Painting 11


landscapes, and floral still lifes Liu Kang was born in China, but eventually became a Singaporean citizen. After graduating from the Xinhua Arts Academy in Shanghai, the moved to Paris to study Western art in 1929. His stay in Paris had a significant influence on his career, where he attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Montparnasse and studied Impressionist,


Post-Impressionist,


and Fauvist styles, becoming a frequent visitor to the city’s art museums and galleries. Tis experience greatly influenced his early painting style during his Paris years. Sanyu, known for his nude studies


and flower still lifes, remains popular among collectors today. Born into a wealthy family in Sichuan, China, he first learned to paint with his father. He first travelled to Japan in 1919, but in 1921, after learning about the government-sponsored programme at home, he applied and was awarded a grant to study in Paris with the support of his brother. He also attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. Unlike his fellow Chinese artists, Sanyu did not return to his home country after completing his studies but chose instead to remain in Paris. He continued to experiment with reinterpretations of traditional Chinese art, developing a unique, cross-cultural aesthetic in his work. Two female artists in the exhibition


Woman in Red Dress by Itakulla Kanae, 1929, oil on canvas, 116.8 x 80.3 cm, collection of Matsudo City Board of Education. Image courtesy of Matsudo City Board of Education


merged European painting techniques with Southeast Asian inspiration, becoming a key figure in the development of modern art in Singapore. She is known for painting still lifes featuring baskets of Asian fruits, putting commonplace objects into an Asian context, as well as portraits (she often painted her husband Eugene Chen (a Chinese Trinidadian lawyer/politician, whom she married in 1930). Apart from looking at the


WATCH


Foujita and Paris: Modernity and the


Japanese Painter by Prof Toshio Shimizu


are Georgette Chen and Amrita Sher-Gil. Amrita Sher-Gil (1913- 1941) is an often-overlooked artist, but in her short life (she died in India, now Pakistan, at the age of 28), she found recognition as an avant-garde artist and pioneer of modern Indian art. Te daughter of an Indian


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aristocrat and his Hungarian wife, she led an extraordinary life, spending the first years of her childhood in Hungary until the end of the First World War. When the family returned to India from 1921 to 1929, Amrita’s parents hired a private tutor to teach her art, with her drawings anchored in a European tradition in terms of landscape and people. In order to expose Amrita to the best possible academic art training, the family moved to Paris in 1929. At just sixteen, she was admitted to the Ecole des Beaux- Arts, where she was a diligent student whilst discovering Paris’s ‘Bohemian’ life. She returned to


Chen travelled frequently with her father, an international antiques dealer, as a child, living between China and France, as well as attending school in the US. She studied in Paris in 1927-31, with her work exhibited in Les Femmes Artistes d’Europe Exposent at Musée du Jeu de Paume and the Salon d’Automne in the 1930s. On her return to Asia, she eventually settled in Singapore after the Second World War and became involved in the movement that promoted the Nanyang style, which


THE NEWSPAPER FOR COLLECTORS, DEALERS, MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES


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In each issue, our features play an important part in the mix, so why not explore the arts of painting, ceramics, metalwork or lacquerware, as well as specialised histories, the list is huge EXPLORE THE ARCHIVES


Immerse yourself in the world of Asian and Islamic art in Asian Art Newspaper’s complete archive, from the fi rst issue in November 1997


You’ll fi nd a wealth of information at your fi ngertips, including a host of features on ceramics, textiles, furniture, paintings and print, as well as travel articles, the best books and exhibition catalogues published over the last 20 years. And an archive full of Asian Contemporary Voices – interviews with celebrated artists, architects, writers and academics, and more from the Asian and Islamic art worlds. T ere’s over 200 artist profi les, historic auction information, and a host of blockbuster exhibitions from past years. An index to all back issues can be found on our website, asianartnewspaper.com/index


IN DECEMBER, Chinese archaeologists uncovered a 2,500-year-old tomb thought to contain the remains and burial rituals of an ancient royal family in Luoyang City, Henan Province in Central China. Four out of the eight great ancient capitals of China are located in the province and the region is known for its ancient archaeological discoveries. Tis latest tomb is believed to originate from the little-known Luhun Kingdom, which lasted 113 years between 638-525 BC. It is thought to be the tomb of a Luhun nobleman, as copper belts and ceremonial pots were discovered along with a second burial pit nearby that yielded 13 whole horse skeletons and six chariots. Te designs of the objects show the stylistic influence from the surrounding regions during the Spring Autumn period (722 to 481 BC). Te horses are arranged on their


India and moved to Lahore with her husband shortly before she died in 1941. Te Singaporean artist Georgette


influence of the Paris art scene on this group of Asian artists, the exhibition also explores colonial propaganda in Paris and the response by migrant artists from the colonies, who were forced to confront complex dynamics as they participated in events such as the 1931 Exposition Coloniale Internationale. Vietnamese artists such as Le Pho and Vu Cao Dam strategically navigated colonial spectacles in the context of special salons and international expositions to assert their identities as artists while


gaining recognition


internationally. In addition, the exhibition


examines the reception of Asian art within national, cultural, and colonial contexts in Paris. It presents new research on the contributions of Asian artists and artisans to the Art Deco movement, their participation in significant exhibitions and salons, and the impact of colonial networks and exhibition platforms on modern artists from Asia. Tis is in line with National Gallery Singapore’s interest in examining Southeast Asian perspectives and narratives in global art histories, as the leading institution in Southeast Asian and Singaporean modern and contemporary art. While National Gallery Singapore’s collection and long-term exhibitions


Le peigne blanc (The White Comb) by Le Pho, undated, ink and colour on silk, 33.5 x 24 cm, collection of Sunseal Asia Limited Image © Aguttes


focus on the specific modernities of our region, City of Others also allows us to extend this regional perspective into a broader global history of modern art. Te exhibition features more than


200 artworks, including paintings, sculptures,


lacquerware, images and


decorative art. Tere is a further collection of 200 archives and historical


available, with


• From 2 April to 17 August, National Gallery Singapore, nhb.gov.sg


many of these items presented for the first time in Singapore.


• A joint symposium on this subject organised by the National Gallery


Singapore and Musée Cernuschi was held in Paris in February 2025. An expanded symposium on Paris as a ‘City of Others’ will be held from 16 to 17 August 2025 in Singapore


200+ ARTIST


PROFILES


Xu Bing January 1999


Shazia Sikander June 2021


Lee Ufan March 2014


Nalini Malani Dec 2017


SEE WHAT ARTISTS SAY ABOUT THEIR OWN WORK, THEIR VIEWS ON THE ART WORLD, AND WHAT INSPIRES THEM TO CREATE NEW WORKS


ASIAN ART The newspaper for collectors, dealers, museums and galleries  june 2005  £5.00/US$8/€10 


Tomb of Ancient Royal Family Discovered in Henan, China


sides, with the decorations placed on their carcasses. Te first excavations in this area were in 2009, after government archaeologists were tipped off after a spate of grave robbing. Tese excavations have been carried out since 2013 and apart from the tombs, a city dating back to the Han dynasty (202 BC- AD 220) has also been discovered. Te tomb contained copper bells and ceremonial pots and is the largest site out of about 200 tombs in the area and includes roughly eight horse and carriage burial pits, 30 ash pits and 10 kiln sites over 200,000 square metres in the Luoyang area. Due to the tomb’s size,


which is at 21 feet long, 17 feet wide and 28 feet deep, archaeologists believe it to be the resting place of a royal family who, however, wielded little political power. Te tomb has suffered in the past from


water damage and robberies, but the interior coffin was protected by plaster and a coffin board. In a corner of the pit, there were also found large quantities of cow and sheep heads and hooves. Te Luhun Kingdom has been mentioned in historic texts in the past, but little was known about the kingdom since it only lasted for a short period of time. It is known that the Rong people, an ethnic minority group who made up the population of the kingdom, had a tradition of burying cattle parts in the horse burial pits, which has not been documented in other burial sites of the same period. It is hoped this discovery will


enable historians to have a better understanding of the movements of these ancient migratory people and a more detailed picture of the Luhun kingdom and culture.


Chinese archaeologists have found tombs from the short-lived Luhan Kingdom in Louyang, Henan province, including ‘a royal’ tomb and a horse burial pit which contains several whole horse skeletons with trappings, as well as chariots and other ritual objects


NEWS IN BRIEF REMEMBERING


KATŌ YASUKAGE (1964-2012): Ceramic Works from the Katō Family Collection


HISTORIC MAO LETTER, LONDON In December, Sotheby’s in London sold the late Chinese leader’s signed message to British Labour politician Clement Attlee for £605,000 to a private Chinese collector, against a pre-sale estimate of £100-150,000. Te letter, signed by Mao Zedong and dated from 1 November 1937, before Attlee became Britain’s prime minister, is one of the first communications between the Communist leader and any Western politician. Written from Yan’an, a remote part of north-western China where the Communists had set up headquarters after the Japanese invasion of the country, it calls for urgent assistance from the British in the war against Japanese imperialism. It is only the second document signed by Mao to appear on the international auction market in recent decades.


NOGUCHI MUSEUM HONOURS TADAO ANDO, NEW YORK Te Noguchi Museum has announced that the architect Tadao Ando and artist Elyn Zimmerman are the recipients of the third annual Isamu Noguchi Award, given to recognise individuals who share Noguchi’s spirit of innovation, global consciousness, and East-West exchange. Te awards will be presented during a special ceremony at Te Noguchi Museum’s annual Spring Benefit on 10 May. Jenny Dixon, director of Te Noguchi Museum says, ‘With the Isamu Noguchi Award, the museum honours the enduring links between the work of Isamu Noguchi and the many artists and designers he continues to inspire. We are pleased to present this year’s Isamu Noguchi Award to architect Tadao Ando and artist Elyn Zimmerman, whose approach to their profound and beautiful work shares much with Noguchi’s’.


Tall Flower Vessel, 2007 18 1/2 x 12 x 8 in. Oribe-glazed stoneware


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JAPANESE ARMOUR, PARIS Te Guimet Museum in Paris has announced that it has acquired an important suit of Japanese armour thanks to the launch of a public funding campaign. Te armour, dating to the Edo period,


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 CHAPTER FOUND IN KYOTO


A manuscript containing a missing part of the important Japanese classic, Te Tale of Genji (Genji Monogatari), has been discovered among the possessions of a Tokyo family, whose ancestors were former feudal lords in Aichi Prefecture. Te news was announced by a Japanese cultural foundation last month. Experts at Reizeike Shiguretei Bunko, a foundation for the preservation of cultural heritage based in Kyoto, have now confirmed its authenticity, with the handwriting of the text, and the cover of the manuscript, identical to other Teika manuscripts. Te work comes from one chapter of


a five-chapter work called Aobyoshibon (blue cover book), compiled by the Kyoto poet Fujiwara Teika (1162- 1241), as a version of the earlier work. Te material, found in the last chapter of Aobyoshibon,


is entitled


Wakamurasaki. Te Kyoto-based foundation believe this to have been compiled during the Kamakura period (1185-1333), based on a number of different hand-copied versions of the classic tale.


Profile: the artist Zhang Hongtu This year marks the


150th anniversary of the Scottish photographer, John Thomson, visiting Angkor Wat Interview with Ryoichi Kurokawa, the audio-visual artist The opening of the Mu Xin Museum, in China Sotatsu: Making Waves, the first major exhibition of the artist’s work outside Japan


Asia in Amsterdam, Luxury in the Golden Age, at the Rijksmuseum Tibet’s Secret Temple: Body, Mind and Meditation in Tantric Buddhism Living for the Moment, Japanese prints in Los Angeles Japanese exhibitions in Paris, Geneva, and New York


Locarno International Film Festival Exhibitions in New York & Baden Gallery Shows: New York & London Listings


Islamic Arts Diary


Next issue February 2016 Annual guide to West Coast US museums and exhibitions


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According to local reporting,


family records show that the manuscript has been in the hands of the Okochi family since 1743, when it was handed down from the Kuroda family of the Fukuoka feudal domain. Professor Junko Yamamoto, from Kyoto University, explained that previous research on the chapter had relied on manuscripts of Te Tale of Genji that were completed by Teika about 250 years later. Teika, however, is known to have attempted to reconstruct the original version of the tale by comparing various copies of the book that were available to him at the time. Seen as the world’s first novel, the


classic story was completed around 1010, and is attributed to Murasaki Shikibu, a lady-in-waiting at the early 11th-century Heian imperial court (794-1185). It centres on the fortunes


– amorous and political – of Hikaru Genji, the son of an emperor. Te original manuscript of the story no longer exists, with the oldest versions of the story believed to have been transcribed by the poet Teika, who


Portrait-Icon of Murasaki Shikibu by Tosa Mitsuoki (1617-1691), Edo period (1615-1868), 17th century, hanging scroll, ink and colour on silk. On loan from Ishiyamadera Temple, Shiga Prefecture. The painting was on show at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s related show from March to June 2019


NEWS IN BRIEF


SEATTLE ASIAN ART MUSEUM TO REOPEN FEBRUARY 2020 Te Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAM) renovation by LMN Architects and landscape architect Walker Macy is set to open on 8 February next year. Te project takes the original, early 20th-century building and brings it up to 21st-century standards. Te renovation includes the preservation of the 1933 building and Art Deco façade and a new glass- enclosed park lobby overlooking the Olmstead- designed Volunteer Park. Te museum has been closed since early 2017 to address critical needs of infrastructure, accessibility, and programme space. Te US$56 million project encompasses both the new park lobby and a new gallery, education studio, conservation centre and community meeting room. Te renovated and expanded space enables SAM to reimagine its installation of the permanent collection, showcase contemporary Asian art, and put conservation on public view. When the Asian Art Museum reopens, you will no


longer find galleries labelled China, Japan, or India. Instead, vibrant artworks from Vietnam to Iran, and everywhere in between, come together to tell stories of human experiences across time and place. From themes of worship and celebration to clothing and identity, nature and power to birth and death, the new collection installation reveals the complexity and diversity of Asia—a place of distinct cultures, histories, and belief systems that help shape our world today. Trough a $3.5 million challenge grant from the


Andrew W Mellon Foundation, a new Asian Paintings Conservation Center at the museum will be devoted to the conservation, mounting, and study of Asian paintings. Te new conservation centre will serve the museum’s collection as well as institutional and private collections in the region.


Continued on page 2 asianartnewspaper.com #AsianArtPaper | asianartnewspaper | asianartnewspaper | Asian Art Newspaper


died in 1241. Te novel follows the romantic life and adventures of Prince Genji and this newly discovered chapter contains an important part of the novel in which the 18-year-old hero encounters his future wife. Te original manuscript of the work has never been found, and its contents have been previously preserved in hand-written copies, as reported by Te Japan Times earlier in October. Until now, just four chapters of this


54-chapter story are confirmed to be Teika’s transcriptions, but now this fifth chapter, relating Genji’s encounter with the girl who becomes his wife, has also been identified as by the hand of Teika. Te manuscript had been kept in an


oblong chest in a storeroom at the Tokyo home of Motofuyu Okochi, a descendant of the former feudal lord of the Mikawa-Yoshida Domain in Aichi Prefecture. Related manuscripts of all of the four other chapters in Aobyoshibon had previously been found by the 1930s and have been designated as Important Cultural Properties by the government.


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Profile: the Indian artist Kaveri Raina The sacred treasures of Nara, on show at the British Museum, in London Kyoto: Capital of Artistic Imagination, at The Met, in New York Nanga painting explored at BAMPFA, in California Japan Supernatural, the latest blockbuster exhibition, in Sydney Japan on Stage, prints and masks from the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Ohio The new Arts of Japan galleries in Brooklyn Asian and Islamic art at this year’s Venice Biennale Anish Kapoor in Beijing New York auction reviews Japanese exhibitions around the world, including Chicago, London, San Francisco, Shigaraki, Vienna, and Liverpool Listings Islamic Arts Diary


Next issue December/Winter Quarter 2019


Including our annual guide to the best books of the year


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1997 Our cover stories refl ect major events in the Asian and Islamic art worlds Contact us for more information on pricing and how to access Thousands of book recommendations at your fi ngertips


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ASIAN ART MISSING TALE OF GENJI


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