798 District Blog

NEW YORK, NY.- An exceptionally broad range of pre-modern Japanese art will go on view this March during New York City’s Asia Week in two exhibitions held by JADA, the Japanese Art Dealers Association.

The works of art range from a 12th century Buddhist sculpture to satirical ephemera of the 18th century and a four-foot tall model of pagoda once owned by New York railroad baron E. H. Harriman and later in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In addition, the exhibitions will present a complete suit of armor formerly in the collection of Japan’s leading Hokosawa clan (one of three works of art once in the possession of the millennia-old ruling family to be presented). Also in the exhibitions will be goldleaf screens, sculptures, prints, lacquers, and hanging scrolls that illustrate a reverence for nature as well as those that illuminate Japanese artists’ love of humor.

JADA 2010: An Exhibition by the Japanese Art Dealers Association
Among the earliest works in JADA 2010, an episodic survey of traditional Japanese art, is a Standing Jizō Bosatsu (Skt. Ksitigarbha), a wood sculpture that dates from the Heian period, 12th century. The delicate hands, facial features, and the shallow carving of the drapery mark this work as stylistically related to the work of Jōchō, whose famous image of the Buddha Amida is worshipped at the temple Byōdō’in near Kyoto. Jizō, a merciful protector of abandoned souls, appears again in a 16th or 17th century elaborate, intact traveling shrine. Decorated with a robe with cut gold, the figure holds both a crystal jewel and staff, Jizō stands on a lotus and cloud base within a shrine that features interior gilding.

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LONDON.- Tate and Unilever announced that the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei will undertake the eleventh commission in The Unilever Series for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern (12 October 2010 – 25 April 2011). He will be the first artist living and working in the Asia-Pacific region to be commissioned for the series.

Born in Beijing in 1957, Ai Weiwei is one of the most prominent and influential figures in Chinese art today. In his many roles as conceptual artist, curator, critic, designer and architect, his work encompasses a wide range of challenging and often provocative activity. Ai has played a key role in the development of contemporary Chinese art over the last two decades, from his role in the radical avant-garde ‘Stars Group’ in 1979, to his collaboration with Herzog & de Meuron in designing the national ‘Bird’s Nest’ stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

After living in the United States from 1981 to 1993, Ai returned to his native Beijing and created the seminal work Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn 1995. This photo-triptych depicted the artist dropping an ancient ceramic vase, which smashed on the floor at his feet. This work not only began the artist’s continuing reuse of antique readymade objects, it also demonstrated his questioning attitude towards cultural values and social history. For Fairytale 2007 Ai invited 1001 Chinese citizens to ‘colonise’ Kassel in Germany for the Documenta 12 exhibition and distributed 1001 Qing and Ming Dynasty chairs in venues across the city. For Template 2007 he used more ancient readymades, in the form of 1001 wooden doors and windows from destroyed Chinese buildings. These were installed as a huge sculpture that collapsed in a storm soon after completion, creating a twisted, crumpled structure that the artist chose to preserve.

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HONG KONG.- Sotheby’s Hong Kong will hold the Fine Chinese Paintings 2010 Spring Sale on 6 April at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Building on the success of the thematic collections offered in previous seasons, Sotheby’s will again present distinguished private collections that boast immaculate provenance and quality this spring. The collections presented include: ‘Exquisite Paintings and Calligraphy from Studio Ling Ou’, ‘A Collection of Calligraphy Couplets of Eminent Statesmen in the Late Qing Period’ and ‘Calligraphy Works from Prominent Figures of Wang Jingwei’s “Puppet Government”’. On the same day, Sotheby’s will also hold the sale of ‘Important Chinese Paintings from the Robert Chang Collection (Part 3)’. The total of over 260 lots in both sales is expected to fetch in excess of HK$200 million*.

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NEW YORK, NY.- Eli Klein Fine Art presents Zhang Gong’s first solo exhibition in the United States. Zhang Gong’s work parodies instantly recognizable Western art, demonstrating the effect of Western popular culture on contemporary Chinese society.

In his most recent works, Zhang Gong incorporates cartoon characters with scenes from modernist Western paintings and other popular images. These juxtapositions simultaneously satirize and question ideas about what constitutes high art and originality. His own unique creation, Miss Panda, interacts with the Western characters in chaotic scenes. Miss Panda often finds her way into famous Western paintings, reminding the viewer that Western art, once banned, has now been assimilated into the collective consciousness of modern Chinese society. Through his works, Zhang Gong brings historic and contemporary art into dialogue with one another.

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NEW YORK, NY.- On March 23, Christie’s South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art sale will feature 91 works from the leading 20th and 21st century artists from South Asian.
The sale will focus on prime examples of many different movements and styles, with highlights including works by modern masters Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, Maqbool Fida Husain, Akbar Padamsee,
Syed Haider Raza, Francis Newton Souza, as well as works from leading contemporary artists Atul Dodiya and TV Santhosh among many others.

Christie’s celebrates acclaimed master Syed Haider Raza, whose Gestation, 1989, represents a highlight in this month’s sale (estimate: $600,000-800,000).
In Gestation, Raza presents an arrangement of shapes and earthy colors seamlessly merging his characteristic horizontal bands with elegant obliques.
In this seminal work, Raza generates an inherent rhythm and elegance…

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NEW YORK, NY.- On March 23, the afternoon will be devoted to the classical works of Indian and Southeast Asian Art. Christie’s will offer an extensive selection
of nearly 200 lots of sculpture, paintings, ritual objects, and works of art from India, Tibet, Nepal and Southeast Asia from the notable collections.

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The Japanese section of the sale will feature a noteworthy group of paintings of beauty and the erotic

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NEW YORK, NY.- ArtSpeakChina (ASC), the first online, collaboratively authored bilingual encyclopedia of Chinese contemporary art officially launched today. Now online at both www.artspeakchina.org and www.tanyishu.cn, the Wikipedia-style reference guide provides both English and Mandarin speakers with hundreds of in-depth articles on Chinese artists and the world of Chinese contemporary art. ASC’s bilingual, collaborative character helps overcome the language barrier and is already improving the global availability, exchange and quality of information about Chinese contemporary art.

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Artists Fang Lijun, Ai Weiwei and Zhang Xiaogang were named in succession as the country’s top 3 infl uential fi gures in art, while Fan Di’an, director of the National Art Museum of China, was cited as number 6 for promoting Chinese art abroad. Those that made the list were credited with helping to recover and further develop the Chinese art market.

Out of the 100 names on the list of the most influential, 13 were singled out by a 100-member jury panel and given special distinction.

An “Art Event of the Year” prize was awarded for the cooperation between the “Art Beijing” and “Art Changsha” exhibition, respectively held in March and August 2009. Both aimed to strength ties between the northern and southern parts of China’s contemporary art communities.

CHINESE CULTURE: Artists Gao Qiang and Gao Zhen lost their father to China’s Cultural Revolution, and their work is an attempt to get China to face up to its difficult past and the truth behind its most famous leader, Mao Zedong, writes CLIFFORD COONAN in Beijing

GAO QIANG IS slightly out of breath when he arrives at the studio he shares with his older brother Zhen in Beijing’s trendy 798 art district. En route to the interview, China’s most controversial contemporary artists crashed their car, and Qiang had to stay behind to sort out the paperwork. The younger Gao apologises for being late, and then, almost casually, he takes Mao Zedong’s head out of a plastic bag and attaches it to the corpulent, kneeling body of modern China’s founding father.

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