Date: Fri 16-Oct-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: JUDIR

Quick Words:

FIFTH

Full Text:

Fifth Avenue Asian Art Show

w/cuts

By Margaret

Pomeroy Anderson

NEW YORK CITY -- The fabulous Sinclair-Fletcher Mansion was the venue for the

Fifth Avenue Asian Art Fair September 17-20.

Dealers from as far away as Hong Kong and Milan displayed their inventories in

a city in the midst of Asia Week celebrations -- which included Oriental art

auctions hosted by both Christie's and Sotheby's, where several of the fair's

exhibitors were either buyers or sellers.

Ideally located one block south of the Metropolitan Museum on the corner of

79th and Fifth Avenue, the 100-year-old mansion's expansive interior, with

chandelier, herringbone hardwood floors, and carved banisters, enhanced rather

than competed with the Orientalia shown.

Objects of Tibetan origin were most evident at the event. The first of two

evening openings was a benefit for Tibet House, a cultural and religious

institution located on New York's Lower West Side. Uma Thurman, daughter of

the organization's president, attended the benefit and from all reports

created a small traffic jam on the second floor of the mansion.

While the show emphasized Tibetan antiquities, a group of black and white

photographs of that country, taken by London-based photographer Polly Braden,

allowed fair visitors a glimpse of its contemporary everyday life.

The space of Bidhicitta was arranged carefully to display Tibetan antiquities

in the best light: each of the rare items in the booth's showcases was not

crowded and there was plenty of room to walk around special objects displayed

on sculpture stands. Bodhicitta means "compassionate mind of the Buddha"

according to Namkha Dorjee, representing a third generation of dealers.

Each house in Tibet had an altar and appropriate artifacts until 1959, when an

invasion and subsequent Cultural Revolution resulted in the destruction of

many items. Dorjee and Italian dealer Carlo Cristi each had large Tibetan

funeral reliquaries dating from the Thirteenth Century.

Full of symbolism, the fascinating bell-shaped vessels represent the physical,

emotional and mental states of the body under the ever-present auspices of the

sun and the moon.

An Eighteenth Century Imperial Chinese robe, given as a gift to a Tibetan

monastery, was featured at The Tibetan Gallery. The Hong Kong Gallery also had

a large Eighteenth Century thangka depicting the 11-headed, 1,000-armed Buddha

of Compassion, Avalokitesvara, the patron saint of Tibet. California dealer

Thomas Murray offered a large Seventeenth Century Tibetan Dharmapala mask for

$50,000.

Condell & Company scattered early Twentieth Century Tibetan rugs on the floor

in his exhibition space. Originally made for a monastery, one might wonder how

the dramatic representation of splayed lions or human skin and bones and limbs

affected the monk's meditations. Pena-Gordon Asian Arts offered another

fascinating art form: a Sixteenth Century gilt copper repousse temple frieze

incorporating human and animal forms hung upside down from intertwined snakes.

Art of the Past, a 50-year-old family business based in New York City, had

another unusual item, an Eighteenth Century abstract phallic representation of

Shiva.

Vicki Shiba's approach to the show was eclectic. This California dealer was

fascinated with the cross-fertilization of antique cultures and sacred energy,

which stretched from Afghanistan through India to South East Asia.

Highlighting her booth was an early Nineteenth Century Tibetan Thangka known

as "Assembly Tree of 100 Gods," or Gelupa. Painted 200 years ago with natural

vegetable dyes and mineral-powdered pigment, the monks were taught to

visualize this image in meditation.

Chinese scholars' rocks are new in Western society, though ancient in the

Orient. Formed naturally over the years, the Chinese believe that the

unusually shaped rocks, sometimes sculptured slowly by constantly dripping

water, have a spirit when they are mounted on a stand. A recently published

book, Worlds within Worlds, by Richard Rosenbloom, gives greater insight into

this natural art form. On average, prices for the rocks range anywhere between

$1,000 and $20,000. On rare occasion, one might sell for as much as $40,000.

Dealers of Japanese objects included Oriental Treasure Box, with a wonderful

assortment of small items including netsuke, Ojime, inro, and gold lacquer,

picnic boxes and cricket cages. At Guyuantang, a number of scholar's desktop

items were displayed along with Japanese and Chinese porcelain. The owner,

Shou Shing Chi, began his career as a collector and over the years turned to

dealing. When asked which piece he would rather keep than sell, he and his

wife, Brenda, pointed to a Hirado dog scratching its ear.

Three dealers had Japanese prints. Douglas A. Fraser, who has just moved his

operation to Seattle, and The Art of Japan shared space to show Eighteenth,

Nineteenth and Twentieth Century woodblocks representing themes of erotica,

beautiful women, actors, and landscapes. Allison Tolman took a slightly

different tack exhibiting exclusively contemporary Japanese printmakers,

showing the audience that etchings, silkscreens and lithographs are

printmaking techniques the contemporary Japanese artists have also mastered.

Gloria and Robert Mascarelli, nationally recognized authors who have written

Warman's Oriental Antiques, exhibited Chinese pottery and porcelain. The Long

Island dealers only do shows on the East Coast, including the biggest -- the

February show at the Miami Beach Convention center, in which more than 800

dealers in Oriental art take part.

Mascarelli explained that the value of T'ang horses depends on condition and

position of the horse's legs. He priced a yellow glazed horse standing on four

legs (with restoration to the legs) at $12,000. A "prancer" standing on three

legs can bring the price up 25 percent. Mascarelli sends Chinese grey pottery

to Victor Bortolot of the Bortolot DayBreak Corporation for thermoluminiscent

dating (TL).

"No one should buy Han grey pottery without having the piece X-rayed and

TL-dated," said Bortolot. "There is much going on in the Oriental and tribal

art worlds. There is more and more of an attempt to deceive. Be sure to

examine every object carefully before you buy -- especially Han grey ware."

Getting two opinions is always a good idea and buying from a "vetted" show

also is another way to purchase with assurance.

The I Ching Gallery exhibited one of the few pieces of Japanese furniture at

the show, a Western-style desk, circa 1880, incorporating Mt Fuji and iris

motifs. In addition, a handsome pair of Nineteenth Century Japanese urns,

mounted with three-toed dragons, was on display. Marshall Frey, president of

the gallery, explained that in the Orient dragons were never evil; they were

symbolic of heavenly forces. After Admiral Perry opened the Orient up, the

Japanese Emperor outlawed making swords, so the craftsmen turned their talents

to making decorative items such as these.

Japanese swords were available at the San Francisco dealer Condell & Co Ltd.

Michael Cohn designed a Buddhist mountain platform to display Tibetan, Indian

and Cambodian pieces. He sold several to dealers and loyal clients. T.K.

Oriental Antiques from Washington, D.C., was delighted with the opening night

benefit, reporting that major pieces were sold.

Oriental Art and Antiques only does East Coast shows, as the material offered

was rare and would be hard to replace. An Eighteenth Century flower bamboo

altar table; a Ming Dynasty warrior with glass eyes and a real horsehair

moustache, believed to be original; and a group of four Chinese bronze Dings,

900 to 800 BC, guaranteed that the serious collector would spend dollars and

time in the booth.

Jewel of the Lotus, Kilaeua, Hawaii, has an interesting concept. Owner Ernst

Egon von Lixfield has set up the Lotus Foundation, which owns a collection of

aristocratic adornments of India made between the Third Century BC and the

present time.

The foundation organizes exhibitions of jewels from the collection for museums

as well as retail exhibitions. Of particular interest was a Mughal style

necklace made of gold, rubies, white sapphires and turquoise from the late

Eighteenth Century.

"New Yorkers are style conscious. They have discerning taste and want to wear

jewelry that is different," said Von Lixfield.

Los Angeles dealer Marc Richards was the only exhibitor showing both the old

and the new in Chinese art in the same space. Portraits of contemporary

Chinese by contemporary Chinese artists were juxtaposed with a handsome

pottery amphora and a pottery figure of a dog, both from the Han Dynasty.

San Francisco dealer Shakris had the largest display area in the mansion. He

brought cases of small items, including Buddhas and snuff bottles, as well as

the largest Buddha in the show, a seven-foot, rare Burmese wood carving with

traces of polychrome. Designed with the hand position of "restraining the

waters," the sculpture was priced at $65,000. A gilt bronze goose formed

censor from the Yuan or early Ming Period was particularly handsome.

The interest in Oriental art certainly seems to be on the rise. Sotheby's and

Christie's continue to plan sales and events around the shows; the

Metropolitan Museum and PaineWebber Gallery organize exhibitions on the

subject; and books are being written about particular areas in the field,

including a forthcoming publication by textile exhibitor Noriko Miyamoto, on

the rather esoteric subject of Japanese firefighter's jackets, as well as

another, on scholars' rocks, also by a fair dealer.

The exhibitors tended to agree that buyers are becoming more and more

sophisticated, continually seeking knowledge about the fine distinctions in

the Oriental art field.

This was the first Fifth Avenue Asian Art Fair. According to show manager,

Frederique Browne, dealers have already signed up for next year. We'll watch

to see if it catches on as the latest entry in an expanding market, which

includes events like the forthcoming Caskey-Lees ShaDor Arts of Pacific Asia

show at the 26th Street Armory October 17-19. That event, three times the size

of the Fifth Avenue Fair, will be vetted by a group of experts.