AAL Gallery Shows 17 Kensington


THE CENTENARY EXHIBITION Imperial Porcelain of Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong


Marchant, Kensington Church Street, 27 October to 7 November


Marchant is presenting imperial porcelain of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong to commemorate their centenary year in an exhibition comprising 30 works of Qing-dynasty ceramics, curated to showcase the extraordinary technical brilliance and artistic refinement achieved at the imperial kilns of Jingdezhen between 1662 and 1795. Te show celebrates the legacy of the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong emperors and the unparalleled porcelain produced under their reigns. Spanning the late 17th to 18th centuries, the works represent a golden age of imperial production that reflects a conscious revival of Ming traditions, as well as an ambitious time of innovation and artistic evolution. A catalogue of the show is available.


Mayfair


CHINESE CERAMICS, METALWORK, AND LACQUER From the 12th to 14th Century and TREES AND MOUNTAINS ON GOLD AND SILVER


by Li Huayi Eskenazi, Clifford Street, 27 October to 14 November


In the first show, there are 12 works of art created during the golden age of the 12th to the 14th century, an intellectually vibrant period in Chinese history whose material


Chinese imperial porcelain blue and white baluster vase of handbell form, yaoling zun, with four medallions forming the gankyil, Wheel of Joy, Kangxi period, 1662-1722, height 20.4 cm, Marchant


culture is defined by elegance, restraint, and technical mastery. A highlight is a rare gold drinking cup with chased decoration. Its form takes an unusual shape which was more widely used across the vast Mongol empire, which expanded into northern China in the 13th century. It is likely that such cups were only made in small numbers and for the use of the elite. A glazed stoneware ‘hare’s fur’ tea


bowl from the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) is accompanied by a Japanese Edo period (1603-1868) lacquer cup stand. During the Northern Song period, the Jian kilns in Fujian province were celebrated for their dark-bodied tea bowls with glossy black-brown glazes, decorated with a variety of streaks and splashes, the most famous effects being known as ‘hare’s fur’ (tuhao wen), as seen on the present example, and ‘oil spot’ (youdiyou). In both cases, the striking surface effects were caused by a concentration of iron oxides which came to the surface during firing and crystallised as iron-rich minerals. Imperial patronage secured the position of Jian wares. Te Emperor Huizong (r 1100-1126) was known to


appears to be of a negoro lacquer type, named after the Negoro temple in Kii province, Honshu Island. Te gallery is also presenting eight


new works by Li Huayi (b 1948), a leading contemporary master of Chinese ink painting.


Online Rob Dean Art,


Golden Pond by Li Huayi, ink, colours and gold leaf on silk, 59 x 63 cm, signed and sealed Li Huayi, Eskenazi


favour Jian tea bowls, and some wares were incised on the base with ‘for imperial use’ marks; those with hare’s fur streaks were declared to be the most desirable. Te dark glazed tea bowls with hare’s fur glaze were referred to as nogime tenmoku in Japan, where they were also highly prized. Often paired with a lacquer stand (tenmoku-dai), of either Japanese or Chinese origin, they were used either ritually or in daily life, in monasteries, by tea devotees, and in shogunal households. Te present bowl is paired with a stand that


27 October to 7 November robdeanart.com


Rob Dean’s online exhibition for Asian Art in London is exhibiting a group of 10 folios from the Shangri Ramayana. Te present group of paintings, collectively known as the Shangri Ramayana, constitutes one of the most enigmatic and scholastically complex bodies of work from the Pahari region. No scholarly consensus exists regarding its precise dating, provenance, patronage, or stylistic affiliation. Based on the narrative of Valmiki’s


Glazed stoneware ‘hare’s fur’ tea bowl and a lacquer cup stand; bowl: Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279), Jian ware, from the kilns at Shuiji, Jianyang county, Fujian province, diam. 12.2 cm; stand: probably Japanese, Edo period, diam., 15.8 cm, height 9.5 cm, Eskenazi


Ramayana, the set is arguably the most ambitious and monumental in scale among extant Pahari series. A substantial portion of the paintings is presently housed in the National Museum, New Delhi, while the remaining works are dispersed in collections across the world. Te bulk of the series is known to have once belonged to Raja Raghubir Singh of Kulu, from the ‘Shangri’ branch of the ruling house – hence the appellation by which it is now recognised. Recent scholarship has posited the


possibility that the paintings may have been produced in different centres, at different times, for different patrons, and only later, by coincidence, assembled into a single collection – and this may account for the different styles of painting. Tis


theory, however, encounters the difficulty that no episode appears twice in two different hands, and that the various painters seem to have been cognisant of each other’s contributions. Such evidence implies at least some degree of coordination or shared knowledge among the participating artists. However, additional folios from the dispersed series have come to light since Archer’s original ground-breaking analysis and these raise further questions concerning style and artistic attribution. Te Shangri Ramayana remains compelling not only for its unresolved questions of origin and the number of artists involved in its creation, but also for the dramatic force of its imagery.


An illustration to the Shangri Ramayana, Rama Confers with the Monkeys Book VI, Lankakanda, Bahu or Jammu, India, circa 1700-10, Rob Dean Art


An illustration to the Shangri Ramayana, Sita Surrounded by Demons, Book V, Sundarakanda, Bahu or Jammu, India, circa 1700-10, Rob Dean Art


Asian Art in London


27 October – 6 November 2025


asianartinlondon.com ASIAN ART | OCTOBER 2025


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