Sri Lanka, the ‘jeweled isle’

For personal reasons, I'm not traveling these days but I managed to make one exception: a same-day round trip to LA to spend exactly 2 1/2 hours at LACMA in order to see "The Jeweled Isles: Art From Sri Lanka." The first article on art I ever wrote for the WSJ was on a 1993 …

Triumph of Death

The Triumph of Death painting discussed in my WSJ Masterpiece essay is so complex, I thought it would be helpful to provide some closer views.  Here are snapshots I took in Palermo, beginning at the center then moving clockwise around the painting. And here is how all the elements come together -- this photo clearly …

Asia Week musings

Standing before a six-paneled folding screen at the Giuseppe Piva Gallery’s show, I found myself thinking about, of all things, perspective. Painted in the 17th century, the screen depicts moments from a battle in October 1600 that ushered in the Tokugawa shogunate. As great as the battle scenes are, what caught my attention was the …

An Ho — a great gift, a great loss

Not long ago, I was telling a curator of Chinese art that the next time he was anywhere near New York state, he had to meet An Ho, who had trained with Pu Ru, one of the last scholar-artists of China.  This caught his attention -- but there was so much more to be said …

Kings dreaming of immortality

Some say it's the Year of the Rooster, but in my book, it's year of the Han.  There has been a succession of shows highlighting this dynasty, which ruled from 206 B.C. to 220 AD.  It so consolidated a sense of identity that ethnic Chinese today still identify as "Han." In New York alone, there …

Bamboo art in the Met’s Japanese galleries

The Japanese galleries at the Met are like a bride -- they always have something old, something new, and no doubt if you look hard enough you'll spot something blue.  This summer, bamboo art is the overarching theme, starting with "The Gate," an amazing construct that artist Tanabe Chikuunsai IV created for the entrance to …

Ceramics in the Keir Collection at the DMA

In my review of the Dallas Museum of Art's installation of the Keir Collection of Islamic Art, I mention the variety in ceramics but did not have the room to go into detail.  The very least I can do is give some visuals to support that contention.  

Layers of invention

There is much deception uncovered in the Sackler's "Inventing Utamaro: A Japanese Masterpiece Rediscovered.”  There is the question of whether the show's three central paintings are really by Kitagawa Utamaro, famous mostly for his ukiyo-e prints.  For that matter, was Utamaro himself the 17th-century Don Juan of the pleasure quarters that his marketers made him out to be?  And, …

More about the Qin and the Han

Two shows could not be more complimentary in tone and emphasis than the Asian Art Museum's "Tomb Treasures: New Discoveries from China's Han Dynasty" and the Met's "Age of Empires: Chinese Art of the Qin and Han Dynasties."  I won't repeat what I said in WSJ reviews (here and here) but instead talk about a few …

Peeking at Life through Death

Jade amulets, bronze vessels, dancing figures, accessories -- we've come to expect that from ancient tombs in China.  But sex aides and toilets?  That was a first for me, though I will admit not the most fascinating part of the Asian Art Museum's "Tomb Treasures: New Discoveries from China's Han Dynasty"  (you can read my review …