: Arts of Pacific Asia is the crowd pleaser of Asia Week in New
York, with a yin-yang appeal that is at the heart of its success.
The ten-year-old show, which opened for four days on March 31 at
the Lexington Avenue Armory on 26th Street, does it all. It is
elegant but relaxed, exotic but accessible, scholarly and
commercial.
New York Arts of Pacific Asia was packed with shoppers on
Thursday afternoon when it opened.
Not since the spring of 2001 has there been a better crowd for
the Caskey-Lees of California and Shador of Maryland joint
venture. The fair logged nearly 11,000 visitors before closing on
April 3.
"The show had both solid business in most specialties and a level
of enthusiasm that makes us think the 'good old days' may be
back. The auctions left no doubt that some Chinese specialties
would be strong, but by late Friday it was clear that sales were
solid for fine Indian subcontinent and Asian tribal material, as
well," said promoter Elizabeth Lees.
"We also saw more robust action this time in the middle to lower
prices points for objects, jewelry and furniture," added her
husband, Bill Caskey.
"Interest in Asian art has exploded in the last few years,"
offered David Fan-detta, a New York dealer who did the show for
the first time with his partner, John Peter Hayden. Hayden &
Fandetta beefed up on Chinese and Japanese titles but brought
samples of their extensive inventory of books on antiques,
interior design, gardens and flowers, as well.
"It really is Chinese who are buying, and they are buying
directly from American dealers and indirectly through European
dealers," said Barbara Hilbert of Jade Dragon. The Ann Arbor,
Mich., specialist and her husband, Stuart, have been dealing in
Chinese and Japanese art since 1968, having lived in both Japan
and China as teachers.
"To arrive in China is to be a connoisseur," explained Mrs
Hilbert, predicting that the market will grow in China as
fortunes are made.
"It is time for us to bring conscious appreciation to the wonder
of the fragment," Thomas Murray, a California dealer in
ethnographic art, wrote in "In Celebration of the Fragment," an
essay published in the New York Arts of Pacific Asia catalog. His
advice brought to mind not only the graceful remnants of
sculpture, pottery and textiles on the floor but also the collage
effect of the show itself.
Robyn and Judy Buntin concurred with Mr Murray, giving place of
pride in their booth to a fragment: an Eighteenth or early
Nineteenth Century teak and lacquer standing Thai Buddha,
$28,000.
"Its face is wonderfully preserved. It's such good luck that it
survived," said Robyn Buntin, a Honolulu dealer whose seven major
specialties include netsuke, jade, Buddhist works of art, and
Japanese screens and scrolls. About 3,000 pieces are for sale on
his well-browsed website, robynbuntin.com.
Akanezumiya, St Ignatius, Mt.
Many of Arts of Pacific Asia's 81 exhibitors mount displays
of such refinement that they would be perfectly at home in either
of New York's Asian art fairs. One such exhibitor, Bachmann
Eckenstein Art & Antiques of Basel, Switzerland, featured
restrained, cerebral examples of Japanese art in different media.
On an outside wall of Backmann Eckenstein's booth was a two-fold
ink on paper painted screen decorated by Shokusa III, a
basketmaker. Inside the booth were minimalist calligraphic scrolls
made by a Japanese nun and small, delicately painted doors, signed
and painted by the artist who ornamented them for a tansu or some
other piece of furniture.
Other Japanese painting of note included a Kano Tsunenobu screen,
painted by the artist when he was 76 in 1713. The screen was
$17,500, at Axel Michaels. The Kyoto dealer displayed it with a
biwa, or Japanese lute, of handsome sculptural form. On his back
wall, Galen Lowe, a dealer in Japanese art from Seattle, mounted
large sliding doors, or fusuma, painted with landscape scenes.
Another impressive exhibit belonged to Dalton-Somare Arte
Primitiva, sculpture dealers from Milan, Italy. A pair of large,
carved figures of celestial dancers was from Rajasthan, India,
and dated from the Eleventh Century.
At Jeremy Knowles, a Fifteenth Century Gandhara terracotta bust,
15 inches high, was $20,000. The London dealer sold one of his
best pieces, a Fifth Century Gupta Period relief carving from
northern India.
Chosen to illustrate the back cover of the show catalog was a
pair of Chinese famille verte seated celestial generals. The
Kangxi period (1662-1723) glazed ceramic figures, 27 inches tall,
were $125,000 at Vallin Galleries of Wilton, Conn.
For its catalog piece, TK Asian Antiquities of Williamsburg, Va.,
and New York City chose a Chinese bronze Warring States period
dragon that fit neatly into the palm of one's hand.
A highlight at Akanezumiya, a Montana dealer in Japanese
antiques, was Zocho-ten, a fearsome Buddhist guardian king.
Dating to the late Seventeenth Century, the standing figure of
carved wood, $30,000, was shown against the backdrop of a
six-panel calligraphy screen, $8,000, by Itsuzan (1751-1764).
Sales of sculpture and ceramics included Han and Tang dynasty
terracotta figures at Alberto Manuel Cheung. Visitors to the
booth of the New York dealer in Chinese ceramics also expressed
interest in Song dynasty glazed porcelain. Jazmin Asian Arts of
Singapore sold a seated carved marble Jina, Fifteenth to
Sixteenth Century, from Gujarat in India.
The rally in Chinese snuff bottles that began at Christie's on
March 30, when a Qianlong period imperial famille rose bottle
from the J&J Collection sold for a record $665,600, continued
at Arts of Pacific Asia. Asian Art Studio of Los Angeles, dealers
in Chinese works of art, scholars' items and snuff bottles,
reported its best show ever. Specialists Clare and Michael Chu
bought 17 bottles at Christie's but by the end of the fair made
back most of their investment.
Activity in the snuff bottle market spilled over to jades,
another specialty with classic appeal.
"It was jade, no question, and it was on its way to mainland
China," said Honolulu dealer Robyn Buntin, describing the
momentum of sales in the early hours of the show. Robyn Turner, a
jade specialist from New York, noted the return of international
clients who had been absent at the fair in recent years.
Textiles have long been an Arts of Pacific Asia strength. Asiatic
Fine Art of Singapore displayed a colorful Balinese nobleman's
ceremonial silk skirthcloth, similar to one in the National Art
Gallery of Australia, and an Eighteenth Century painted cotton
palampore canopy.
Vichai Chinalai brandished a copy of the latest issue
ofHalimagazine, containing his article on buying Oriental
rugs in Bahrain 25 years ago when he and his wife, Lee, began
their careers as specialists in tribal art and antiques. The
Shoreham, N.Y., dealers' booth was devoted to Li woven and
embroidered costumes from Hainan, China. Meifu Li women, members
of one Li subtribe, produced ceremonial head cloths reflecting
both their traditionalism and independence from tribal custom.
Sales of textiles included a Chinese palace piece, priced about
$200,000, at London dealer Robert Brandt, and a late Eighteenth
Century Qing dynasty kesi dragon rondel at Jon Eric Riis of
Atlanta.
Axel Michels, Kyoto, Japan.
"It once belonged to Doris Duke," said Tim Mertel of L'Asie
Exotique, pulling out a drawer of a large display cabinet lavishly
decorated with lacquer and mother-of-pearl. Ms Duke used the Ryukyu
Island, Japan, case piece for storing jewelry. Mr Mertel, a New
York dealer, stocked it with blue and white ceramics from Japan,
Korea and Vietnam.
New to the show was Robert Winter, a Japanese arms and armor
specialist who has lived in Kyoto for 17 years, having moved to
Japan when he was 17. London dealer Susan Ollemans was also a
welcome addition with Indian miniature paintings on ivory and
heavy, gem encrusted gold jewelry. Her catalog piece was a
charming miniature of Zinat Mahal, last wife of the last Mughal
emperor. Brussels dealer Sara Kuehn featured ancient and Islamic
works of art.
Caskey-Lees' next stop is the Los Angeles Antiques Show, April
28-May 1. On October 27, the promoters debut "Treasures from The
Silk Road to The Santa Fe Trail" at the University of
Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology.
