Asia Week New York Is Back for Autumn With a Smaller Program of Exhibitions and Auctions

New York’s September art fair calendar, bookended as it is by Armory Week and the local edition of Affordable Art Fair, can have an overshadowing effect on the city’s scene, making it easy to forget about lower-profile mid-month art events like the autumn edition of Asia Week New York. You can be forgiven if the previous sentence gave you pause—Asia Week New York, a 10-day celebration of Asian art, is most commonly associated with the spring auction calendar. Earlier this year, the March program brought with it notable sales of a complete set of Hokusai’s 36 Views of Mount Fuji and artifacts from Tibet, Nepal and Greater China from the collection of Senator Dianne Feinstein plus shows at twenty-eight galleries around the city.

The autumn edition of this biannual event is often (though not always) smaller; in the fall of 2018, organizers suggested that visitors “think of it as a teaser for the March 2019 edition of Asia Week New York.” This year’s fall Asia Week New York program, which kicked off yesterday Sept. 11 with a lecture titled Four Centuries of Blue & White with decorative arts expert Becky MacGuire, features shows at just twelve galleries, a handful of New York City museum exhibitions and seven sales at Bonhams, Christie’s, Doyle, Freeman’s|Hindman, Heritage, iGavel and Sotheby’s.

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Institutionally speaking, there’s not much going on. The Brooklyn Museum is still showing “Porcelains in the Mist: The Kondō Family of Ceramicists,” which brings together sixty-one pieces that showcase the Kyoto-based Kondō family’s innovations in the ceramic arts. “Reimagine: Himalayan Art Now,” which showcases paintings, sculptures, sound installations, videos and performance art by more than thirty contemporary artists from or inspired by the Himalayan region, is the Rubin Museum of Art’s swan song—the Rubin will close its doors permanently on October 6. And the Met will open “Mandalas: Mapping the Buddhist Art of Tibet,” an exhibition of more than 100 paintings, sculptures, textiles, instruments and ritual objects paired with a newly commissioned contemporary installation by Tibetan artist Tenzing Rigdol, on September 19.

The roster of galleries participating in Asia Week New York skews Japanese this year, with very little Korean representation. Ippodo Gallery is showing Yukiya Izumita’s laminate-layered sculptures in “Expanding Earth: New Works by Yukiya Izumita”—the artist’s fifth solo exhibition in the U.S. Joan B Mirviss LTD is hosting its third solo show of the work of Fukumoto Fuku, “Quiet Elegance: The Ceramics of Fukumoto Fuku.” Thomsen Gallery has mounted an exhibition of painted folding screens, hanging scrolls and other objects from the Taisho and early Showa eras, “Nihonga: Japanese Pre-War Paintings.”

Meanwhile, Alisan Fine Arts is showing “Chinyee: Enraptured By Color,” the fifth solo exhibition of the works of the late Chinese American artist Chinyee, whose lyrical and colorful paintings reflect her understanding of Asian brush techniques and her study of modern abstraction. “Pantheon of Power” at Kapoor Galleries has a selection of paintings, sculptures, prints and photographs of Indian deities and architectural marvels that examine the influence iconographies have in modern life. And Zetterquist Galleries’ exhibition of Chinese and Vietnamese white wares, featuring pieces from the collection of Carl Kempe opens tomorrow (Sept. 13).

Highlights of the Asia Week New York autumn auctions

Christie’s fall Asian Art Week program encompasses six sales—three live and three online. Leading the Japanese and Korean Art sale on September 17 are an important European collection of netsuke (carved miniature sculpture), as well as another Katsushika Hokusai Great Wave and a rare painting by the ukiyo-e artist, Swimming Carp, which has a high estimate of $300,000. The South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art sale on September 18 features masterpieces by Francis Newton Souza and Ram Kumar sourced from private collections, including early never-seen Kumar works. Next up, there’s the two-day Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art sale, in which a rare Xuande mark-and-period (1426–35) blue and white reserve-decorated ‘peony’ dish could realize $1.5 million.

Sotheby’s contributions to the Asia Week New York lineup are the Dharma and Tantra sale on September 17 and the Chinese Art auction on September 18. Leading the latter sale are a Middle Western Zhou dynasty bronze ritual wine vessel with a high estimate of $5 million and a rare Ge-type bronze-form vase with a high estimate of $1.5 million. Bonhams’ Private Collection of Japanese Prints and Watercolors sale also has a Hokusai Great Wave (high estimate: $900,000) and its Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art auction will put more jades and ceramics from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection on the block, but for pure visual interest, you can’t beat the Robert and Florette Weiss Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles sale, with its 101 beautiful but tiny engraved, painted and filigreed bottles in colorful jade, agate, crystal and quartz.

Asia Week New York Autumn 2024 runs from September 12 through September 20.