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Kyoto Journal announces it´s relaunched website with a free download of a digital issue of the journal.
Kyoto Journal now publishes both in print and digitally
Touched deeply by the spiritual and cultural heritage of this ancient capital, a small community of journalists, poets and artists founded Kyoto Journal in 1987 to share their discoveries with the world.
Today their “heartwork” continues: Kyoto Journal is now a non-profit, online magazine serving as a gateway to Asia, featuring insightful writing, photography, art and translations.
The magazine engages with subjects as diverse as the history of tea, sacred mountains, Japanese garden design, anti-nuclear art, engaged Buddhism, HIV-Aids in Cambodia, Kyoto crafts, satoyama landscapes and much more.
The new website offers regular online features, a rich collection of KJ classics, listings of the 75 print issues and practical information about Kyoto.
Please visit the website: KyotoJournal.org
Pictures courtesy of Kyoto Journal.
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In today´s technological environment one easily beliefs business columnists who optimistically promote the predictability of art price developments.
If technology makes arts and antiques finally comparable,
their price developments will be predictable.
Art price databases are generally accepted because of a general believe in technical means. Even in China, a country where reliable common standards often are hardly realized, more and more efforts are made to get reliable data about art sales prices.
Most people believe, that if it is possible to technically analyse stock market developments, the same should be possible with art and antiques. The only thing that is required for technical analysis is comparability of art objects.
So how do you compare antique paintings, porcelains, works of art, jades, bronze sculptures etc. from different regions of Asia and different periods of time?
The answer is obvious: These objects have got to be described in ways, which make them comparable and usable in data bases. Once again, objects from cultural history are going to be pressed into digital data.
When that is done you might have a technical analysis of future price developments of say Kangxi blue and white porcelain bowls, then the world of arts and antiques will be finally interesting for technical money investors.
What happens to commodity markets at the moment will then happen to art objects in general. They will become objects of capital investment. There will certainly be a recognizable impact of technical developments on art prices for Asian antiques. In some regards, this is already observable in the areas of oil paintings and contemporary arts.
Pictures courtesy of Till Spurny.
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In the aftermath of Asiaweek NY 2013 Asianartblog asked some leading Asian art dealers about future developments in art market.
Offer objects to collectors worldwide with Asianartblog:
More information: The Asianartblog Collector´s Connector!
Most of the galleries are concerned about the rising importance of auction sales. In terms of globalisation of art markets, auction houses have become easier accessable for more and more customers. In their changing roles auction houses are no longer viewed as sources for art and antique dealers, but rather they´ve become selling channels for gallery items.
This in turn is a sad story for many collectors. It turns out, that many dealers perfectly know the objects offered in auction sales, because they´ve already circulated unsold in some galleries for a while. What appears to be fresh on the market through auction sales, isn´t in fact.
Still, building up direct connections to customers and collectors is the most important feature for Asian art galleries. In most of today´s auction sales, the offered objects pass through the large platforms on the internet and are seen on the big stage. This is not in favour of collectors who´d wish to silently sell and buy some important objects.
Asianartblog has got direct contacts to private collectors, dealers and galleries all over the world. We are specialists in marketing all kinds of objects in the field of Asian art and often have introduced buyers and sellers to each other.
If you´d wish to sell an object or parts of your collection, please don´t hesitate to contact us directly:
Write to collectors@asianartblog.com to offer some objects and to be informed about offers from others. More information: The Asianartblog Collector´s Connector!
Pictures courtesy of Till Spurny.
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Thomas J. Pritzker is Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation. But he and his wife Margot are als passionate collectors of Fine Buddhist art.
Build up an important collection of Himalayan art
(if you belong to the richest people in the USA).
Spending money for charitable organizations like Mr. Pritzker is an exemplary habit in the USA, which should definitely be followed by more people in Europe. But building up a world-renown collection of Asian art is also a great thing to do.
The Pritzkers travelled the Himalayas in the 1970ies. They started buying ancient sculptural art from Kushan, Tibet and Nepal during the journey already. Later, the collectors specialized in early Tibetan Thangkas.
Thomas Pritzker once sayed, that for each piece they are interested in, they will first live with it for a while and let it unfold its charisma. After that they will finaly decide whether to purchase it or not.
One of the most famous exhibits of the Pritzker Collection is a sculpture of the so called “Three Silver Brothers” (height: 71cm).
This is a brass cast work of three Bodhisattvas from Western Tibet dated ca. 1220. This exceptional Bodhisattva triad has been produced around the same time as a life-size Bodhisattva triad at Khojarnath monastery. It is much to be hoped, that Mr. Pritzker will put his collection on display again, hopefully also to be seen in Europe.
Pictures courtesy of Amy Heller.
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Patan or Lalitpur is one of the three great cities of the Kathmandu Valley. It is called “Yala” by its inhabitants, the Newars. This ethnic minority has specialized in modelling and casting of antique Buddhist bronzes in the Himalayan region since many centuries.
Newaran bronze sculptures belong to the finest in the world
Established in 1997, the Patan Museum opens its showrooms to public visitors in the historic center of Patan city. Lalitpur is translated with “the city of fine arts” and it is the place, where the heart of Nepal´s cultural heritage is still beating today.
The exhibition comprises a large variety of religious art objects and antique relics. There are more than 200 exhibits constantly on display, which represent different periods and stylistic developments of early Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as a focus on metal technology.
Anyone who knows about the importance of Buddhist bronze manufactors from Lalitpur on the development of Buddhism in the Himalaya region, should take an opportunity to visit Patan museum. It is a place, where an important cultural heritage is preserved “on site” in Asia, not in a great Museum in Europe or in the USA.
Actually, there are many museums in Western countries, which could easily donate sculptures or relics to the museum belonging to Patan or Kathmandu region.
Go to: Patan / Lalitpur Museum – Nepal
Pictures courtesy of Patan Museum.
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“The energy and traffic was considerably greater than 2012, which was already a strong year for us,” said Suneet Kapoor of the Kapoor Galleries in New York. “I noticed some new museums visiting, which have not done so in the past, such as the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Korean National Museum, as well as the regulars such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Newark Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Dallas Museum of Art and some of the University Museums: Lowe Museum at the University of Miami, Smart Museum at University of Chicago, Yale University Art Gallery. We also noticed an uptick in European collectors as well, on the rise over the past two years, reinforcing New York as a premier destination for Asian art.”
Many happy comments from sellers at Asia Week NY 2013
“I had a record-breaking week which surpassed all my expectations,” said Joan B. Mirviss of her eponymous gallery. “The responses from both the museum world and the savvy collectors have been astonishing.”
James Lally of J. J. Lally & Co. in New York said: “Our special exhibition of Song Dynasty Ceramics was very well received… The number of serious collectors and curators and Asian art aficionados passing through our gallery during Asia Week 2013 was significantly higher than last year.”
Erik Schiess of the Portland, Oregon-based Jadestone, reported that he developed new relationships and met new museum clients as well. “We sold most of our top items. Approximately 2/3 of the sales were to mainland Chinese buyers and the rest were to European and American clients.”
“The energy and enthusiasm is more intense than last year,” said Katherine Martin of Scholten Japanese Art in New York. “I had visitors almost non-stop throughout the week.”
“We had an amazing week selling more items this year than ever before,” said Michael C. Hughes from New York.
Brendan Lynch, of the London-based Oliver Forge & Brendan Lynch, reported that a number of institutions bought and reserved Indian miniature paintings, including The British Library, The Art Institute of Chicago, and Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University. “We had more curators returning to visit than for the past two years with our private buyers from America and Europe,” said Lynch.
“I was delighted to see hundreds of past, current and future clients, as well as academics and museum curators from all over the country take great interest in the exhibition and catalog.” said Eric Zetterquist of Zetterquist Galleries, in New York.
“The response to my show has been enormous and extremely positive,” said first-time participant Dr. Robert R. Bigler, from Ruschlikon, Switzerland.
“We had one of the best Asia Weeks in years with sales across the board from $7,500 to over $3M,” said Carlton Rochell, whose gallery is based in New York.
“I was very impressed with the energy of this year’s Asia Week New York,” said Carlo Cristi. “There were many more international visitors than in the past.”
Marsha Vargas, of the Xanadu Gallery in San Francisco, was “very pleased with the comments and requests from several museums.”
New York contemporary Chinese painting specialist Martha Sutherland reported that two Hsia I-fu ink monochrome landscapes were sold, “with many other sales from American museums.”
John Siudmak, from London, explained that “this was a very good year, with more museum curators visiting the gallery than in prior seasons.”
Next Asia Week New York will be held March 14 through 22, 2014.
Images courtesy of Marylin White.
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Vinay Kumar Rao observed women in early Indian Buddhist sculptural art in various dimensions. He does not agree with a general perception, that women did not receive the same rights as men in early Buddhism. Buddhism by contrast never restricted the educational opportunities of women and accepted them as being capable to achieve similar goals as men.
Indications about gender roles and relations in early Buddhism
The study takes a close look at Buddhist sculptural art and also textual inscriptions from the second and third century B.C. in India. The book “Women in Buddhist art” gives us indications about gender roles and relations in early Buddhist societies. It is a great research work, recommendable not only for anyone interested in BUddhist art, but also friends of cultural studies.
Vinay Kumar Rao´s study looks at women in the perspective of divinity an natur, as well as women performing religious activities, then focusses on women expressing her feminine desires, heading forewards to women in daily life, and finally examining dresses and ornamants.
The author added an extensive appendix about women in early Buddhist inscriptions and also a very informative glossary, in which many important words and names in Buddhist art are described.
Please follow this link for more information: Agamkala Prakashan
Images courtesy of Agamkala Prakashan
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Because of the production process of the so-called lost wax casting technique (cire-perdue), each Buddhist bronze sculpture is unique.
Every Buddhist bronze sculpture is a one of a kind antique piece of history
The liveliness and spirited expression of antique Buddhist sculptures from the Himalaya region cannot be imitated by modern sculptors. There is a fire burning in the facial expressions, in the proportions and in the softness of lines and bodies, which is unachieved today.
Maybe one of the reasons for this is a special sense of passion the old sculptors put in their works.
Their ability to produce such beautiful pieces of art, Buddhist sculptures and figures, is now lost forever, since the masters of manufacturing had passed away.
What they´ve left behind, is now preserved in private and public collections: antique Buddhist bronzes from the Himalayas.
Images courtesy of: Gallery Peter Hardt
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There is an ongoing discussion among Asian art experts, which emphasises the fact, that faked and reproduced Chinese antiques and porcelains currently appear in large amounts in auction houses globally.
Auction houses act on a caveat emptor principle: Let the buyer beware!
The idea of publishing a kind of a “Fake-Lot-Blacklist” is already being discussed among experts. Such a blacklist would show auction lots offered in different auction houses, which are believed to be fakes.
This would of course help anyone interested or semi-professional collectors, who are threatened to loose money when buying faked art objects. Especially in Chinese antiques such a list would be gratefully welcomed.
But how can it be, that there are so many faked antiques and replicas from China on the auction market, when global art market is getting increasingly transparent.
Shouldn´t globalization and digitalization of the art world automatically help erase such frauds and faked art objects?
Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
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Artprice.com together with AMMA (the Art Market Monitor of Artron) publishes a free survey of the Asian and international art market development in 2012. There has been a significant decline in Chinese auction sales in 2012. Auction houses in China have witnessed the end of their golden age due to the erosion of the high-end art market, a significant drop in the number of sales and the downward revision of estimates.
The art market in China in 2012
In 2012, total sales in Chinese auction houses substantially dropped down 37.14% on the year before. Chinese fine art, including fine Chinese painting and calligraphy, oil painting and contemporary art, even dropped down 44.24% on 2011.
AMMA points out, that it sees one of the major reasons for this turn down in a general reluctance to sell among art collectors, greatly reducing the volume of artwork for sale. According to AMMA, one key feature of the 2012 Chinese art auction market has been monotony and a lack of highlights.
Chinese auction houses’ turnover went down especially for the two auction giants in China, Poly International Auction (down 48.39% on 2011) and China Guardian Auctions (down 53.15% on 2011). Beijing´s traditional auction house Hanhai even lost 75.89% of its annual turnover compared to 2011.
Market analysts generally tend to give a posivite interpretation of this development, emphasizing the idea, that this downturn can be regarded as a chance. Artprice.com states, that this period of readjustment in the Chinese art market should be viewed as an opportunity rather than as a setback.
Download or read the full market survey from artprice.com & AMMA (Art Market Monitor of Artron):
The Art Market in 2012
Go to: artprice.com
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The internet in China is stronger restricted than in the Western world. Yet, Chinese art websites are lively and diverse – in some regard they have got an even greater sense of freedom than art websites in Western countries.
But the Chinese internet also allows opportunities for liars and criminals. For internet visitors it is difficult to decide, whether information from Chinese websites is trustworthy or not.
In China, less than 15% of the country´s population enjoys access to the internet. Chinese art websites are generally loaded with information. Some of them offer extensive chatting and exchanging opportunities, which mostly requires registration and user verification.
The designs of Chinese art websites appear to be loud, confusing and need to get used to – at least, if you are used to the clear designs of internet hompages from European und USA galleries. But in a way, Chinese homepages seem to be the livelier ones.
There are very few copyright standards in the Chinese internet. Especially in the field of Chinese art and antiques, it is not possible for website visitors to decide, whether object descriptions and given informations are true or not.
This lack of reliability on Chinese art and antique homepages seems to open Pandora’s box. Chinese auction houses and galleries are invited to advertise with faked hammer prices and sales informations. Informations from Chinese websites are generally treated carefully on the international scene.
Here are some of the biggest art websites in China:
www.gucn.com, www.shyzgw.com, www.cang.com, www.fobao.cn, www.huaboli.com,
www.taaicn.com, www.baxia.com.cn
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Most advices from passionate collectors emphasise on true love for the art object, when buying a piece of art. Listen to your heart and only buy something, if you are really faszinated and in love with the objects – and do not buy only because of monetarily reasons – That´s a basic advice from art collectors.
Art buyers gain buyer´s professionalization
Long-term art collectors become experts in their areas of collection. And the reason for this is not only a passion for arts and antiques.
A reason for the need of developing expertise in art market lies in the natural intransparency of art market itself.
One and the same piece of art might be valued and sold at different prices, if offered at different places or occasions. To survive on the market and to avoid loss of money, there is a fundamental necessity for any collector to gain expert knowledge and to specialize in certain fields of interest.
It´s an amazing fact, that the need for buyer´s professionalisation is not limited to art market segments with a high amount of possible fakes and reproductions, like some areas in Asian arts. This seems to account for any area of art collecting.
Images courtesy of Brockhaus Germany.
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Located in the Indus Valley in Ladakh region of India, the Matho Monastery has been one of the most important Sakya Tibetan Buddhist centers at the foothills of the Himalayas since its establishment in 1410. During the centuries of its existence, many Buddhist art relics have been stored. The monastery´s collection consists of a great variety of important Buddhist relics, particularly Thangkas, Buddhist bronze statues and objects from monastic everyday life.
Restoration and preservation
Most of the monastery´s Buddhist art objects have been locked up in boxes for the last 30 years for protection, since Ladakh was opened to tourrisme. Therefore, the Matho Museum Project has been initiated to display this precious collection in a secure way. It is run by the the Himalayan Arts Preservation Association, the Good Karma Foundation and the Cultural and Welfare Soiety of Matho Monastery.
The project team includes internationally renowned art historians, restorers, architects and the monks from Matho monastery themselves, led by Lopön Tsering Dorje, the lama in charge of the religious Buddhist practice inside the monastery.
The Matho Museum Project will not only restore the artefacts and build a museum on the 15th century base of the monastery. It will create a sustainable economic base for the region by training a local restoration team in international restoration standards.
Some of the most prominent advisors of the project are:
Matthieu Ricard, Buddhist monk and French interpreter for H.H. the Dalai Lama.
Marion Boyer, curator of the Musée Elise Rieuf.
Götz Hagmüller, architect and urban conservationist.
Michael Henss, leading Tibetan and East Asian art historian.
Zara Fleming, lecturer and Buddhist art expert for Tibetan, Himalayan and Mongolian art.
For more information, donations or volunteering opportunities, please visit the project´s website and directly contact with:
The Matho Museum Project
Images courtesy of Matho Museum Project.
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(Lesen Sie diesen Artikel auf Deutsch)
On behalf of our long-term customers, collectors and clients, we are looking for specific items from various fields of ancient buddhist art.
Antique buddhist art & sculpture
Buddhist iconography is extensive and manifoldly. In order to round out their collections, our customers are explicitly interested in antique buddhist sculputres, bronze figures, altar-relics & related objects, stupas and paintings.
Please inform us about your objects: make us an offer any time!
We are happy to give you a free valuation or to directly offer you a purchasing price. And of course, we are accepting further search requests from you, too.
Write us an email to:contact@asianartblog.com
We are looking forward to hear from you.
Images courtesy of Gallery Peter Hardt.
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