JUN 2013
VOLUME 44 - NUMBER 5
The Tokyo National Museum’s Toyokan (Asian Gallery) reopened in January 2013 after major renovations and seismic retrofitting, with new displays and galleries themed around the concept of a journey through Asian art.
In this issue, which begins with an interview with Director of Curatorial Planning Matsumoto Noboyuki, we present articles on the Toyokan’s collections, exemplifying Japan’s long tradition of connoisseurship. Tsukamoto Maromitsu, Ryusuke Asami, Mikasa Keiko, Inokuma Kaneki, Oyama Yuzuruha and Shirai Katsuya focus, respectively, on Chinese paintings, Asian sculpture, ceramics, Chinese lacquer, Asian textiles and Korean art, while Kawamura Yoshio looks at the formation of the Chinese archaeology collection.
In other features, marking the tricentenary of the birth of Kang Sehwang, Byun Young-sup discusses the Joseon dynasty artist’s life and work. Meanwhile, Amy McNair sums up the proceedings of a recent Princeton symposium on Buddhist stone inscriptions in China, and Helen Jessup and Thomas Murray review, respectively, Walter Spies: A Life in Art and Gold Jewellery of the Indonesian Archipelago. Siddhartha Shah discusses the Sahmat Collective exhibition at the Smart Museum of Art, while Harold Mok reviews the University of Hong Kong exhibition ‘Encounters’, featuring the Khoan and Michael Sullivan Collection, accompanied by an interview with Professor Sullivan himself on the occasion of his visit to Hong Kong.
FEATURES
Frank Feltens. Asian Art Treasures at the Toyokan: An Interview with Matsumoto Nobuyuki
Byun Young-sup. Kang Sehwang: Scholar-painter of the Late Joseon
Shirai Katsuya. Themes of Grandeur: The Toyokan’s New Galleries of Korean Art
Oyama Yuzuruha. Woven Riches: Asian Textiles at the Toyokan
Inokuma Kaneki. Embodiments of History and Tradition: Chinese Lacquer at the Toyokan
Kawamura Yoshio. ‘Culture of Han and Pre-Han Dynasties’: Remembering the First Exhibition of Chinese Archaeology in Japan
Mikasa Keiko. Connoisseurship and Conservation: Asian Ceramics at the Toyokan
Ryusuke Asami. Journeys through Asian Sculpture at the Toyokan
Tsukamoto Maromitsu. Frictions in Universal Contexts and Individual Values: Chinese Paintings at the Toyokan
PREVIEWS & REVIEWS
Amy McNair. Symposium Report: 'Enduring Dharma: A Symposium on the Inscription of Buddhist Scriptures on Stone' at Princeton University
Margaret Tao and Orientations. Asia Week New York − March 2013
Harold Mok. Exhibition Reviews: '"Encoutners": Twentieth-century Chinese Art from the Khoan and Michael Sullivan Colelction' at University Museum and Art Gallery, University of Hong Kong
Siddhartha V. Shah. Exhibition Reviews: 'The Sahmat Collective: Art and Activism in India since 1989' at Smart Museum of Art, Chicago
Thomas Murray. Book Review: Gold Jewellery of the Indonesain Archipelago by Anne Richter and Bruce W. Carpenter
Helen Ibbitson Jessup. Book Review: Walter Spies: A Life in Art by John Stowell
INTERVIEWS
An Interview with China Guardian’s Hu YanyanIn Conversation with Michael Sullivan