About Us

Joan B. Mirviss is an expert and dealer in Japanese art, specializing in contemporary ceramics, prints, paintings, and screens. Ms. Mirviss received her M.A. in Japanese art history from Columbia University, and has lectured widely at museums and universities in the United States and Japan.

In 2000, she curated the exhibition and authored the catalogue titled Jewels of Japanese Printmaking: Surimono of the Bunka and Bunsei Era for the prominent Japanese print museum in Tokyo, the Ota Memorial Art Museum. In 1995 she curated the exhibition of the Frank Lloyd Wright surimono collection shown at the Phoenix Art Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She also wrote with John Carpenter, the accompanying publication, The Frank Lloyd Wright Collection of Surimono. She has lectured at numerous museums both in the US and Japan. Ms. Mirviss has curated or assisted in the preparation of other shows of Japanese prints at several museums in the New York area. In 1984 she collaborated on a book for the Metropolitan Museum titled Utamaro: Songs of the Garden. Currently she is working for the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution in Washington as a special consultant to the Robert O. Muller Collection of Japanese Art. The first exhibition in early 2005 was titled “Dream Worlds: Modern Japanese Prints and Paintings from the Robert O. Muller Collection.”

In addition to these scholarly activities, for nearly thirty years, Ms. Mirviss has been a private dealer of Japanese works of art, specializing in ukiyo-e, Japanese painting, and 20th century Japanese ceramics. She organized the show titled “Masters of Clay: Five Artists from Kyoto” for the Barry Friedman Gallery and two solo shows of the ceramic art of Kondo Takahiro. More recently she has featured one-man exhibitions of the oribe ceramics of the gifted young artist, Kato Yasukage and the master of decorated stoneware vessels, Morino Hiroaki Taimei. Past solo exhibitions have included the gifted interpreter of celadon, Kawase Shinobu in his first solo show in this country, Kondo Takahiro, Kishi Eiko and Sakiyama Takayuki. This year she will be featuring the first American exhibition by the ceramic artist Takegoshi Jun. Her clients include more than forty-five museums throughout the world.

Professional Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor of Arts and Science, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1974 (Honors in Art History and specialty in Museum Training and Connoisseurship)
• Master of Arts, Columbia University, 1976 (History of the Art of Japan)

Professional Experience

• Dealer of Japanese works of art (since 1977); emphasis on ukiyo-e (Japanese woodblock prints), modern and contemporary Japanese ceramics and Edo painting. Client list includes over forty-five museums and prominent private collectors around the world.
• Exhibitor at prestigious antique fairs throughout the United States (since 1977); Presently showing at the Winter Antiques Show (since 1981) the International Asian Art Fair both in New York (since inception in 1996) and SOFA/New York (since 2003).
• Chairman of Vetting Committee International Asian Art Fair 2001-2005
• Chairman of the Winter Antiques Show Exhibitors Committee 1991-1996; head of Asian Art Vetting. Served as vettor of Asian art at many US fairs.
• Served as an appraiser of Japanese works of Art for nearly thirty years.
• Employed to evaluate the Japanese prints, paintings and ceramics in the collections of numerous museums throughout the United States, including: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Columbia University, Newark Museum, St. Louis Art Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Phoenix Art Museum.
• Currently employed as consultant on the Robert O. Muller Collection to the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian, Washington DC. Assisted with exhibition “Dream Worlds: Modern Japanese Prints and Paintings from the Robert O. Muller Collection” (November 2004-January 2005) and authored catalogue essay.
• “Youthful Energy Confronts Ancient Traditions: The Powerful Ceramics of Katô Yasukage,” Exhibition at SOFA/New York May-June 2006.
• “Hôjô no irodori: The Ceramic Art of Takegoshi Jun” Exhibition at the International Asian Art Fair March-April 2006.
• “Chôtô; The Echo of the Waves: The Ceramic Art of Sakiyama Takayuki,” Exhibition at the SOFA Fair May-June 2005.
• “The Serene beauty of Celadon/Seijaku no bi—Kawase Shinobu. Exhibition at the International Asian Art Fair March-April 2005.
• Organizer of “Silver Mist: The Art of Kondo Takahiro” and “a Delicate Balance: the Ceramics of Kishi Eiko” held at the Barry Friedman Gallery, NY March 3-April 16, 2005
• “The Resonance between Form and Color: The Ceramic Art of Morino Hiroaki Taimei,” Exhibition at the International Asian Art Fair March-April 2004.
• Organizer of “Celestial Ceramics: The Art of Kondo Takahiro,” held at the Barry Friedman Gallery, NY March 19-April 27, 2002
• Organizer of “Masters of Clay: Five Artists from Kyoto”, held at the Barry Friedman Gallery, NY March 20-April 28, 2001
• Guest curator for Ota Kinen Bijitsukan for an exhibition and authored the catalogue of Bunka-Bunsei era surimono drawn from three American collections (Spring 2000).
• Guest curator for the Phoenix Art Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for an exhibition of the surimono in the collection of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. (1994-95). Authored the accompanying book on the subject.
• Served on selection committee for Japan Society, NY for exhibition Kunisada’s World (1993)
• Guest curator for Columbia University for an exhibition of Japanese prints in their collection (1992).
• Guest curator for exhibition Hidden Treasures: Japanese Art at the Newark Public Library (1991)
• Guest curator for Metropolitan Museum of Art for an exhibition of the surimono in their collection (1989) and author of accompanying article in Orientations magazine.

Publications

• “Passionate Quest for Perfection: Collector, Connoisseur, dealer Robert O. Muller and his Unrivalled Collection,” Printed to Perfection, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 2004.
• “A Tribute to Robert O. Muller (1911-2003),” Impressions: The Journal of the Ukiyo-e Society of America, Inc., vol. 25, 2003.
• Jewels of Japanese Printmaking: Surimono of the Bunka-Bunsei Era, Ota Kinen Bijitsukan, Tokyo 2000 (with John T. Carpenter).
• “’Earth’: the Missing Element from a Surimono Series by Hokkei,” Impressions, volume 20, 1998.
• The Frank Lloyd Wright Collection of Surimono. Phoenix Art Museum and Weatherhill. New York, 1995 (with John T. Carpenter).
• “A Hidden Legacy: The Surimono Collection of Frank Lloyd Wright”, Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly, vol. 6, no. 2, Spring 1995.
• Eleven Japanese Print Masterpieces, A Celebration of Twenty Years, privately printed catalogue, 1995.
• “A Tour of the Newark Museum’s Japanese Galleries”, Arts of Asia, vol. 19, no. 5, September-October 1989.
• “Jewels of Ukiyo-e: Hayashi’s ‘Spring Rain Collection’ of Surimono Albums”, Orientations Magazine, February 1989.
• Utamaro: Songs of the Garden. The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Viking Press. New York, 1984 (with Yasuko Betchaku).
• The Woodblock Prints of Utagawa Kuniyoshi; from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield Massachusetts. The Vassar College ArtGallery, 1975 (with Emily Sano).

Guest Lectures on Japanese Art presented at museums and universities, including:

• Asia Society
• Asian Art Museum, San Francisco
• Azabu Museum, Tokyo
• Brooklyn Museum, NY
• Columbia University
• Cornell University, NY
• Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution
• Indianapolis Museum of Art
• Japan Society, New York
• Japan Society, Washington DC
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art
• Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Minneapolis Institute of Art
• New York University
• Newark Museum, NJ
• Ota Museum of Art, Tokyo
• Phoenix Art Museum, AZ
• St. Louis Art Museum, MO
• Ukiyo-e Society of America
• University of Wisconsin, Madison
• Vassar College Art Gallery

Memberships in Professional Organizations

• Asian Art Council, Brooklyn Museum, NY
• Association for the Study of Japanese Prints, Tokyo Japan
• Japanese Art Society of America
• National Antiques and Art Dealers Association
• Friends of the Japan Society Gallery, NY
• Friends of Asian Art, Asia Society
• Society for Japanese Art, The Netherlands
• Ukiyo-e Dealers Association of Japan
• Ukiyo-e Society of Japan

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