Asian Art Week - New York

This week we see the NY sales of Asian art. The Asian Art Dealers has sales and events lined up, the website for additional information is http://www.asianartdealersny.com,
as do museums, auction houses and shows.  Auctions are scheduled for Sotheby's, Christies, Bonhams, Doyle and IM Chait.  The Arts of Pacific Asia show is also scheduled.

Sotheby's has two sales, one on March 23, Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art and the other  on March 24, Indian & Southeast Asian Art.  Christies has a few more events scheduled over Sothebys.  I will try to post results from auction results and dealer sales as they become available.  Keep in mind the Asian sector, especially at the upper end has been strong, so expectations should be positive. The auction houses have approximately 1300 lot offerings, but word is the best property has been reserved for the upcoming Hong Kong sales, so it will be interesting to see how the sale fare, and if collectors are willing to spend top dollar in NY or wait until Hong Kong..

The Chistie's sales are as follows (including more Sackler Collection property).

• TUE Mar 23 South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art

• TUE Mar 23 Indian and Southeast Asian Art

• WED Mar 24 Japanese & Korean Art

• THU Mar 25 For the Enjoyment of Scholars: Selections from the Robert H. Blumenfield Collection

• THU Mar 25 Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Including Property from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections

• FRI Mar 26 Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Including Property from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections

The NY Times also recently reported on some of the dealer activity for Asia week.

Anyone interested in Buddhist sacred art will want to sample some of these special, open-to-the-public exhibitions in Manhattan for Asia Week. John Eskenazi (24 East 80th Street) should be a first stop and a return visit. You won’t find anything in the city more beautiful than the eighth-century Sri Lankan bronze Buddha Mr. Eskenazi has brought with him from London. With its slender limbs and water-thin robe washing over its torso, this figure is a reminder that in Buddhism many cultures merge. In this case India, China and Southeast Asia meet in a distinctive island art.

Other knockouts include a resplendent gilded-bronze Padmapani, probably cast in Tibet by an artist from the Katmandu Valley, and a jumbo clay bodhisattva’s head from Gandhara. This was the area where classical Western influences filtered into India, though its easy to imagine influences going the other way too. Bernini would have been blown away by this grand head, with its mop of deep-cut curls and proto-Baroque-crown.

Across town at the Ansonia (2109 Broadway, entrance on West 73rd Street), Nancy Wiener is also showing a head, this one life size, carved in stone and as severe as Mr. Eskenazi’s is ornate. It comes from the vanished stupa at Amaravati, once a magnet for pilgrimages and a source of a great Indian sculptural style.

To read the NY Times article, click HERE.