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Volume 38 - Number 7 - October 2007 A Kashmiri Master Calligrapher's Letter to a Mughal Nobleman by Pratapaditya Pal, currently the general editor of Marg Publications and an authority on the arts of Kashmir. A discussion on the accomplishments of Muhammad Husayn, the greatest calligrapher of the Mughal emperor Akbar's atelier. Unique among the surviving specimens of this master's penmanship is a letter addressed to Asaf Khan, the brother of Jahangir's famous queen Nur Jahan, now preserved in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This previously unpublished document of singular art-historical and sociological significance written in the Persian language and the elegant nastaliq script is the only known letter from a Mughal calligrapher to have survived. The subject-matter is mundane but Pal stresses how poetic and visually compelling are the richness of the variegated composition and the imaginative disposition of the delicately refined script. The work is featured in Asia Society's exhibition `The Arts of Kashmir' together with a portrait of Hasayn by Manohar, one of the well-known imperial Mughal painters, from the Royal Asiatic Society, London. It shows the young Manohar taking lessons in penmanship from the older master.
Emigre Artists of Kashmir, 1585-1660 by Barbara Schmitz, the author of several catalogues of collections of Islamic illustrated manuscripts and album paintings. An account of the author's most recent research to identify the painter who started the Kashmiri style. By examining miniatures from the Dara Shikoh Album, some of which are attributed to the Persian emigre artist, Muhammad Khan, and Mughal-style paintings of the mid-17th century ascribed to two other Persian artists, `Ali Quli Jabbadar and Muhammad Zaman, alongside works by Kashmiri artists such as Muhammad Nadir Samarqandi, Schmitz suggests it was from Kashmir, an entrepot for artists from India, Persia and Central Asia, that Mughal painting techniques, based on European examples of volumetric figures and recessional space, were first introduced to the Persian court at Isfahan and to the Central Asian court at Bukhara. Some of these works are exhibited in Asia Society's exhibition `The Arts of Kashmir'.
Prolegomenon to the Study of Islamic Calligraphy in Kashmir by Aijaz A. Banday, Reader (Associate Professor) at the Centre of Central Asian Studies, University of Kashmir, Srinagar. The author looks at examples of calligraphy in various styles and media that have survived in the Kashmir valley to trace the development of writing styles, the primacy of languages and the achievements of artists in the region. Traces of the calligraphers' skills on portable manuscripts, textiles and decorative articles to the monumental like mosque walls, architectural faces and tombs, some of which are included in the Asia Society's exhibition `The Arts of Kashmir', demonstrate that under Muslim patrons calligraphy became a serious aesthetic concern and its repertoire was expanded. Traditional calligraphy continues to thrive in Kashmir and organized schooling further helps to produce a new generation of calligraphers.
Vishnu in the Sculptural Art of Kashmir by John Siudmak, an independent art historian and art consultant. Just as stylistic evolution of sculpture in Kashmir followed its own independent course by combining local innovation with selective borrowing from more established traditions outside the valley, iconography developed along similar lines. By the end of the 5th century, a great diversity of forms of the Brahmanical deities had emerged and by the mid-7th century, these had mostly crystallized as the sculptural style reached maturity. Vishnu, generally an undistinguished figure in Indian sculpture from the Gupta period to 12th century, has a variety of dynamic and colourful forms in Kashmir sculpture. The nine different aspects of Vishnu on show in the Asia Society's exhibition `The Arts of Kashmir' give an insight into the rich sculptural and iconographic heritage of ancient Kashmir, and its unique position in the history of Indian art.
An American Engagement with Kashmiri Art by Kristy Phillips, currently visiting professor of South Asian art at San Jose State University. From July 2006 to July 2007, she was a Getty Fellow at the Asia Society Museum in New York. Prior to the mid-1960s, most American private collectors and public institutions knew little about Kashmir or its pre-Islamic artistic production. The author considers the role of some key American collectors, curators and scholars like John D. Rockefeller, Norton Simon, Nasli Heeramaneck, Sherman Lee and Pratapaditya Pal in shaping the current market, scholarship and collecting of Kashmiri sculptures in the West, and in rendering the works cherished objects in American collections, the richest outside South Asia. This survey of the intellectual moments not only enables the rethinking of the current positioning of diverse artistic traditions in Kashmir, but also illuminates something of the `lives' of Kashmiri objects far beyond their original purpose.
A Unique Mughal Kashmir Shawl at the Musée Guimet by Frank Ames, the author of The Kashmir Shawl and Its Indo-French Influence (2003), co-curator of Asia Society's exhibition `The Arts of Kashmir'. An article highlighting the remarkable artistic features of a shawl fragment on view in the Asia Society's exhibition `The Arts of Kashmir'. The Shah Jahan era of decorative arts is often epitomized by the grace and beauty of the flowering plant which became synonymous with the `Mughal style'. Its development on the shawl is discussed as are possible European influences.
The Art of Kar-i-Qalamdani: Painted and Varnished Wares from Kashmir by Amin Jaffer, International Director of Asian Art at Christie's, and specializes in Indian art in the age of European influence. In his discussion on the techniques used and the range of forms produced by the Kashmir artisans, the author looks at two rare documented examples of Kashmiri papier-mache on loan to the Asia Society's exhibition `The Arts of Kashmir' from the Victoria & Albert Museum - a chair dating to 1870 based on taste for Regency furniture in British India, and a mid 19th century copy of a Tibetan folding table from Srinagar.
The Institute of Chinese Studies at Forty by Jenny F. So, Director of the Institute of Chinese Studies and Professor of Fine Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. The author looks back at the activities of the Institute of Chinese Studies established in 1967 for the study and celebration of Chinese culture in Hong Kong. Its guiding mission - `to bring together China and the West, and to integrate tradition with contemporary world' was the same vision of Vice Chancellor Li Choh-ming when founding The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1963. The first decade saw the establishment of the Art Museum and the Research Centre for Translation to promote Chinese art and literature; the second decade brought the Centre for Chinese Archaeology and Art and field archaeology to Hong Kong; the third decade was marked by a meeting of tradition, the new China and technology; and the fourth decade reveals a time of change, renewal and growth.
`Black Tigers': The Bei Shan Tang Gift of Chinese Calligraphic Rubbings to the Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong by Peter Y. K. Lam, Director of the Art Museum, Institute of Chinese Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and head of its research team in Chinese calligraphic rubbings. The author looks at highlights among the rubbings gifted to the museum by JS Lee for his discussion on their importance of preserving impressions of inscriptions now defaced or lost. He cautions that many fake rubbings have been made over the centuries, hence the term `black tigers' as they bite when undetected. The collection of some two thousand examples makes the collection second in quality to the Palace Museum, Beijing and the Shanghai Museum.
Jung Sen Lee (1915-2007) by Peter Y. K. Lam Following the death in February this year of one of Hong Kong's most renowned benefactors and patrons, Peter Lam gives an account of JS Lee's generosity to countless museums, institutions and universities, and his devotion to promoting cultural exchange and his supporting education.
Fumio Kitaoka (1918-2007) and Clifton Karhu (1927-2007) by Lucy Winters Durkin, one of the 2007 CWAJ Print Show co-chairs and a former lecturer in art history at The Eastman School of Music.
The author pays tribute to Fumio Kitaoka and Clifton Karhu, two talented artists who had featured in the College Women's Association of Japan's shows for more than four decades. According to Kiyoko Sawatari, Chief Curator of the Yokohama Art Museum, Kitaoka's dream was to `revive realism in woodblock prints'. Throughout his 60 years of printmaking, he `proudly travelled his own road', leaving a legacy of works `which are the expression of the heart and soul of a devoted man'.
Brooke Russell Astor (1902-2007) by James C. Y. Watt, Brooke Russell Astor Chairman of the Department of Asian Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Brooke Russell Astor's husband, Vincent Astor, knew she had a gift for giving and left her with a foundation that allowed her to employ her extraordinary talents to the full. For four decades, the Astor Foundation supported every imaginable institution and cause in New York. To many people, Brooke Astor is known for the Metropolitan Museum's Chinese garden, the Astor Court. She also supported major exhibitions. Among her other major benefactions to the Asian Art Department, is the Northern Qi/Sui dynasty sculptured pagoda. More to her personal taste, however, was a large Kangxi period lacquer screen decorated with domestic scenes in a palatial mansion. Brooke Astor's natural kindness, old-world courtesy and generosity of spirit are legendary. Less known are her wry wit and a certain child-like whimsicality, which so delighted those in her company.
In his review of Photographs of Peking, China 1861-1908: An Inventory and Description of the Yetts Collection at the University of Durham: Through Peking With a Camera, Richard Ovenden comments on Nick Pearce's valuable contribution to the hitherto neglected study of the history of photography outside the West. Pearce's examination of the photographic collection of Stephen Bushell, medical officer to the British Legation in Beijing from 1868 to 1899, is divided into a narrative study of the collection, the collector and the experience of photography in late 19th century China, and a detailed descriptive catalogue of the photographs in the collection itself, now in the Oriental Museum in the University of Durham, which includes forty reproductions of the original photographs.
Announcements The Khyentse Foundation announced significant developments in its Five Projects - it is looking to fund chairs of Buddhist studies at universities; it finances Westerners in long retreat, aspiring translators, the International Network of Engaged Buddhists; has donated funds to the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center to digital preservation of Tibetan Buddhist literature; supports Deer Park Institute in India where international students engage in classical Indian wisdom traditions in the spirit of Nalanda University; maintains five monastic colleges in Tibet, India and Bhutan, providing for over 800 monastics and lay practitioners as well as enabling young lamas to be thoroughly trained. The foundation is also funding a major conference of Tibetan translators in 2009. For further information, see the website www.khyentsefoundation.org, or write to noa@khyentsefoundation.org
The Miho Museum celebrates its 10th anniversary with an exhibition titled `The Miho Museum Collection: Spanning the Millennia' (until 16 December). Japanese and Asian art is on display in the south wing, while in the north wing, works from other areas and civilizations are on view. The art is accompanied by contemporaneous essays and poems, and there will be a concert and an international symposium on the theme `Integrating Beauty, Nature and Spirituality into Life in the New Millennium' (5 November), in keeping with the Shinji Shumeikai's belief in the power of beauty to bring about spiritual transformation.
From 5 to 9 November, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London will host the short course `Asia Contemporary', focusing on the art of India, China, Pakistan, Japan and the Middle East. Students will benefit from lectures by top specialists, visit galleries and handle artworks, as well as interact with artists. The fee for the course is ú500. For further information contact asianart@soas.ac.uk Beginning in January 2008, SOAS will also offer the university accredited postgraduate diploma course `Arts of Asia', which will focus on object-based teaching within an academic framework. Students, who are not required to have a background in the field, will have access to the collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum and British Museum as well as museum curators, and will attend lectures by leading specialists in addition to making study trips to other museums, galleries and private collections. For further information, contact Elgood on he2@soas.ac.uk A collaboration has been proposed between SOAS, the University of London, the British Museum and the protection nominees of the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art (PDF) to widen access to the PDF collection. A special gallery will be built at the British Museum to house the renowned group of ceramics, while the foundation's library and teaching materials will also be available to scholars through the SOAS library and the school's Department of the History of Art and Archaeology. The collection is expected to be relocated in 2008. Earlier this year, James C.Y. Watt was presented with the 2007 Chinese Art History Distinguished Scholar Award in recognition of his long-standing contribution to the field. Watt received the award from Patricia Pei Tang, President of the American Friends of the Shanghai Museum.
Lisa Dennison has joined Sotheby's as Executive Vice President of Sotheby's North America, with responsibility for international business development and client relations.
An Interview with Lilly Schloss In a recent conversation following her 85th birthday, Lilly Schloss reflected on her and her late husband Ezekiel's early days of collecting, as well as new developments. For example, in 1964 they purchased a Tang sancai horse from Frank Caro, a noted art dealer on Madison Avenue, for US$8,000; it was bought by Giuseppe Eskenazi for Ronald Lauder at Sotheby's on 3 December 1984 for US$660,000 and a couple of years ago it sold to New York collector Leon Black. Today, a horse of that quality would easily be valued at over US$1 million.
Gallery News Beijing The new gallery designed by Ai Weiwei for Christophe Mao of Chambers Fine Art opened on 20 September in the Cao Changdi district of Beijing. The inaugural exhibition `Net: Reimagining Space, Time and Culture', organized by Wu Hung, brings together commissioned works by seventeen artists around the concept a `net', a favourite subject mainly because, according to Wu, it allows them to `explore the connectivity and fluidity between the phenomenal world and the conceptual world'. London Rossi & Rossi's inaugural exhibition, `Consciousness and Form: Contemporary Tibetan Art', from 5 to 26 October, in their new gallery at 16 Clifford Street features the work of eight talented artists with Tibetan heritage. Works by Lhasa-based Nortse, Tsewang Tashi, Gade and Tsering Nyandak reveal the changing trends within Tibet, whilst those created by artists living in the West, such as Kesang Lamdark, Tenzing Rigdol, Palden Larz Weinreb and Gonkar Gyatso, are fused with other cultures. The artists seek to interpret, in their individual ways, the tension between their `spirit' and the desire to give it form.
`The Marks Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles, Part I' will signal the launch on 4 October of Erick Schiess's new venture Jadestone Fine Asian Art, Appraisal and Consulting. The inaugural exhibition, which includes unusual examples acquired over many decades, will also be shown at the Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Convention from 9 to 13 October in Toronto. New York Five New York-based dealers will stage an exhibition titled `Select Masterworks from JADA: The Japanese Art Dealers Association', from 17 to 21 October at the Ukrainian Institute in the Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion at 2 East 79 Street. Sebastian Izzard, Leighton R. Longhi, Mika Gallery, Erik Thomsen and Koichi Yanagi promise a panorama of seldom-seen screens, hanging scrolls and handscrolls, ceramics and a few robes; while some are as early as the Nara period, the great majority date from the Edo period. Longhi, JADA's president, commented that this is a rare opportunity for members to show works that did not fall into the categories of their recent thematic shows, and were therefore reserved in anticipation of this exhibition.
Hong Kong International Contemporary Art Fair 2007
Inspired by the success of their second art and antiques fair in May this year, Andy Hei and his partners are staging another event to capitalize on the current craze for contemporary art. The fair, from 6 to 9 October, will be at the Hong Kong Exhibition Centre, a few minutes walk from the Convention Centre, where Sotheby's will be holding their auctions. Proceeds from the preview, sponsored by Chong Hing Bank, will go towards the Department of Fine Arts's student exchange programme at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Melissa Chiu, Director of Asia Society Museum in New York, will delivery a lecture, `Ten Things You Should Know about Contemporary Chinese Art', on 6 October.
The San Francisco Fall Antiques Show This event, held this year from 25 to 28 October at the Fort Mason Center, is considered one of the most elegant international fairs. Sandra Whitman's selection of carpets from Khotan and Ningxia demonstrates her conviction to acquire only those in their original condition, as seen in a room-sized Ningxia piece with cloud roundels on a gold ground dating to the Yongzheng or Qianlong period. She has been able to acquire an exceptional 19th century example with the flayed tiger covering the whole ground, which is one of the earliest she has handled. Marc Richards is the only dealer showing early Chinese pottery sculpture, highlights being two realistic animal forms, a Northern Wei camel and a Tang period bull. Susan Ollemans has her token collection of Indian jewellery, and will also show a group of early ceramics, most notably a small Jin period black-glazed jar with its vertical ribs reserved in white.
Asian Art in London
The event runs from 1 to 10 November, with evening receptions in Kensington Church Street, St James's and Mayfair on 3, 4 and 5 November, respectively, followed by an anniversary party at the British Museum on 6 November. Tickets are £50, and can be booked through AAL by telephone (44 20 7499 2215) or e-mail (info@asianartinlondon.com). Kensington Church Street Fusa Shimizu of J.A.N. Fine Art will show a diverse group of recent acquisitions, ranging from a Momoyama period No robe to a collection of Chinese objects for the scholar's desk. Laurence Paul of Fleurdelys Antiquites at Patrick Sandberg Gallery shows Chinese porcelain and works of art as well as her selection of Chinese stands carved from hardwoods such as zitan and huanghuali. Gregg Baker is focusing on a quintessentially Asian motif in his show `"The Space Within", Bamboo in Japanese Screen Painting', which comprises some ten to fifteen screens and other recent acquisitions. St James's Oc-Eo Art's exhibition `A Sense of Space' at the Mall Galleries, The Mall features recent works by Nguyen Thanh Binh and Nguyen Dieu Thuy. Priestley and Ferraro's show `Song Ceramics and Works of Art' is a testament to the technical and aesthetic achievements of the potters and artisans of this period. Simon Ray's range of interests in South Asian art can be seen in a 4th/5th century stucco head of a deity from Gandhara and a 17th century brass ewer inlaid with gold and silver in bidri-style from Bidar. Art from Gandhara can also be seen in the form of a grey schist relief depicting Kubera in Jonathan Tucker and Antonia Tozer's exhibition `Brightness from the East: Indian, Southeast Asian and Chinese Art'. A highlight of Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch's exhibition of Indian miniatures is a Kishangarh-style painting titled A Lady Singing. Since opening their gallery in June last year, Olyvia Oriental have seen a dramatic rise in interest and particularly prices for the contemporary Chinese artists they represent. For example, Zeng Chuanxing's Paperbride series, which they first showed in spring 2006 at the Asian Art fair in New York, now sells for HK$5.024 million at auction. Highlights at Knapton Rasti Asian Art are a Chenghua blue-and-white flowerpot which, according to their research, is the only extant example on the market, and among the Song to Qing jades is a large Qianlong meiping made from translucent white jade with some small russet inclusions.
The title of Francesca Galloway's exhibition, `Shringar', implies the sentiment of erotic love in Indian aesthetics and the adornments of the god Shrinathji at the Nathdwara shrine in Rajasthan. Miniatures and ivories depict passionate couples embracing, and several paintings and textiles relate to the ritual dressing of Shrinathji for festivals. On view in Jacqueline Simcox's exhibition `Chinese, Indian and Southeast Asian Textiles' at The Air Gallery, 32 Dover Street, are some impressive textiles that explore the textile trade within the region. Of particular note are the gilded examples from Indonesia and India, which are rarely seen on the market and come from private collections. Early China is represented by a late Ming kesi rank badge featuring a pair of Manchurian cranes, which would have belonged to a first rank official.
San Francisco-based Chinese artist Li Huayi will be showing in Europe for the first time in `Mountain Landscapes of Li Huayi' at Eskenazi. The main source of inspiration for the twenty recently completed, highly detailed works is the landscapes of the Northern Song period. He took a year to complete this project, and the works are priced between £30,000 and £100,000. His distinctive style today is a synthesis of his earlier experiments in ink and collage drawn from a range of sources - ancient Buddhist murals, archaic pictograms and Chan calligraphy to abstract expressionism.
Prahlad Bubbar's exhibition focuses on Indian miniatures of the Rajput courts, including examples amassed over a period of 30 years by the European collector, critic, writer and poet Arturo Schwarz. Bubbar says that there is now great demand for this material as collectors of Indian origin are beginning to appreciate its historical and aesthetic value. Linda Wrigglesworth has chosen to focus on Korean textiles, an area that has received little attention in the West. Among those treasured as heirlooms, either worn on special occasions or used in rituals and celebrations, are wedding robes for both bride and groom, and children's costumes. The exhibition is by appointment (tel 44 20 7486 8990 or 7935 1511).
Commentary: Why a Museum in Siem Reap/Angkor? by Son Soubert, Lecturer at the Faculty of Archaeology of the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh, as well as a Member of the Constitutional Council of the Kingdom of Cambodia.
Concerned about the preservation of his own heritage and institutions, the author's recommendation is that all museums should remain under the umbrella of the Ministry of Culture rather than allow the establishment by various governments and international agencies of independent museums in Siem Reap. The Kingdom of Cambodia could endow museums in its three cultural regions without neglecting existing local museums. Existing institutions like the Angkor Conservation should continue to play its historical role as an institution for research and conservation in association with the APSARA Authority. The National Museum of Phnom Penh must remain the entrepot for important works of art retrieved from all the provinces of Cambodia except Siem Reap/Angkor. To obviate fallacious pretexts about lack of space so as to transfer sculptures and other artworks to newly built non-state museums, the National Museum could expand into all the current Royal University of Fine Arts buildings, which would allow the reserve collections to be taken out and displayed. When a museum of civilizations can be developed as an effective tool for understanding the past with the tools of the present, why would Angkor need yet another art museum?
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