Asia Week New York was born 7 years ago when a small group of Asian art dealers decided to band together as a result of the closing of the NY Asian Art Fair (held at the Park Avenue Armory for 10 years). With no central place to exhibit, they decided to hold open houses and week long gallery exhibitions to coincide with the auction house sales. London tried a similar fair but remained a localised event without foreign particpants. The latter didn’t realize what a coup it was to get all the world’s Asian dealers/galleries under a one week umbrella. Thus New York's Asia Week became the go to event of the year. If you have/make the time there is a veritable cornucopia of breathtaking art on offer/display. Re:visioning HANJI is a simple informative exhibition emboldened by artists’ contributions on the art of the Korean mulberry tree’s paper. Did you know that poorer Korean samurai wore armor made of Hanji paper- quite a few layers but it did protect from enemy arrows.
Just the beginning of an Asian adventure this week….
VIDEO HERE of the press launch last December for 2016
Sita (the most beautiful woman of Friday evening)- C11th Chola South Indian-expensive gal...but worth every penny
apart from Joan B Mirviss resplendent in Issey Miyake..
discovery of the evening if not at least the year HUNG HSIEN. Fascinating conversation that for the moment I'm being selfish and not sharing;) Suffice to say it was much ado ...Western sketching vs. Asian thought and spontaneity, American 'action painting', Chinese chess.....breath...
It's a strange world when 'reality' constantly beats at our door. Though we have all the sympathy/empathy in the world, all we really want is to experience some beauty. Joanna Lau Sullivan didn't marry money, she (and husband) created a Hawaii empire out of groceries. That reality enabled her to collect, amongst others, rare inside-painted snuff bottles (painted with a tiny angled brush). It seems incredibly elitist. And maybe it is. But in a strange beautiful way. The irony is that most if not all of these artisans went blind due to their rigorous craft.
C9th Indonesia- Volcanic Stone Head of a Bodhisattva (Lot 322-Christie's March 15)
Wasn’t going to post this Richard Fabian footage. [There seems to be a playback problem with video so I have uploaded a Part 2 to this talk]
Went into a kind of James Bond ‘Skyfall’ the last few days. Then I thought and thought. And realized this Reverend was for real. It might have been ‘healthy/un living’ for Sotheby’s to serve some hors d'oeuvres rather than bread sticks to accompany their ‘open bar’ for the reception on Saturday. Some (well a few of us) actually sat through 3 hours of fascinating talks about Chinese furniture. Not that we need a reward of any kind…;) Funny that the ‘security’ didn’t know quite what was worth a no drinks policy (sorry Soth, TMI) – they were probably better with us old/young fogeys rather than a crowd of ummmm ...young sobriety trust fund kids who…well….have a mind of their own.
Jean-Luc Godard-an jumpcut: Chopin Op.28 Preludes: Warsaw Conservatoire in the 1930’s warned off students on the grounds that they were 'bizarre'. Schumann 1839: The Preludes are strange pieces. I confess I imagined them differently, and designed in the grandest style, like his Etudes. But almost the opposite is true: they are sketches, beginnings of Etudes or, so to speak, ruins, eagle wings, a wild motley of pieces.
Mendelssohn, who had just turned 20 (1829), was given credit for beginning the Bach Revival (who had died in 1750). Eighty years may not seem a long time but consider your own C21th age and think! The great Bach was indeed given the cold musical shoulder. Well- not even!!!!! The sublime Chinese huanghuali wood furniture (that beautifully deconstructed due to its joinery) didn't have as such a 'cold shoulder' but was often relegated to the outskirts of a Chinese storage depot during the 40s/50s. Hence the rarity of decent surviving examples.
It’s perhaps hard for a younger generation to appreciate just what solemnity and truth Reverend Fabian ended his lecture with on Saturday: Bach’s Chorale, Durch dein Gefängnis (Saint John Passion - BWV 245). It wasn’t about millions of dollars worth of Chinese furniture (profits destined to a charity) easing the burden of one’s life (as elitist as that may also sound). It was about grace and…I asked the Reverend what did the Episcopalian faith and Asian furniture/aesthetic have in common. He answered: William Byrd’s Catholic music and the Protestants:
Durch dein Gefängnis, Gottes Sohn,
Through your imprisonment, Son of God,
Muß uns die Freiheit kommen;
must our freedom come.
Dein Kerker ist der Gnadenthron,
Your prison is the throne of grace,
Die Freistatt aller Frommen;
the refuge of all believers.
Denn gingst du nicht die Knechtschaft ein,
If you had not accepted slavery,
Müßt unsre Knechtschaft ewig sein.
our slavery would have been eternal.
