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Please look at the
"dragons"
and dragon-related animals the China Coast has to offer.
Go
straight to our Dragons!
Asian
Art is everywhere!
The
OCS (Oriental Ceramic Society) in London always
offers the most splendid lectures and shows. On February
21st: a survey of Modern Chinese
Ink Paintings at the British Museum, by Dr. Clarissa
von Spree, curator of Chinese calligraphy, paintings,
prints and the Central Asian collection at the BM.
Probably
my all time favorite lecture would be Visions
of Canton, 1700-1850, on May 8th, by Dr.
Patrick Connor (Martyn Gregory Gallery) who in
his books introduced me many moons ago to China Trade
paintings, to the hongs (factories) and the Bund in
Shanghai, and to artists like Chinnery, Alexander and
Allom.
For
information on these presentations, email ocslondon@btinternet.com
or go to www.ocs-london.com
At
the Shanghai Museum a special
exhibition takes place May 1st to June 30th, Art
of Bamboo Carving. Check it out at http://www.shanghaimuseum.net/en/history/history.html
We associate Jingdezhen
with antique Chinese porcelains but contemporary ceramic
artists continue to work in Jingdezhen. Four porcelain
artists display their works at the Victoria
& Albert, London, until March 25th. Ah Xian,
Roger Law, Felicity Aylieff and Takeshi Yasuda. Go to
www.vam.ac.uk
One
of the most important Asian art fairs takes place in
New York, Arts of Pacific Asia New York, March
16th to March 24th. http://www.caskeylees.com/NY_Asia/NY_Asia.html
And
not to miss is the San Francisco
Tribal & Textile Arts Show, http://www.caskeylees.com/SF_Tribal/SF_Tribal.html,
in February.
I
have been meaning to recommend that you visit the
Linden Centre - http://www.linden-centre.com/
in Xizhou, Yunnan, Southwest China. I met the
owners Brian and Jeannee Linden by chance several years
ago in Door County, Wisconsin where they had a fantastic
Asian art gallery. Over the last five years or so they
build, reconstructed, preserved, restored architectural
buildings, opened a wonderful hotel in an old mansion,
and now the entire facility is a nationally protected
heritage site. Their goal is to preserve the rich culture
and ethnic diversity of this place where the busy China
tea, silk and horse trading routes ran between Thailand,
Burma and Central China. The weather is balmy, the foothills
of the Himalayas are close and programs are offered
all year round. Please visit their website at
http://www.linden-centre.com/
Much closer for some of us is the San
Antonio Museum of Art offering a seminar about
Sensational Color:A Global
Heritage of Pigments and Dyes, February
4th, from 9:30AM to 4:00PM, by a panel of international
experts. And do not forget the exhibit 5000
Years of Chinese Jade shown until February 19th
which brings together extraordinary pieces from several
museums including the National Museum of History of
Taiwan; John Johnston Curator
of Asian Art will give a talk January 31st about
Dragons in Chinese Jade.
More info at www.samuseum.org
I
also wanted to alert you about a future exhibit at the
Houston Museum of Fine Art,
Elegant Perfection: Masterpieces of Courtly and
Religious Art from the Tokyo National Museum, February
19th-April 8th. Twenty-five rarely seen objects including
designated National Treasures will be shown at the museum's
new Arts of Japan Gallery. http://mfah.org/
The
Denver Art Museum
- http://denverartmuseum.org/home
--- has two important exhibits - I think I mentioned
the Xu Beihong Paintings before but Threads
of Heaven shows Qing dynasty textiles, court
robes and insignia badges from the museum's collection
but closes January 29th.
And
as a final note - I recently rediscovered the Textiles
Asia Journal, www.textilesasia.com
published three times a year with very timely articles
including one Celebrating the
Year of the Dragon, by John Vollmer whose book
In the Presence of the Dragon Throne about Qing dynasty
costumes in the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) was one of
my first Asian textile books. |
