Kaikodo Journal XXXII Spring 2016 (web)

Embracing Antiquity

Corresponding to the exhibition held between March 10 and April 22, 2016.  33 Chinese and Japanese paintings; 31 Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean objects.  Preface by Howard Rogers. Online edition.

Includes the essays:
Kazuko Kameda-Madar:
    “A Pair of Architecture in Landscape Paintings Attributed to Ri Shūbun and His Various Attributions in 15th -16th Century Japan”

Richard M. Barnhart:
    “Celebration by the River: Formerly Attributed to Zhao Mengfu”

Includes remembrances:
Wai-Kam Ho 1924-2004 by:
    Dawn Delbanco
    Kevin Ho
    Benjamin Delbanco
    James Watt
    Stan Czuma
    Elinor Pearlstein
    Howard Rogers
    Mary Ann Rogers
    James Cahill
    Henry Adams

Bruce Dayton (1918-2015) by:
    Carol Conover

Marie-Helene Weill (1920-2015) by:
    Carol Conover

Willard Clark (1930-2015) by:
    Howard Rogers

The exhibition, “Embracing Antiquity,” the thirty-second since 1996, was intended to honor the twentieth anniversary of our opening for business in New York.  As is usual for Kaikodo—the name meaning “Hall of Embracing Antiquity”—a wide range of objects and paintings are on offer, including works of art from China, Japan, Vietnam, and Korea, and paintings from China, Japan, and Korea, ranging in date from the 3rd millennium B.C. to the 21st century A.D.  This range of media, styles, countries of origin, and aesthetic approaches is highly unusual outside of comprehensive auctions, and we are proud to acknowledge that we in fact are drawn to what has been created out of the box, to what is not the usual or the standard, whether it be a painting or a work of art, and such are among what we have acquired and offer now in this sale-exhibition.

In addition, we present a section on remembrances devoted to Wai-kam Ho, a close friend, exemplary scholar, and most enjoyable eccentric. Tributes to Wai-kam are offered here from family members, former colleagues, and those of us who still stand in awe of his intellectual achievements and extraordinary character.  Another section is dedicated to remembrances of others that have been important to us here at Kaikodo and who passed away in 2015, including the beloved Marie-Helene Weill, Bruce Dayton, and Bill Clark. We are pleased to include in a separate section an essay by Richard Barnhart, formerly of Yale University and now resident of Friday Harbor, Washington, who examines a painting long attributed to the Yuan master Zhao Mengfu but here re-attributed on very convincing grounds to Tang Di, a follower of the master. Another essay, by Kazuko Kameda-Madar, examines the work attributed to Ri Shubun, a 15th century Korean artist who immigrated to Japan in 1424, with special attention paid to a pair of landscapes offered here as catalogue no. 56.  We are very grateful to both of these scholars for sharing with us their ideas and perception for how else will the field of connoisseurship continue to evolve and improve?