Joan B. Mirviss
joan@mirviss.com
Joan B. Mirviss is an expert and leading dealer in Japanese art, specializing in modern and contemporary ceramics, ukiyo-e 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. She is the foremost Western dealer in the field of modern and contemporary Japanese ceramics, and her New York gallery at Madison Avenue, Joan B. Mirviss, Ltd., exclusively represents the top Japanese clay artists. As a distinguished, widely published, and highly respected specialist in her field, Mirviss has advised and built collections for many museums and private collectors.As a private dealer for more than thirty years, Ms. Mirviss has participated in and served as honorary vetter at prominent art and antique fairs throughout the country, including the prestigious Winter Antiques Show (since 1980) and the International Asian Art Fair (since its inception in 1996). With the opening in 2007 of her new gallery, she now organizes and annually holds five to six exhibitions of both modern and antique Japanese art––bringing the work of celebrated artists as well as hitherto unknown talents to the attention of the American public. Her clients include more than forty-five museums throughout the world.
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As a private dealer for more than thirty years, Ms. Mirviss has participated in and served as honorary vetter at prominent art and antique fairs throughout the country, including the prestigious Winter Antiques Show (since 1980) and the International Asian Art Fair (since its inception in 1996). With the opening in 2007 of her new gallery, she now organizes and annually holds five to six exhibitions of both modern and antique Japanese art––bringing the work of celebrated artists as well as hitherto unknown talents to the attention of the American public. Her clients include more than forty-five museums throughout the world.
In addition to her business activities, she has been involved with both curatorial and scholarly projects. Most notably, 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, for which she co-authored the accompanying publication, The Frank Lloyd Wright Collection of Surimono. In 2000, she curated an 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. Ms. Mirviss has prepared other shows of Japanese prints at several museums in the New York area. 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, for which she has contributed articles to two publications and assists in the planning of exhibitions. She has just written an essay for a major book accompanying the exhibition of rare surimono at the Rietberg Museum in Zürich, opening in December.
PUBLICATIONS
"Collecting Surimono in Pre-war Paris: Sources of the Marino Lusy Collection" in The Interplay of Text and Image in Japanese Prints: Surimono from the Marino Lusy Collection. Rietberg Museum of Asian Art and Brill (Hotei) to be published December 2008.
"The Passionate Quest for Perfection: Collector, Connoisseur, Dealer–– Robert O. Muller and His Unrivaled Collection" in Printed to Perfection: Twentieth-century Japanese Prints from the Robert O. Muller Collection. 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 from the Bunka-Bunsei Era (1804-1830). Ota Memorial Museum of Art, Tokyo. May 2000.
"'Earth': the Missing Element from a Surimono Series by Hokkei," Impressions,20, 1998.
The Frank Lloyd Wright Collection of Surimono. Phoenix Art Museum and Weatherhill. New York, 1995 (with John 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).
Surimono. A collector's handbook-sales catalogue. Privately printed catalogue, 1984.
The Woodblock Prints of Utagawa Kuniyoshi; from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield Massachusetts. The Vassar College Art Gallery, 1975 (with Emily Sano).
GUEST LECTURES on Japanese Art presented at museums and universities, including:
Asia Society, Houston TX & Washington, D.C
Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA
Azabu Museum, Tokyo
Brooklyn Museum, NY
Cornell University, NY
Indianapolis Museum of Art, IN
Japan Society, NY
Japanese Art Society of America (Ukiyo-e Society)
Jissen Women's University, Tokyo
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN
Newark Museum, NJ
Phoenix Art Museum, AZ
St. Louis Art Museum, MO
Worcester Art Museum, MA
Vassar College Art Gallery
MEMBERSHIPS IN PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
Asia Society, Friends of Asian Art, NY
Association for the Study of Japanese Prints, Tokyo Japan
CINOA, Confederation Internationale des negociantes en oeuvres d'art
International House of Japan, Tokyo
Japan Society, Friends of the Gallery, NY
Japanese Art Society of America (former board member)
National Antiques and Art Dealers Association
Society for Japanese Art, The Netherlands
Ukiyo-e Dealers Association of Japan
Ukiyo-e Society of Japan