the overcoming of our deepest fears; a flaming skull trident from 18thcentury Tibet of a guardian deity held in triumph over death; an intricate 17th- to

18th-century mandala painting, which is a map to the realm of wisdom’s wrathful emanation, used as a visual aid in contemplation; as well as a 15th-century painting of the Secret Union deities (Guhyasamaja with

consort Vajravetali), who symbolise the union of apparent opposites and two qualities necessary for enlightenment: wisdom and compassion.

• Rubin Museum of Art, rubinmuseum.org

Asian Art Sale 25 March 2021 Asian Art Online Only 22 March 2021

Japan Society Gallery

Onoe Shoroku II as Kudo Suketsune (1989) by Tsuruya Kokei, woodblock print, Ronin Gallery

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the opening of Japan Society’s iconic building in Manhattan, When Practice Becomes Form: Carpentry Tools from Japan (from 11 March to 11 July), celebrates the spirit of architecture and craftsmanship through Japanese woodworking tools, patterns and models. Featuring a diverse array of hand tools from planes, axes, saws, it also explores joinery techniques that have been used to build Japan’s wooden architectural masterpieces for hundreds of years. From temples and shrines to tea houses and bridge, the exhibition unpacks how the intangible qualities of making, such as the

consummate experience, knowledge and the honed skills of master carpenters, have been transformed into significant built forms. Master carpenters’ (toryo) extensive knowledge of the local environment and of wood as a material is integral to their craft. Using natural resources, and practices and tools handed down over generations, they construct buildings using a refined methodology.

Exploring the coexistence of nature and design, the show emphasises an enduring connection between traditional Japanese wooden construction and modern architecture.

• Japan Society Gallery, japansociety.org

Including Art from the Meiji Period from a Swiss Private Collection www.schulerauktionen.ch Zurich - Switzerland

asian art | march 2021

20 NYC Auctions

Asia Week New York March 2021 Sales

Bonhams Bonhams are holding three sales during Asia Week: Chinese Works of Art and Paintings on 15 March; Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Art on 16 March; and Fine Japanese and Korean Art on 17 March.

The Chinese sale includes lots from several American private collections, led by the Ming and Qing lacquer wares from The Collection of Robert W Moore.

Among the highlights is a 15th/16thcentury Ming mother-of-pearl and black lacquer octagonal tray, decorated with a courtly scene of figures at a lakeside pavilion (est US$25-35,000). Lots from other private collections include sculptures from the estate of Marilynn B Alsdorf, a highlight being a black stone cross-legged figure of Maitreya that dates to the Northern Wei dynasty (386-398), has an estimate of US$70-100,000. Ceramics from the 9th century through late Qing, include a cream-glazed ingotshaped pillow with an Imperial Qianlong inscription from the Rosalind Ching Pastor Collection (est US$50-70,000). Also on offer are a group of archaic jade ‘animal’ carvings from the Shang dynasty through Han dynasty from the estate of Robert Youngman, including a russet jade Shang bear (est US$3050,000).

A highlight of the Indian, Himalaya, and Southeast Asian Art sale is a brass figure of Vajravarahi from Northeastern India, dating from the Pala period, circa 11th century (estimate: US$400600,000). Possibly one of the earliest known bronze sculptures of Vajravarahi, the figure comes from

Gilt-copper alloy figure of Lokeshvara Padmapani from Nepal, 12th/13th century, est US$100-150,000, Bonhams

White porcelain brush holder Joseon dynasty (1392 to 1897), 19th century, est US$40-50,000, Bonhams

Cizhou green-glazed and iron-black-brown-painted and incised ‘peony’ baluster vase, Northern Song-Jin dynasty, 12th century, Guantai Kiln, Cixian, Hebei Province, Bonhams Important model of a Celestial Musician from the Horyuji Temple, Asuka period (538-710), 7th century, est US$35-50,000, Bonhams

A mother-of-pearl inlaid black lacquer, bao luodian, octagonal oblong tray, Ming dynasty, est US$25-35,000, Bonhams

asian art | march 2021 |

#AsianArtPaper |

asianartnewspaper |

the Nyingjei Lam Collection and has been on loan to the Rubin Museum over the past 15 years. Other highlights include sculpture from the Siddharth K Bhansali Collection, including a gilt-copper alloy figure of Lokeshvara Padmapani from Nepal, 12th/13th century (est US$100150,000). Also on offer is a giltcopper alloy and repoussé shrine of Manjuvajra from Nepal, from the 17th/18th century (est US$130180,000). The distinct shrine invokes Manjuvajra, an esoteric form of Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Transcendent Wisdom.

The Fine Japanese and Korean Art sale comprises approximately 180 Japanese and Korean lots, led by a 10th-century, Heian period (7641158) lacquered wood sculpture of Amida Buddha (est US$100150,000). An unusual highlight is a model of a celestial musician from the Horyuji temple (est US$35-50,000).

This figure is believed to have been attached to the rim of an elaborate jewelled canopy of one of the three important statues in the Golden Hall of Horyuji Temple, Nara – Japan’s first UNESCO World Heritage site.

In the Korean section, there is a good selection of ceramics from a private Japanese collection formed in the early 20th century, including a carved white porcelain brush pot (est US$40-50,000), decorated with symbols of longevity: deer, cranes, bamboo and pine and a painting of Yeongsan Assembly (Vulture Peak) (est US$7-9,000), which features the historical Buddha preaching the Lotus Sutra to his disciples.

Christie’s Christie’s offerings for Asia week include Japanese and Korean Art on 16 March; Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Works of Art; and South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art on 17 March; Important Chinese Art from the Junkunc Collection and Shang: Early Chinese Ritual Bronzes from the Daniel Shapiro Collection, both on 18 March; and an Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art on 19 March. There is an online only sale of South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art running from 4 to 18 March.

Highlights from the Chinse sale include a large lacquered and gilt wood seated figure of Manjushri from the Kangxi period (1662-1722), estimated at US$300-500,000.

From the ceramics section, there is a coper-red decorated ‘Dragon’ vase, sanxuanping, Kangxi six-character mark and of the period, from a private American collection (est US$450-650,000) and a famille-rose landscape vase, Jiaqing period (17961820), six character seal mark and of the period (est US$200-300,000).

From the Yuwai Lou Collection, there is a hexagonal, huanghuali, incense stand, xiangji, from the 17th century (est US$800-$1.2 million).

From the Indian, Himalayan, and Southeast Asian auction there are two large Gandharan figures, including a grey schist figure of Buddha Shakyamuni, 3rd/4th century, height 175 cm, with an asianartnewspaper |

Hexagonal huanghuali incense stand, xiangji, 17th century, height 88.9 cm, Yunwai Lou Collection, est US$800,000$1.2 million, Christie’s Grey schist figure of Shakyamuni Buddha, Gandhara, 3rd/4th century, height 175 cm, est US$1.5-2.5 million, Christie’s

The Luboshez Gong, bronze ritual wine vessel and cover, late Shang dynasty, Anyang, 13th-12th century BC, est US$4 to 6 million, Christie’s

estimate of US$1.5-2.5 million. The other figures is a grey schist Figure of a Donor, 3rd/4th century, height 175 cm (est US$800-$1.2 million). Other sculptures on offer include a bronze figure of Sambandar from South India, Chola period, 12th/13th century (est US$700-900,000) and a gilt-bronze figure of a lama from Tibet, 14th/15th century (est US$150-200,000).

In the painting lots, a 19th-century illustration from the ‘Lambagraon’ Gita Govinda series, Punjab Hills, Kangra, attributed to Purkhu, or his circle, has an estimate of US$150200,000.

Modern paintings in the Japanese & Korean Art sale include a work by Inoue Yuichi (1916-1985), Tsuki (Moon), with an estimate of US$3060,000. Iroha Uta (Hiragana Syllabary Poem) by Serizawa Keisuke (1895-1984) is estimated at US$4060,000, and a work by Toko Shinoda (b 1913), Sonority (1988), has an estimate of US$30-40,000. In the ukiyo-e lots, Under the Wall of the Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) is the top lot, with an estimate of US$§150-200,000.

From the Shapiro Collection of Shang bronzes, the highlight is the

Untitled (Confidant) by Tyeb Mehta (1925-2009), oil on canvas, 101.6 x 126.4 cm, from 1962, est US$600-800,000, Christie’s

Asian Art Newspaper

Luboshez Gong (est US$4-6 million), an important bronze ritual wine vessel that dates to the 13th/12th century BC, the vessel combines a pouncing tiger with a standing owl forming a powerful, fantastic creature. Also of special interest is a ritual wine vessel with cover, fangyi, a distinctive rectangular shape with elegantly tapered sides and a delicately rounded lid, is boldly decorated with striking taotie masks, flanked by a pair of long-tailed birds and confronting dragons divided by subtle flanges (est US$600-800,000).

Lots in the South Asian Modern + Contemporary sale includes works

by Tyeb Mehta (1925-2009), Krishen Khanna (b 1925), FN Souza (19242002) and MF Husain (1915-2011).

Top lots are Untitled (Confidant), a 1962 oil on canvas by Tyeb Mehta (est 600-800,000) and Family, an oil on card laid on board by FN Souza (est US$450-600,000).

Sotheby’s At Sotheby’s there is Modern & Contemporary South Asian Art on 16 March, with the preview running from 11 to 15 March. On 17 March there is Imperial Cloisonné & Jade and Chinese Art from the Brooklyn Museum with previews running from 11 to 16 March Important Chinese Works of Art I and II is scheduled for 17 March with the preview from 11 to 16 March. The online sale is The Hundred Antiques: Fine & Decorative Asian Art, which runs from 12 to 24 March.

Highlights from the Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art sale include a Vasudeo S Gaitonde Untitled, oil on canvas, from 1962. It has been in the Robert and Ruth Marshak Collection for almost 60 years and is coming to auction for the first time this March. The estimate is US$800,000 to US$1.2 million. An untitled work by MF Husain depicting the artist’s two most enduring and powerful motifs: the horse and the female nude dates from the early 1960s and has an estimate of US$150-200,000. Lone Vigil (1989)

by Jehangir Sabavala, another wellcollected artist is an oil on canvas estimated at US$450-650,000.

Leading the Chinese auctions sales is a selection of imperial jades and cloisonné enamels produced during the Ming and Qing dynasties from the Brooklyn Museum, sold to support museum collections. This

NYC / London Auctions 21 distinguished group of works include an Imperial Qianlong period white and russet jade brushpot from the Woodward Collection and a group of cloisonné enamels from the Samuel P Avery Collection, led by a ‘bats and clouds’ cloisonné enamel vase.

A highlight from the Important Chinese Art sale is a blue and white lobed ‘fruit and flower’ bowl, Xuande mark and period, estimated at US$200-300,000. Fruit and flower sprays symbolising prosperity were popular designs of the early Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Bowls of this lobed form appear to be specific to the Xuande reign (1426-1435) and became part of the classic repertoire of the official kilns.

Sotheby’s online offerings include gilt-bronze sculptures from the Jane and Leopold Swergold Collection, which documents the spread of Buddhism when the Silk Road opened up a channel to foreign influences and enabled the dissemination of Buddhism and its deep artistic traditions into China.

The second online sale, running from 12 to 24 March, is The Hundred Antiques: Fine & Decorative Asian Art and comprises over 190 Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, and Himalayan works of art and paintings.

LONDON AUCTION 24 March, London

Untitled (1962)

by Vasudeo S Gaitonde, oil on canvas, 86.3 x 76.2 cm, The Robert And Ruth Marshak Collection, est US$800,000-$1.2 million, Sotheby’s

White and russet jade brushpot, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period, height 18.7 cm, from the Woodward Collection, est US$1-1.5 million, Sotheby’s

Pair of imperial Chinese porcelain ‘Dragon’ bowls, Qianlong seal marks in underglaze blue and of the period, est $8-12,000, Doyle

LEAD PARTNER

Sotheby’s

Blue and white lobed ‘fruit and flower’ bowl, Xuande mark and period, est US$200-300,000, Sotheby’s

The Newhouse sale of the 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma includes a number of Chinese and Indian lots.

Lady Mountbatten inherited her grandfather’s jade collection, the collector Sir Ernest Cassel (1852-1921), and a number of the jades are included in this sale, including a white jade carved figure of a Buddhistic lion. From India, there is an Anglo-Indian inlaid miniature bureau mounted on a mahogany stand, originally supplied by Thomas Chippendale to Sir Edward Knatchbull in 1767

Pale celadon jade marriage bowl, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period, est £15-25,000, Sotheby’s

(est £40-60,000). There is a preview from 20 to 23 March in London. Please check that the exhibition will not be affected by Covid 19 regulations.

Lone Vigil (1989) by Jehangir Sabavala, oil on canvas, 39 1/8 in x 58 ¾ in, est US$450-650,000, Sotheby’s

Doyle Asian Works of Art ,on 15 March, is offering a wide range of lots including the arts of China, Japan, and Southeast Asia, dating from the Neolithic period through the 20th century. Showcased are bronzes, jades, snuff bottles, porcelains, pottery, scholar’s objects and paintings from private collections and estates.

White jade model of a Buddhistic lion, Qing dynasty, 18th century, 11.4 cm long, formerly in the collection of Sir Ernest Cassel (est. £15-25,000), Sotheby’s

Anglo-Indian rosewood and ivory inlaid table bureau on a mahogany stand, bureau from Vizagapatam, circa 1740-50, stand London 1767, height 87.5 cm, est £40-60,000, Sotheby’s

STRATEGIC PARTNER

asian art | march 2021

22 Exhibitions

YAYOI KUSAMA A Retrospective There are few the artists whose career has spanned over more than 70 years. Yayoi Kusama (b 1929) is one of them – and it is only timely that the first ever retrospective in Germany honouring her work is now being staged at the Gropius Bau in Berlin. An exhibition space of close to 3,000 square metres allows for a broad presentation of her practice with the reconstruction of eight exhibitions between 1952 and 1983 among others, also providing the viewer with the immersive experience of her work. An ongoing presence in the art world, Yayoi Kusama has mainly built her practice around the accumulation and replication of polka dots, a concept that constantly fuels her quest for infinity.

With a career that began in Japan at a time when it was not acceptable for women to become artists, Yayoi Kusama travelled to the US where she became acquainted with the avant-garde in New York City. She soon became a recognised artist in her own right, instigating performances, being at the forefront of the feminist movement, creating a world of her own with the replication

and accumulation of polka dots or phalluses. She continued to develop these notions towards an immersive experience, creating her famous Infinity Rooms.

Besides featuring paintings, sculptures, installations, and film footage documenting Kusama’s performative dimension of her work, the exhibition also examines the artist’s role in Germany and to a larger extent in Europe. As the exhibition rightly illustrates, it is often overlooked that Kusama exhibited in Germany as early as the 1960s, together with artists such as Otto Piene and Lucio Fontana.

Beyond these important milestones, Kusama has also been a pioneer in branding herself, lending her savoir-faire together with her polka-dot motif to leading fashion brands. She is unquestionably an exceptional multi-disciplinary artist as this retrospective, which has been designed in close collaboration with the artists’ studio, is highlighting.

Olivia Sand

• From 19 March to 1 August,

Gropius Bau, Berlin, groupiusbau.de.

The museum is temporarily closed, check the website for new opening times

Infinity Mirror Room – Phalli’s Field (1965) by Yayoi Kusama.

Courtesy: Ota Fine Arts, Victoria Miro & David Zwirner © Yayoi Kusama

Perspective Between the 15th and 19th centuries, space and architecture in Indian miniature painting shifted from providing a mere backdrop to incorporating a unique combination of multiple perspectives. This kind of multi-perspective allowed viewers to immerse themselves in the scenes and get a grasp of objects and aspects that would not be visible from a one-point perspective.

This exhibition offers an introduction to the way perspective was applied in Indian miniature painting along with the special representational and viewing modes common to this art tradition. In the end, it is about drawing into question one’s own viewing habits and attempting to appreciate images through different eyes. In the art of the Indian sub-continent, the history of perspective took a different turn. In the 12th century, bodies were represented in perspective space and granted pronounced plasticity by

using fine colour gradations, but this kind of spatiality went out of fashion again in the course of the following centuries. Through the increased encounter with and knowledge of European art, different kinds of perspective gradually found their way into the repertoire of Indian miniature painters. Parallel perspective, important above all in architecture, and central perspective began being used in Indian miniature painting to capture spatiality from the mid-17th century onward, but often in a highly creative mode which, on the one hand, took into account local habits of viewing, while, on the other, maintaining conventional artistic practices and existing traditions.

Early on already, Mughal painting revealed a quite different approach to space than artists at the courts of Hindu princes. The paintings’ portrait format alone creates the impression of greater expanse. For this purpose, the picture is divided classically into three superimposed

Maharana Jagat Singh II is rowed to his island palace, unknown artist at the court of Udaipur, India Rajasthan, Mewar, around 1750. Purchased with means of Balthasar and Nanni Reinhart, Museum Rietberg

registers to scenically create a fore, a central, and a background. While, originally, in Persia the division was used to render a staggered sequence of events, in Mughal painting the main event is depicted in the central register. Following the European model, the upper register is usually reserved for View on Dwarka, folio from a series of townscapes, unknown artist in Jaipur, India, Rajasthan, 1850-1875.

Collection Alice Boner, Museum Rietberg

the depiction of the horizon, the sky, and an assemblage of houses painted small, to the effect that the pictorial space is expanded and the viewer’s gaze can freely wander off into the distance.

Strongly influenced

by Mughal art, this pictorial structure is also often found in Deccan paintings.

From the mid-17th century, but even more pronounced in the mid-18th century onwards, the perspective representation of architecture became a permanent feature in painting studios beyond the Mughal court – where they created quite unusual forms and interpretations that also took traditional viewing habits into account. Thus, the combination of different perspectives cannot be seen merely as a tentative approximation of a new technique. It is retained and over time developed into a stylistic device that purposely plays with the viewer’s gaze and creates memorable pictorial structures.

The primary aim of Indian miniature painting is not the emulation of natural vision. It is more about offering an art experience that conveys ideas, notions, and emotions, that tells a story and enriches it with as many details as possible, involving all the senses – including one’s own imagination. Thus, an Indian miniature is the sum of a plethora of experiences and knowledge troves which a viewer may associate with the depicted scene. A picture is the product of intense reflection combined with artistic skill and a subtle sense for one’s audience.

• Until 14 March,

Rietberg Museum, Zurich, rietberg.ch.

asian art | march 2021 |

#AsianArtPaper |

asianartnewspaper |

asianartnewspaper |

Asian Art Newspaper

Miao Masters of Silver

Festival Headdress, 20th Century Miao culture, southeast Guizhou Province, China, cut silver with repoussé technique, 8 1/4 x 11 1/8 x 11 1/4 in, Bowers Museum

Click here to Access the Digital Guide

This exhibition, Miao: Masters of Silver, features over 250 intricate works of silver, features jewellery and textiles primarily made in China’s Guizhou Province, where the largest population of Miao people reside.

Male silversmiths create a variety of ornaments through casting, smelting, repoussé (a reverse hammering technique), forging, engraving, knitting, coiling, cutting, and other methods. Concepts such as beauty, unity, fortune, and pride are expressed as visual abstractions and geometric motifs.

Silver is symbolic of light, the moon, fertility, and protection against evil, but it also represents a woman’s wealth and plays a role in courtship. Families spare no expense in adorning their daughters, purchasing additional pieces as they are able. Worn mostly in large festivals, the headdresses, combs, earrings, necklaces, breastplates, bracelets, rings, ornaments, and the counterweights on display can weigh up to 20 pounds.

Though mostly made by the Miao, a selection of this silver was made by neighbouring minority groups including the Dong, Li and Yi cultures, and is presented to illustrate the diversity of silver seen throughout the region.

• Bowers Museum, California, bowers.org. This permanent installation is accompanied by a Digital Guide with highlights from the collection.

Access the Digital Guide at guide.bowers.org

Islamic Arts 23

Islamic Arts Diary Qaran Unhorses Barman, a folio from the Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp.

Photo © The Sarikhani Collection.

The Epic Iran exhibition offers a chance to see the finest 16th century Persian manuscripts - if it opens this month

by Lucien de Guise

Reserves of Cultural Energy in the Gulf

With so much not happening at the moment, it is a relief to find that Qatar is as energetic as ever. There are postponements all over the place in Western capitals. The biggest disappointment for this writer is the postponement of the definitive examination of Iranian culture – before and after the arrival of Islam.

Epic Iran should have opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum in February. London lockdowns mean more delays for an exhibition that had already received abuse from supporters of the US ex-president and his vendetta against the Islamic Republic.

Cancellations around the world make Qatar look a lot more promising, although this month is also supposed to be the 14th edition of Art Dubai. It is a venerable position to have reached, but I wonder how the show is going to proceed. Perhaps the two major Chinese vaccines are going to sort out Covid in UAE and bring in as many art lovers as galleries. The list of the latter is most impressive. The diversity is even more amazing.

There are representatives from around the globe, including Tehran and Manila.

It is gratifying to see a gallery from Palestine making the West Bank a cultural force to be reckoned with (in the form of Gallery One, Ramallah). Ramallah also happens to have its own art fair, which ends on 4 March. Organised by Zawyeh Gallery, it has brought 27 Palestinian artists together in one space, all selling their work below US$5,000.

As this is somewhat below the going rate for artists such as Nabil Anani and Sliman Mansour, it shows a high degree of solidarity among the artists of a state that has so many problems to contend with. One of the most striking series of paintings is Khaled Hourani’s interpretation of bucolic bliss in Palestine – interrupted by a wall. This is depicted as a much better-looking

Kader Attia comes to Qatar

wall than the one promised for the US-Mexico border, but its scenic qualities do not detract from its menacing presence. There is something of the Edward Hopper about the works of ‘Unnatural Landscapes’ that makes them more disturbing than Banksy’s contribution to the subject.

Back in the more moneyed environs of the UAE, it is especially exciting to see a section of Art Dubai that features works created expressly for the event. None is from Palestine, but from further east is Nepal, represented by Youdisthir Maharjan.

This artist achieved some acclaim several years ago with an installation comprising nine miles of rope created from hand-twisted newspapers. It is not the sort of attraction that is drawing the huge number of semi-celebrities from the UK and elsewhere who are flocking to Dubai. It cannot be for the Islamic-art museums either, as they do not really exist there despite being a strong destination for museums on coffee, coins, camels

INNER CALM Among the few consolations of Covid-19 for museums in 2021 is an easing of the demands placed on their collections. The Sistine Chapel can now live a little longer without the breath of 15,000 visitors a day condensing itself all over the frescoes. Light-sensitive objects can now bask in darkness without being disturbed by ultra-violet death rays.

More than that, the different lockdowns around the world have allowed conservators to get on with projects that might have been a lower priority when careless visitors used to threaten the survival of everything on display.

A particular favourite of mine that has been given a complete rejuvenation is a painting by the Austrian artist Ludwig Deutsch.

Housed in the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, it is somewhat different from the many other masterworks of the Orientalist

Ludwig Deutsch’s freshly conserved Procession of the Mahmal through the Streets of Cairo, at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia

genre. The Procession of the Mahmal through the Streets of Cairo is Deutsch’s biggest contribution to the field – in every way. It is a massive canvas, at 3 x 3 metres, and it tells a story so powerful it would be a tragedy if it were to be lost to the ravages of time. No other artist has conveyed the emotional intensity

and, of course, the history of Dubai.

Over in Qatar, it has to be said there is little activity at the Museum of Islamic Art. The exception is an exhibition that is about to close on the subject of the extraordinary royal aesthete Sheikh Saoud Al Thani – discussed in an earlier issue of the Asian Art Newspaper. A short distance from IM Pei’s masterpiece is Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, with a full programme at the moment. Now that the nautral-gas-

Palestinian artist Bashar Hroub at the Ramallah Art Fair with his sculpture Almakam

of this symbolic moment at the start of the Hajj journey to Mecca. A richly decorated camel and entourage wends its way through a city filled with heat, incense, chanting and all forms of spiritual passion. Fortunately there are no self-flagellants among the melee.

Despite the criticism that is sometimes apportioned to these artists who depicted a long-gone Islamic world, they were superb recorders of life at a time before colour photography brought those regions to life for armchair travellers. Deutsch, in particular, does not receive enough credit.

When this exhilarating work reached Kuala Lumpur three years ago, the paint was flaking, the canvas was sagging and the frame was a write-off.

After a year of intermittent Covid quarantine control, it is now on display and ready to overwhelm anyone who wants to understand the complex inner workings of

rich emirate is back on good terms with its oil-rich neighbours, there should be some visitors. It is not necessarily the sort of thing that will bring in the Football World Cup crowds next year.

Opening on 7 March is a major solo exhibition of the work of Kader Attia. Titled On Silence , it is curated by the gallery’s director and assistant curator. It features every medium you can think of, from collage to video to sculpture and site-specific installations. These all come together to explore the themes of post-colonial trauma and the psychiatric consequences at many different levels. The uniqueness of the approach is to provoke a response from visitors while they encounter his works placed in different locations and intended to be seen from almost every vantage point except full on.

Also in Qatar’s capital is one of what will surely be many retrospectives-in-progress. Covid-19 has provided artists with new vistas to explore. Getting in early is the Islam. Deutsch was a man who knew Egypt well and for a while abandoned his famed precision in using a brush with a single squirrel hair. This work is almost expressionist in the intensity and vigour of his brushwork. Instead of being photographic, the outcome borders on impasto. None of this made the conservators’ lives any easier. With the calm serenity that prevails in empty museums at the moment, the team was able to deliver a wonderfully preserved view of Sufi fervour forever, or at least for a long time. Let us hope art lovers can travel there soon to admire it.

In the meantime, the quest to make the visual less physical has resulted in many exciting new podcasts. At the Aga Khan museum in Toronto, they are featuring major names rather than major art. Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi gets star billing.

Another that caught my ear was ‘Objects out Loud’ at the Ashmolean Museum. Topping their

Fire Station’s Garage Gallery. This event marks the end of the artist in residence programme, which must have been a bit different from most over the past year. The initial plan was to focus on the relationship between the visual arts and literature. When the pandemic struck, the artists were forced to abandon their studios at the Fire Station to quarantine like everyone else.

The overwhelming shift compelled artists, as well as curators, to revisit the exhibition concept as they adapted to the dramatically unfolding situation. Creative concepts were reassessed due to limited accessibility to resources and supplies. The enforced confinement also prompted artists to look inwards, leading to two major inquiries into the self and the other. Delivered in two sections, the exhibition showcases works created by 18 artists during this period of isolation as they explored concepts of identity and community, both of which are on uncertain ground in these ‘grey times’ – which happens to be the title of the exhibition.

A 19th century version of the timeless tale of Layla and Majnun, which can be heard on a podcast from the Ashmolean Museum

list of audio enticements is the classic romance of Layla and Majnun. If we cannot have the V&A exhibition, at least we can hear the tale of the East’s starcrossed version of Romeo and Juliet, best expressed in painting and in the words of the 12th-century Persian poet Nizami. asian art | march 2021

ian Art hires logo 15/8/05 8:34 am Page 1

ASIAN ART

THE newspaper NEWSPAPER FOR DEALERS, MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES • SEPTEMBER 2020 •• £5.00/US$10/€10 The forCOLLECTORS, collectors, dealers, museums and galleries • june 2005 £5.00/ US$8/ €10

BUDDHIST PAINTINGS RETURN TO KOREA FROM US It used to be one of the largest traditional Korean paintings in the US – held in the Los Angeles County Museum of Arts’ (LACMA) collection, but now Yeongsanhoesangdo, along with three other paintings, has returned home. The Joseon-dynasty (13921910) works restituted are Yeongsanhoesangdo (Preaching Shakyamuni Buddha), created in 1755, and three paintings from Siwangdo (the Kings of Hell, 1798), which were originally housed in the Sinheung Temple (Sinheungsa) in Sokcho, Gangwon Province, in northeastern South Korea. The works were believed to have been looted during the Korean War (195053) in the early 1950s.

The Yoeongsanhoesangdo painting depicts the historical Buddha Seokgamoni (Shakyamuni) preaching at the Vulture Peak in India, was acquired by LACMA in 1998, but was so damaged that it was not displayed to the public until 2012 after it had undergone conservation.

When acquired, the painting had

been cut into six irregular pieces and had suffered from extensive loss of pigment; during the conservation effort, the separated pieces were reattached, losses patched, and missing areas of pigment inpainted. The painting presents a visionary scene of the Buddha surrounded by a host of enlightened beings, including bodhisattvas, the Hindu Gods Indra and Brahma, and the Guardian Kings of the four cardinal directions, inspired by the Lotus Sutra, a pivotal text of Mahayana (Great Vehicle) Buddhism. The work is painted in ink and mineral colours on silk.

In 2015, the Jogye Order in Korea initiated a request to look into the ownership of several Korean paintings in LACMA’s collection. In the January, Director Michael Govan received a letter from the Jogye Order in Seoul, indicating that several Korean Buddhist paintings in LACMA’s collection had been reported stolen from Jogye Order Buddhist temples in Korea. The first of these, Jijang Siwangdo (Ksitigarbha and the Kings of Hell),

Yeongsanhoesangdo (Preaching Shakyamuni Buddha) in LACMA’s Korean Art galleries in 2012

had been reported in 1988 as stolen from the Yeombulan Hermitage, a Buddhist monastery, and the Order requested any known information regarding the work’s provenance.

The other paintings reported by the

Jogye Order in 2015 as having been stolen came from Sinheungsa and were acquired by LACMA in 1998.

These were Yeongsanhoesangdo (Preaching Sakyamuni Buddha) and three sections of Siwangdo (the

NEWS IN BRIEF During the summer UNESCO, the Japanese authorities, and experts discussed the response following the devastating fire of October 2019 at the CLICK HERE Shuri-jo site, part of the World Heritage site Gusuku for more Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of information Ryukyu in Okinawa.

The large fire had a significant impact on the Shuri-jô site and affected a number of reconstructed buildings, including the Seiden (state hall), part of a symbolic construction of the site, as well as some underground remains. The ravaged buildings were replica structures, constructed after 1989 on the basis of detailed documentation, which assisted in the visual interpretation of the property’s Outstanding Universal Value (OUV). Immediately after the fire occurred, Japan expressed its intention to restore the property and devoted a great deal of energy and resources to carrying out emergency works. This included an exhaustive investigation and restoration of the damaged parts of the archaeological remains. schedule totorebuild the state hall was experience, it allows me to question A work Mecca. After I returned my these things with an equal measure established studio in Boston, looking at these at the end of March 2020, and its of critique and understanding. objects – the keychains, the textiles, implementation now

the rugs, the scarfs – has I noticed thatbegun.

HAMRA ABBAS

Click here to read more about the history of the paintings and their journey home, read Stephen Little’s blog post

Inside

RYUKU KINGDOM, UNESCO

6 Profile

Kings of Hell). After much research by head of the Chinese, Korean, and South and Southeast Asian art department, and Korean art associate curator Virginia Moon.

The works that have been returned are Yeongsanhoesangdo (Preaching Shakyamuni Buddha) and portraits of Siwangdo (the Kings of Hell), which were originally housed in the Sinheung Temple (Sinheungsa) in Sokcho, Gangwon Province, in northeastern South Korea.

In exchange for the return of these sacred works of art to Korea, and in recognition of LACMA’s conservation of these works, the Jogye Order has agreed to collaborate with LACMA on various cultural initiatives, including loans of artwork from each institution to the other for short- and long-term special exhibitions, presentations of related educational programs, and exchanges of human resources.

2 Profile: Adion erum, volupturit vel modis sunt doluption 5 conemol uptaspe dipsum soloren ditatis cus dollaciis 6 quaspelis dolorenis eossimus.

Hit, ima dessedi officimpore 8 idem eate verro etur? Quisima gnatendant duntem ut quam, 9 occab is ipisit, que mosanducium incipisitam 10 aligendit, cus, imagnim incipis ut adi omnimagni tem aut 12 voluptatur re lab init et aces sus dolorempore esequam 13 haruptas suntiandi cum labo.

14 Uditatur?

Apis rectur, consequi 17 dolumetur, sectium quiaesc itempe nimi, eum explantia 19 nonsequam volorporem. nullatate voloribernam quiatia ndisti occupti ut venitat 20 ectiate nosam conest la 21 volore, velitatur?

22 Listings 23 Islamic Arts Diary

Profile 7

TURN OFF LAYER FOR HIRES PDF

some of these souvenirs, produced in China, might not be too concerned with ‘colour correction’. I noticed WATCH that the white minarets could be Hamra Abbas purple, and the black Kaaba could at the Istanbul Biennial in 2007, discuss her is aimagined.

Neolithic October 2019 be any colour For site situated in China’s Loess which was curated by Hou Hanru. I Shimao short-listed work example, For I did this one piecevillages where I for the tried to persuade Hanru to show Apis rectur, consequi dolumetur, Plateau. decades believed the crumbling bought a set of 12 prayer rugs on Jameel Prize another work, but he was convinced sectium quia volorporem walls near their homes eBay, each depicting the Kaaba in a were part of the Great in 2009 that it had to be Lessons on Love, rock different at the V&A and later I was, too. The sculptures Wall, as colour. partsCommonly of this on ancient battlement zigzag eBay, the vendors use product titles were made with Plasticine and were through this arid region the northern loop of that would improve their visibilityinside in supposed to last only for the 6 Kimono The vendor I bought the duration of the exhibition. The series thesearches.

Yellow River, marking the frontier of Chinese See page 2 for details prayer rugs from used the title, ‘One created some media noise and rug,that any colour’, which also became seemed to echo a dispute between rule stretches back more than 2,000 years.

Perhaps one of the most recognisable symbols of Japan, the kimono has the title of my work. For some the conservative and the nonBarakah Gifts fascinated and inflfi uenced Western jade However, locals, and then looters,dressing began nding reason, I kept thinking about this conservative newspapers in the (water bottle), and design for centuries.

The Victoria & Albert Museum’s title, which reminded me that ‘black country. From the folder of press 2016, artefacts amongst the rubble. Jade(V&A) is exhibition, not indigenous Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk was sadly cut short when is a combination of all colours’. I cuttings sent, I could see two fibreglass, metal, Province – the the museum had to temporarily close decidednorthernmost to use this statementpart withinof Shaanxi narratives: one that was in favour; to this courtesy of US earlier this year. The museum – and this exhibition – are now open again, my work, but wanted a form thata thousand and the other against the work.

Art in Embassies nearest source is almost miles away, so it waiting for visitors to enjoy and would fully justify its spirit and However, it was good to see many Programme explore.

Continued on page 2 The exhibition looks at the social completeness. articles in support of the work. significance of the kimono from the Then, one day, I saw a book on entitled it, Waterfall: Gardens of Retrospectively, to be honest, I am sculpture? used since in architecture 1660s tothen the present day – both in and Japan and the rest of the world.

Th ere Bauhaus with the title written in Paradise, which further inspired me still surprised that I made this HA: Yes, absolutely. In the past, I decorative arts in South Asia. are rare 17th- and 18th-century CMYK misaligned layers. I to make an extensive series of work particular series because today, I Personally, I am more focused would use any opportunity to create kimono on display in the UK for the on first time alongside from than remember taking a picture and in the same genre. I am certain that may not be able to. the materiality of thepieces process large-scale works, like Lessons on contemporary fashion designers, going straight to my studio. I made had I not been to MASS MoCA, or

beingsuch overly concerned Love for the Istanbul Biennial, or as Japan’s Living about National Treasureor Kunihiko Moriguchi. two rectangles in CMYK layers, had I not lived in the US, I would traditional cultural specificity. For Barakah Gifts that was AAN: You have also addressed a topic The mid-17th century is the misaligned them, and called the have passed the fountain without example, while I was in a time commissioned by the US ‘Art in carrying a lot of meaning, the Kaaba, starting point for the show, when a vibrant fashion culture was work Kaaba Picture as a Misprint. paying much attention, which Massachusetts, I went to MASS Embassies’ programme. Living in in many different ways. What triggered beginning to emerge in Japan. The | | | #AsianArtPaper asianartnewspaper asianartnewspaper Asian Art Newspaper increasingly merchant Speaking of influences, Annie and turned out to be an impetus of all MoCA, where Iwealthy saw a huge Lahore now, I have my family’s this interest? classes demanded the latest styles to Joseph Albers and Sol Lewitt have my works in marble completed after. retrospective ofaffl Sol Lewitt (1928support along with wonderful teams HA: When my son was one-year-old, express their uence, confidence taste, while actors and been important references, also in Much later, I realised that marble 2007).andI came outleading of the exhibition, of people that I can work with to I went to Mecca for umrah, a famous courtesans were the trendregards to my work with marble, inlay is an important art form with a completely blown away the pursue more large-scale projects pilgrimage with my family. Apart setters of the day.

Theby simple structure of the kimono focussed once I returned to Pakistan. long history in South Asia. But expanse of Lewitt’s creative oeuvre. than I have done before. I am in a from the rituals, I felt that it is also attention on the surface, allowing for

despite its historical importance, Manythemonths on apatterns visit to the good place in my practice right now, like a family trip where you come creation oflater, sumptuous using The by a surprisingly, it has been completely old city insophisticated Lahore, techniques.

I was struck and eager to complete the new back with souvenirs like I AAN: What is your view on tradition? first section of the exhibition will overlooked in contemporary art. fountain that could for aa commissions and the public projects Love NYC t-shirt or Eiffel Tower HA: To talk about tradition, I will explore these designspass and shine light on a fashionconscious society Parading courtesan

complete Sol Lewitt, only that it was on which I am currently working. snow-globes. I, too, came back with use the example of my work in not dissimilar to today’s, in which

by Katsukawa Shunsen (1762-1830), made desire in the 17th many trinkets, textiles, and prayer marble inlay. It is believed that this AAN: As your basic training is in More information on for the latestcentury. look was fedHaving by a woodblock print, cultthe of celebrity and encouraged by circa 1804-18, Edo (Tokyo) learned technique of marble rugs that were on sale in the technique was transported in the sculpture and you are back in Pakistan Asia Society’s Triennial, makers, sellers and publishers. © Victoria and Albert Museum, inlay just recently, to souvenir shops surrounding the holy 17th century from Italy, where it is where you have more options, is this until 7 February 2021, Kimono were fiI rstdecided exported to typical example made for the Europe in the mid-17th century, Kimono for a young woman (furisode), crepe silk (chirimen), recreate the fountain in marble, and mosque in Medina and the Kaaba in going to encourage you to pursue visit asiasociety.org/triennial known as pietra dura, and has been Southeast-Asian market, was where they had an immediate impact freehand paste-resist and stencil dyeing (yuzen and kata-yuzen) and embroidery in silk AAN: Lessons on Love was exhibited at the Biennale in Istanbul, but was also at the centre of debate. Why? HA: Lessons on Love was exhibited

SHIMAO STONE AGE SETTLEMENT, CHINA

Next issue

Contact us

asianartnewspaper.com

Kaaba Picture as a Misprint (2014), C-print, courtesy of Lawrie Shabibi Gallery, Dubai

Hamra Abbas.

Photo: Amna Zuberi

By Olivia Sand

Looking at the practice of Hamra Abbas over the past 20 years, it seems that she has had several careers: originally training as a sculptor, she has taken advantage of her travels and residencies to constantly improve and broaden her practice, for example, exploring miniature painting, and later to work with marble inlay. A multi-disciplinary artist, she keeps a global outlook on the world and is eager to communicate and create a dialogue with the audience through her art.

Born in Kuwait in 1978, and now based in Pakistan, her work is currently on show in the Asia Society Triennial in New York. In conjunction with the opening, she discusses her work with the Asian Art Newspaper, looking at the many sides of her practice.

Asian Art Newspaper: Your practice is extremely diverse and broad. How would you define it – and yourself – as an artist?

Hamra Abbas: I define myself as an

interdisciplinary artist. Over the years, I have considered this question many times, trying to define what it means for me to work in the way that I do – and why. I have come to identify two main reasons: one is the quasi-nomadic life that I have led from my early years in Kuwait (where I lived until primary school), and later in Lahore, then in Berlin, Leipzig, Boston, London, Istanbul, New York and Singapore with long- and short-term engagements. Now, being back in Lahore after 13 years, everything is coming full circle. The experience of living in different places inevitably encouraged the interdisciplinary nature of my work. Therefore, when I talk about my practice or journey as an artist, it is often through stories of people and places.

The other major reason for my diverse practice has been my formative training that has always anchored my work. In that context, I must mention the importance of Lala Rukh, a prominent artist and a

women’s rights activist from Pakistan (1948-2017), who founded the first graduate programme within the National College of Arts in Lahore. She reimagined the Post-Renaissance term of Fine Arts into Visual Arts, with her vision to create a multidisciplinary approach that connects art, design, and traditional forms practiced locally.

In addition, being one of Lala Rukh’s first graduating classes, I was influenced by her philosophy. To me, she was like a guiding light.

AAN: Besides Pakistan, you have also studied in Germany. Was the curriculum a multi-disciplinary continuation of what you experienced in Pakistan, or was it based on painting?

HA: Again, it was entirely Lala

Rukh who created the possibility that allowed me to finish graduate school in Lahore. Then I immediately left for Berlin University of the Arts (UdK), where I studied for four years, first as a student and later in the adjunct faculty. At UdK, I was in the Bildende Kunst (Visual Art) department and it was completely multi-disciplinary. The university

felt very open and democratic, you had the freedom as a student to choose a professor that you thought best suited your work. It was a fantastic place, with leading figures in the art world such as Rebecca Horn, Tony Cragg, Stan Douglas, Georg Baselitz, Katharina Sieverding, Olafur Eliasson and the late Lothar Baumgarten. Berlin was a magical place.

AAN: You have also attended various residencies in different parts of the world. Was this a time to experiment, or geared at learning new techniques?

HA: Every residency was different.

One of the most important residencies I did was at Gasworks in London. It was a joint residency with Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A). Residing with Gasworks, I had complete access to the V&A’s collections. Subsequently, I made a work responding to their collection for V&A’s first Jameel Prize exhibition, which was entitled Please do not Step: Loss of the Magnificent Story, which opened new methods of practice for me.

Similarly, when I was artist-inresidence at NTU Centre for Contemporary Art in Singapore, I began working in a completely new form of painting. I went to Singapore five weeks after giving birth to my son and was still in a postpartum healing process, both physically and mentally. So I decided not to make any work during the residency, spending most of my time walking around various neighbourhoods in the city. I was sharing the apartment with my late friend Roslisham Ismail aka Ise (1972-2019), who suggested I accompany him for a lesson with a Chinese painter in view of his own project. After some research, I learned that Chinese painting has two main branches: the freestyle ink painting on rice paper, and gongbi, the meticulous realist technique often painted on silk, which felt very close to my training in miniature painting. I therefore decided to study gongbi while in Singapore.

AAN: Once you had become familiar with the technique of gongbi, how did you use it?

HA: I learned miniature painting in

the 1990s in Lahore. It has a special place in my practice, even though it is not a dominant part of my work.

When I learned gongbi, I thought it would be easy for me due to my training of miniature painting, but in fact it was not. It took me a long time to learn how to paint on silk, which is entirely different from painting on hand-prepared wasli paper. Wasli iw a four-ply thick board and is literally indestructible if you paint on it for very long and it has to stay intact. Silk, on the contrary, gives way very quickly. I was especially unable to paint on the silk that I had brought from Singapore. Interestingly, while in New York, I watched tutorials on YouTube to learn painting and mounting techniques on silk, and ended up contacting the person who had made these tutorials. He introduced me to a new kind of Japanese silk, which eventually resolved most of my problems. Later on, my residency in Perugia, Italy, allowed me the time and peace to create a new body of work. After experimenting for five years, I was finally able to bring together the technique of miniature painting and gongbi in perfect harmony of surface, pigment, and style of painting. It culminated in a series of 10 portraits of transgender street performers that are presently

The piece might be abstract, but it is made of rubber and looks like the male organ (2012), stained-glass, courtesy of PILOT Gallery, Istanbul

featured in the Asia Society Triennial. I am looking forward to seeing how the work is received in New York: the city speaks to me on many levels, as I have lived there for long and short periods at different times in my life.

AAN: The series included at the Asia Society Triennial is about the transgender community in Pakistan.

Can you further describe the works?

HA: These works are not about the

transgender community at large, but the transgender street performers in Lahore only. Initially, these performers were associated with dance, music, and performance.

They would perform at various occasions like weddings, or on ritualistic occasions. However, with the changes in society and the aesthetics of modern culture, most of them went out of work. As a result, they now perform on the streets for alms, living on society’s fringes. I have been photographing their faces for the last five years, which I then use as a reference when painting. Out of these, 10 portraits are now on view at the Asia Society Triennial.

AAN: All throughout your career, you have been courageous, addressing topics dealing with religion, sexuality, or communities on the fringes of society. Since being back in Pakistan, have you faced any problems in terms of censorship?

HA: Living in Pakistan, you learn

that you need to treat sensitive issues – especially those related to body, sexuality, and religion – with subtlety. However, I was indeed less concerned with censorship while I was living in the US, even more so before I had children. Initially, one would understand censorship as something imposed by the state.

Now, one has to be more careful with social media, because you do not know who your audience is.

Having said that, all of my work is developed with long-drawn conversations with my husband, who is a scholar of religion – an expert in Islamic intellectual history and tasawwuf (spirituality/sufism).

Hence, together with his knowledge, and my practice and

Olivia Sand

on clothing styles. Foreign fabrics were also brought to Japan and incorporated into kimono. From early times, carpets and textiles woven in Turkey, Egypt, Iran and India were brought to Europe not just as trade goods, but also as diplomatic gifts, and their technical and aesthetic excellence was widely acknowledged by contemporary Westerners. However, these textiles were not just admired in the West. In the East, Japan was another destination for these exotic goods.

From the early 17th century, many Europeans and Japanese were fascinated by Indian textiles. While imitations of Indian printed and painted textiles were popular in Europe, in Japan, people still preferred to obtain original Indian textiles which surpassed their imitations in both colour and design.

Yumiko Kamada, in her paper for the Textile Society of America, The Use of Imported Persian and Indian Textiles in Early Modern Japan, states that ‘it is known that as early as in the late 16th century, a handful of people, such as war lords and high priests valued imported Persian textiles and carpets.2 In spite of Japan’s seclusion policy in the Edo period, people admired imported Indian textiles to enjoy and to use.

The Koodaiji-temple in Kyoto owns a coat made from a 16th-century Persian silk tapestry. This famous coat is said to have been used by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598), a powerful general of the AzuchiMomoyama period (1568-1600) in Japan. The Japanese also valued imported Indian cotton and other textiles, similar to Europeans who were fascinated by them. Yamaga Soko (1622-1685), a famous Confucian scholar of the Edo period, was said to have worn a coat made of 17th-century Indian painted cotton textile. This type of Indian textile with zigzag design, which was a

CONTEMPORARY VOICES From the Asian and Islamic Art Worlds

CLICK HERE to order this book

Chinese, Japanese & The South Art OfAsian Art East THE KIMONO

Wednesday 11 November

Fine Art Auctioneers & Valuers

ASIAN ART | OCTOBER 2020 |

popular in the early 17th century and occasionally depicted in Japanese screen paintings as a fabric used for kimono’. This coat is still preserved in the Matsura Historical Museum at Hirado in Nagasaki prefecture.

Gradually, Indian textiles became accessible to the wider population.

From the late Edo period, the wealthy classes used Indian painted and printed textiles to decorate many of their personal belongings. Two tobacco pouches and pipe case can been seen in the exhibition, with the earliest covered in Indian cotton from the Coromandel Coast in India, circa 1700 to 1800.There is also an 18th-century under-kimono for a man (juban), made from Indian cottons imported from the Coromandel Coast. Rare survivors from this early period of cultural exchange, including garments made in Japan for the Dutch and kimono tailored from French brocade and Indian chintz, are displayed to reveal the fluid fashion relationship between East and West that resulted from the global trade network.

During the Edo period, from the late 18th century to the early 20th century geisha were trend-setters.

Their elegant clothes and manners exuded the avant-garde chic of the day (iki). They would compete with each other to have the most original and expensive kimono to become the primary arbiters of kimono fashion. e term kimono (from mono ‘thing’ CLICK HERE Th and kiru ‘to wear’) came into use in the Meiji period, when the craze for for more information all things Western led to a need to distinguish between Western and Japanese clothing.

The kimono is made from full widths of specially woven kimono fabric, which is about 35 cm wide and sewn with a simple running Kosode crepe silk (chirimen), freehand paste-resist dyeing stitch to form the garment. The (yuzen), stencil imitation tie-dyeing (surihitta) and length of each kimono bolt is around embroidery in silk and gold-wrapped silk threads, 11 to 11.4 meters, which is enough to probably Kyoto, 1710-1740, courtesy of the make one kimono. A half-length Joshibi University of Art and Design Museum

and gold-wrapped silk threads with applied gold and silver (surihaku) Probably Kyoto, 1905–20 © Khalili Collection

Including The van Daalen Collection of Chinese Art

Outer-kimono for a young woman, figured satin silk (rinzu), tie-dyeing (kanoko shibori), freehand paste-resist dyeing (yuzen) and embroidery in silk, probably Kyoto, 1800-1830, courtesy of the Joshibi University of Art and Design Museum

#AsianArtPaper |

asianartnewspaper |

asianartnewspaper |

Asian Art Newspaper

The first comprehensive book to cover the Asian and Islamic contemporary art scenes featuring more than 80 interviews and 250 color illustrations Available for purchase at bookstores and on skira.net

A rare Chinese archaic ritual bronze vessel, Zun, Fu Yi mark, early Western Zhou dynasty.

Provenance: The van Daalen Collection. Estimate £50,000 - £80,000* View the fully illustrated catalogue on our website : www.roseberys.co.uk 70/76 Knights Hill, London SE27 0JD | asian@roseberys.co.uk | +44 (0) 20 8761 2522 * plus Buyer's Premium + VAT (30% inclusive of VAT)

Print & Digital Subscription

ASIAN ART | NOVEMBER 2020 |

#AsianArtPaper |

asianartnewspaper |

asianartnewspaper |

Asian Art Newspaper

ASIAN ART | NOVEMBER 2020

Get the newspaper and full digital access to our archive

Digital Subscription Unlimited digital access to our archive

ASIAN ART

asianartnewspaper.com THE NEWSPAPER FOR COLLECTORS, DEALERS, MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES

ASIAN ART