Kaikodo Journal XXII
Spring 2002 Exhibition & Sale
Corresponding to the exhibition held between March 18 and April 20, 2002. 42 Chinese and Japanese paintings; 36 Chinese and Japanese works of art (86 color plates). Preface by Howard Rogers. 240 pages.
This volume of Kaikodo Journal is devoted exclusively to the works in this special sales exhibition which includes Chinese and Japanese paintings characterized by a wide range of subject matter and produced in a great variety of material and format, along with Chinese ceramics and other works art spanning the Neolithic period through the 19th century. The Chinese paintings range over eight centuries from the 12th during the Song dynasty to the 20th of the modern era and provide ample opportunity for the elucidation not only of the works at hand and biographies of the artists who created them but also provide a view of an art historical continuum gleened as one simply puruses the photographic material provided in the journal. A triptyche of exquisitely painted Daoist gods, and an album of delicate portraits of flowers, and a rhythmic ink-play of cursive script-style calligraphy are but a few of the highlights discussed in this journal. A gathering of Japanese paintings also varied in subject matter–a powerful hawk and beauteous peacocks, a pair of quarrelsome tigers and a school of serene swimming carp, a a winning beauty and a fearsome female ghost, a pair of grotesque immortals and a chaos of merrymakers at a Lanting gathering. Between Neolithic-period earthenwares to a Qing-dynasty porcelain, every major Chinese dynasty and period is represented in the exhibition by either a ceramic or other materials, and again, history is brought to light through these individual representative objects.