November 2008

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All eyes are on New York this month. Asia Week opens at Sotheby’s on 16 September with the 8m sale of Chinese and Japanese art from the collection of Frieda and Milton F. Rosenthal. The cover lot is a rare and spectacular Guhyasadhana Avalokitesvara, a rare survival of an early Ming wooden temple sculpture of a deity from the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon (Fig. 2). The four-armed bodhisattva is seated on a double-lotus base with his consort, who represents female wisdom. On the underside an apparently undisturbed chamber – so CAT-scans reveal – contains consecrated material. Estimate $1.4m-$1.6m. Notable, too, is a set of four dishes by the great Ogata Kenzan (c. 1663-1743), decorated in enamels and gilt in a typical Rimpa school design (estimate $200,000-$300,000).

Christie’s counter with ‘Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art from the Ping Y. Tai Foundation’, the first in a $20m-plus series of New York and Hong Kong sales dispersing the private collection of a celebrated US-Based dealer of the 1950-70s, J. T. Tai. Stealing the limelight at the 17 September sale is a dreamy early and rare Ming meiping vase, perfectly potted and rejoicing in the distinctive tianbai or ‘sweet white’ glaze so beloved by the Yongle emperor, in the early 15th century. (Fig. 3) This unctuous white glaze has the soft and satiny appearance of jade; this one is subtly enhanced with anhua or secret decoration of leafy peony scrolls incised into the vessel which are almost invisible from a distance (estimate $600,000-$800,000).

Those interested in the emerging as well as the established art of the wider region will be making their way to Shanghai for the second ShContemporary, at the Shanghai Exhibition Centre, 10-13 September. Once again, East meets West with the gathering of over 100 leading contemporary galleries from some 20 countries. Its mastermind, Art Basel veteran Lorenzo Rudolf, is determined to build an event that is more than a commercial fair. He sees it is as essential to set out an international platform in the region to offer an overview of the global contemporary art scene, and to help establish a market infrastructure that will work in mainland China (last year’s buyers were predominantly from Taiwan, Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong). What most excites him, however, is discovering the art being made across this vast, diverse continent. To that end he has commissioned 10 independent curators – from China, Australasia, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam – to trawl their regions to select emerging talent and commission museum-like installations for the fair. It will be the only fair whose projects will be 100% curated and not supported by a gallery’, enthuses Rudolf. ‘I want it to be really spectacular.’

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