Christie’s recently announced Asian Art Week, a series of auctions, viewings, and events, from September 17-29. This season presents six auctions featuring over 1,000 objects from 5,000 years of art spanning all epochs and categories of Asian art comprising Chinese archaic bronzes through Japanese art to modern Indian and Pakistani painting.
From a Tang-dynasty parcel-gilt silver ‘rhinoceros’ dish to huanghuali furniture and Japanese metalwork, the six distinct sales of Asian Art Week bring together numerous eclectic works and objects from across the vast continent. Other highlights include paintings by South Asian modernist Narayan Shridhar Bendre and 16th-century Tibetan masters, rare woodblock prints by Utagawa Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai, and a Qianlong-Jiaqing-period kesi ‘twelve symbols’ dragon robe. All works will be presented in an exhibition from September 17 at Christie’s New York.
ASIAN ART WEEK | LIVE AUCTION OVERVIEW
Important Japanese Art
21 September 2021 | 10am
KANAGAWA OKI NAMI URA (UNDER THE WELL OF THE GREAT WAVE OFF KANAGAWA)
WOODBLOCK PRINT, FROM THE SERIES FUGAKU SANJUROKKEI (THIRTY-SIX VIEWS OF MOUNT FUJI), SIGNED HOKUSAI ARATAME IITSU HITSU, PUBLISHED BY NISHIMURAYA YOHACHI (EIJUDO), LATE 1831
ESTIMATE: $150,000-200,000
Christie’s auction of Important Japanese Art spans 270 lots of classical Japanese art. This season’s sale features an important collection of top-quality articulated metal sculptures and prints with notable provenance. The print section includes rare and significant works by ukiyo-e masters such as Toshusai Sharaku, Utagawa Hiroshige, and Katsushika Hokusai. Other highlights include major lacquer paintings and lacquer works by Shibata Zeshin and a metal piece by Kagawa Katsuhiro.
Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Works of Art
22 September 2021 | 8:30am
12¼ IN. (31.3 CM.) HIGH
CENTRAL TIBET, DENSATIL MONASTERY, SECOND HALF 14TH-FIRST HALF 15TH CENTURY
ESTIMATE: $1,000,000-1,500,000
This season’s sale features works from across India, the Himalayas, and Southeast Asia, including property from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, sold to benefit future acquisitions. The sale highlights several important Tibetan paintings including a sixteenth-century Lamdre lineage painting of two Sakya masters, a black ground painting of Chatrabhuja Mahakala, and a rare sixteenth-century painting of the arhat Pindola.
The sale also presents a group of Indian paintings, including a folio from the famed ‘Tehri Garwhal’ Gita Govinda series, and Himalayan bronzes including a large eighteenth-century Tibeto-Chinese gilt figure of Ushnishavijaya and bronzes from the collection of India House with early provenance.
South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art
22 September 2021 | 11am
UNTITLED (MIRROR IMAGE)
OIL ON CANVAS; DIPTYCH
48 X 96 IN. (121.9 X 243.8 CM.)
PAINTED IN 2005
ESTIMATE: $600,000-800,000
Christie’s annual live auction of South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art brings together exceptional works from private collections across the world, celebrating a wide variety of artistic practices from the South Asian subcontinent and its diaspora across the 20th and 21st centuries. Highlights of the auction include an imposing diptych from Akbar Padamsee’s groundbreaking Mirror Image series, and Orange Nude, a formative work by Tyeb Mehta from 1961.
Also featured are significant works by pioneering artists Rabindranath Tagore and Jamini Roy, and modern masters Narayan Shridhar Bendre, Maqbool Fida Husain, Francis Newton Souza, Ram Kumar, Jehangir Sabavala, and Bhupen Khakhar that are completely fresh to the market. Other highlights include a significant set of photographs by Nasreen Mohamedi, and a selection of important works by Pakistani and Bangladeshi artists Anwar Jalal Shemza, Sadequain, Ismail Gulgee, and Mohammad Kibria.
Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art
23-24 September 2021
AN EXCEPTIONALLY RARE PARCEL-GILT SILVER ‘RHINOCEROS’ DISH
TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907)
ESTIMATE: $1,000,000-1,500,000
Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art features works from notable institutions including India House and the Indianapolis Museum, as well as from important private collections such as the Junkunc and Winston F.C. and C.Z. Guest collections.
Highlights of the sale include a Tang-dynasty silver ‘rhinoceros’ dish, a pair of important 17th-century dali marble-inset horseshoe-back armchairs, a magnificent Yongzheng-Qianlong period imperial zitan armchair, and a Qianlong-Jiaqing period kesi ‘twelve symbols’ dragon robe.
ASIAN ART WEEK | ONLINE SALES
Asia!
14-28 September 2021 | Online
In an Asian Art Week first, Christie’s is pleased to present a pan-Asian online sale featuring a curated collection of works spanning across India, the Himalayas, China, Korea, and Japan. The sale offers a selection of works of various media, including Japanese prints, huanghuali furniture, Chinese and Himalayan bronzes, and Indian court paintings. With a wide range of estimates, Asia! presents opportunities for both burgeoning and established collectors of Asian art.
From Artist to Woodblock: Japanese Prints
19-29 September 2021 | Online
MUTSU MISHIMAGAWA (THE MISHIMA RIVER IN MUTSU PROVINCE)
WOODBLOCK PRINT, FROM THE SERIES TABI MIYAGE DAIISHU (SOUVENIRS OF TRAVEL I), SIGNED HASUI, SEALED SUI, PUBLISHED BY WATANABE SHOZABURO, SUMMER 1919
ESTIMATE: $8,000-12,000
From Artist to Woodblock: Japanese Prints, features a fine selection of iconic woodblock prints by master artists from the 18th to the 20th century, including Kitagawa Utamaro, Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Hiroshige, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, and Kawase Hasui. The prints encompass a wide breadth of genres including beauties, actors, landscapes, mythological subjects, and warriors.
SEPTEMBER 2021 | ASIAN ART WEEK SALES
LIVE AUCTIONS:
Important Japanese Art | 21 September 2021
Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Works of Art | 22 September 2021
South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art | 22 September 2021
Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art | 23-24 September 2021
ONLINE SALES:
Asia! | 14-28 September 2021
From Artist to Woodblock: Japanese Prints | 19-29 September 2021
