34 Independent Gallery Shows / New York Exhibitions


INDEPENDENTS TECHNIQUES IN


JAPANESE ART Orientations Gallery and Oriental Treasure Box


Tis year’s exhibition celebrates the 7th collaborative, vetted exhibition of the two galleries. A selection of the galleries’ best objects by recognised artists are on offer, including cloisonné enamels,


metalwork, ceramics, art


lacquer, painting, basketry, carving, and textiles. Imperial Court Artists and Living National Treasures’ works are also on view. ‘Creatures of Habit’ refers to both the objects in the exhibition and the refined techniques of the artists who crafted them. Focusing on animal- form sculptures and ceremonial objects, and depictions on artwork, paintings and textiles, the exhibition celebrates the intense observations of nature that led to remarkable realism, or unique stylisation, of the range of the animal kingdom:


fauna, sealife, birds,


and insects found in Japanese art. • Orientations Gallery and Oriental Treasure Box, exhibiting at the Nippon Gallery, the Nippon Club, 145 West 57th Street, 7/F, NYC, NY 10019, tel 212 772 7705, orientationsgallery.com and orientaltreasurebox.com. • A lecture by Hollis Goodall, Curator of Japanese Art at LACMA is on Monday, 19 March at 4pm.


SUI TO TANG, A GOLDEN AGE OF CHINESE BUDDHIST SCULTPURE


Throckmorton Fine Art, 1 March to 28 April


Tis wide-ranging study of Chinese Buddhist Art from 581-709, the seventh on this theme organised by the gallery, explores the growth of Chinese Buddhism with the development of this religious sculpture influenced by the transmission to China of Buddhism from Central Asia and India that followed the Silk Road. Dr Chang Qing, in an essay in the catalogue that accompanies the exhibition says, ‘Trough the exchange of monks going from India and Central Asia to China, not only sculptures were brought to China but art in the form of small portable figures and other objects. Te Western artistic style was transformed by the Chinese artists in a local and distinctly Chinese expression’. Te earliest examples featured include a Guanyin Bodhisattva from the Sui period (581-618) in marble and a marble head of a Bodhisattva from the Northern Qi/Tang


dynasty (550- 907), and a Northern Qi/Tang


Japanese Moriage cloisonné vase with Koi design, Oriental Treasure Box


dynasty marble head of a Buddha dating to 550-907. All the examples in this exhibition include mostly 6th- to 9th- century figures when artists strove to make Buddhist art more relatable


in order to attract more


people to the religion and the phenomenon formed the Sinicization of Buddhist art with the period of Sui (581-618) and Tang dynasties (618- 907) that marked the peak of Buddhist art in China. • Trockmorton Fine Art, 145 East 57th Street, 3/F, NYC, NY 10022, tel 212 223 1059, info@throckmorton-nyc.com, throckmorton-nyc.com. Catalogue available.


LATEST


ACQUISITIONS TK Asian, 16 to 23 March


Following the tradition of the gallery, there is a broad selection of ceramics, gold and other classic media. Among the collection of works on display is a pair of Han-dynasty, bronze duck censers with removable tops. Also featured is a Han-dynasty painted pottery bird with extensive pigment and removable bronze legs, 4.5 x 6.5 inches. • Te Fuller Building, 41 East 57th Street, 11/F, NYC, NY 10022, tel 855 266 9970, info@tkasian.com, tkasian.com


CREATURES OF HABIT: SPLENDID


A GIANT LEAP The Transformation of Hasegawa Tohaku


Shibuichi goose-form censer with gold inlay by Gyokutosai, Meiji period, Orientations Gallery


Because of recent scholarly research in Japan into the life and art of Hasegawa Tohaku (1539-1610), new evidence has been uncovered that shows that for many years, many works previously attributed to various artists were, in fact, created by the hand of Tohaku. As a result, there has been a surge of interest in this multi-talented artist resulting in exhibitions at the Kyoto National Museum and the Tokyo National Museum, where, in 2010 there was an important survey exhibition to celebrate the 400th anniversary of his death. Simply speaking, the


importance of this two-part exhibition cannot be overstated. Firstly, this is the first exhibition dedicated to Tohaku ever held outside Japan and it also comprises four Important Cultural Treasures. Secondly, because Tohaku’s differing artistic styles had caused


misunderstanding in the past, this masterly effort by the Japan Society will clarify for us all the reasons and timing of his shifts and growths in a way that will eliminate a repeat of the past confusion and questions. Finally, the dust will be cleared to see, for the first time, the previously unrecognised inventiveness and genius of this master of the brush.


Te exhibition’s purpose is


more than just to expose these treasures for all to see, but to explain its title, A Giant Leap … Transformation. He began life as a provincial painter and transformed himself into one of the most iconic masters in all of Japanese art. How, when and why he made the change in his nomenclature (and styles) from ‘Nobuharu’ to ‘Tōhaku’ will be explained. Born into a family of


Stele of Buddha, Tang dynasty, 618-907, marble, height 21.25 inches Trockmorton Fine Art


ASIAN ART MARCH 2018


One of a pair of bronze duck censers, Han dynasty (206BC-AD220), removable tops, 7 x 10.25 inches, TK Asian


cloth-dyers in Nanao, Tōhaku began his life’s work as a provincial painter of Buddhist paintings, working under the name ‘Nobuharu’. In all probability they were orthodox images of Amida Nyorai and Kannon in the manner of Nambokucho/ Muromachi paintings. He later moved to Kyoto, the cultural heart of late 16th-century Japan. He studied under Kano Shoei (1519-1592), head of that school, whose works tended to be mainly combinations of bold and soft, washy inks, very much under the influence of the Southern Song (1129-1279) West Lake School of painting. With its misty landscapes of watery ink, they are known in Japan as suiboku. It was there that Nobuharu was greatly influenced by the earlier and more important Sesshu (1420-1506,) a Zen priest and absolute master of the Chinese style. It is probably during this period, probably the 1560s-1570s, that Nobuharu


the Way of Tea (Cha-do). Shonin and Nobuharu/


Portrait of Priest Nichigyo, 1572, Momoyama period, hanging scroll, ink and colour on silk, Honpoji, Kyoto, Important Cultural Property


produced some of his ink masterpieces. Te most famous of all is the National Treasure pair of screens,Pine Trees, in the Tokyo National Museum, a facsimile of them being included in this exhibition. Some of the 17th-century


Kano artists and almost all of the later ones, such as Tanshin (1653-1718), Chikanobu (1660-1728), Michinobu (1730-1790), Shosenin (1823- 1880) and Gaho (1835-1908) often produced landscape and


Tohaku became close friends who shared a passion for art which they discussed many, many times. Shonin collected many of Tohaku’s observations on art and considered them too important to keep to himself. Te result was a printed summary,Tohaku Gasetsu (Tohaku on Art) that was published in 1592. Fortunately for this continuum, there is a portrait of Nittsu Shonin in the exhibition, an orthodox, but also caring portrait (second rotation) executed by Tohaku, probably around 1604. Both Nittsu Shonen and Rikyu encouraged the artist and arranged commissions. Tohaku was Rikyu’s favourite artist, and for Tohaku, it meant, of course, that it carried weight with the followers of Tea which included not only important samurai and daimyo, such as Toyotomi Hideyoshi, but also the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu who summoned Tohaku to the new capital, Edo, where he remained until his death in 1610. Te remarkable screens and paintings in both rotations make Tohaku’s creativity and level of artistic genius more than memorable. Two pairs of screens here at the Japan Society Gallery,Cranes in a Bamboo Grove and Crows in Pine Trees with White Herons on Willow (both in the second rotation) are studies in subtlety. Here in these two pairs one sees his mastery of the soft tones created by watery ink in which the backgrounds, and sometimes the foregrounds, appear to blend with the distance which itself is not even depicted, but imagined by the viewer. Te iconic Willow, Bridge


One of a pair of hanging scrolls, Flowers and Birds of Four Season, 16th/18th century, ink and colour on silk, private collection


Chinese-style genre screens in which the colours were bold and aggressive, so unlike Tohaku whose colours were rich and deep, unlike the brassy, de trop extravagance usually associated with Kano. It seems that in the 1580s, he appears to have changed his go, or art name, to Tohaku, a change that coincided with a shift in his style. Tis change can undoubtedly be attributed to the fact that he became friends with the Buddhist abbot, Nittsu Shonin and Sen no Rikyu (1522-1591), the founder of the Tea Ceremony,


and Waterwheel aka Uji Bridge (first rotation), known from every textbook on Japanese art, is a brilliant coup of blending the softness of the willows in the wind and the water with the boldness of the bridge itself and in balance with the totally new innovation of the silver moon above. One extremely rare, and


possibly unique example of Tohaku’s work to be in private hands is a lush, six-fold screen of birds and flowers, circa 1582 (both rotations). Very much in the same tradition of massed birds and flowers found in Ming paintings, this work is a study of almost tangible form and colour, but at the same time, its rich colours create an overall softness not interrupted by excessive background. It is thus, yet another vehicle of Tohaku’s remarkable talent. Martin Barnes Lorber


• A Giant Leap, in two rotations: 9 March to 8 April and 12 April to 6 May, at Japan Society, New York, japansociety.org. A catalogue accompanies the exhibition.


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