Restraint and Flamboyance: Masterworks of Mino: Asia Week 2020

Restraint and Flamboyance, Masterworks of Mino and Ukiyo-e Highlights from the Collection of George Crawford
March 12 – April 24, 2020

For our March Asia Week 2020, we are delighted to present two important exhibitions: Restraint and Flamboyance, Masterworks of Mino and Ukiyo-e Highlights from the Collection of George Crawford. Response to our catalogs for both have been immediate with close to half of the artworks from each exhibition sold. 

The ceramics exhibition, Restraint and Flamboyance, Masterworks of Mino, will focus on the celebrated glazing traditions that originated in 16th century Momoyama Japan. Numerous types of Shino, Oribe and Seto wares were created for the newly emerging arts of tea ceremony, flower arranging and food presentation. The exhibition will feature major works by both post-war and current masters such as deceased artists ARAKAWA Toyozō, KITAŌJI Rosanjin, KAWAKITA Handeishi, OKABE Mineo and YAGI Kazuo, together with current leaders KOIE Ryōji, SUZUKI Osamu (Kura) and WAKAO Toshisada, among others.

Over a lifetime of collecting, George Crawford sought out and acquired exceptionally fine and rare Japanese woodblock prints from both the celebrated auctions of the 1970s and 80s as well as from leading American dealers. The collection is particularly strong in rare eighteenth-century kabuki actor prints by artists such as Okumura MASANOBU, Katsukawa SHUNSHŌ, Ippitsusai BUNCHŌ, Utagawa TOYOKUNI I and hand-colored examples by Osaka masters. Together with quintessential landscape designs by Katsushika HOKUSAI and Utagawa HIROSHIGE, are pristine landscape images by the popular modernist YOSHIDA Hiroshi.

Ukiyo-e Highlights from the Collection of George Crawford provides a unique opportunity to see and acquire from a true collector’s-collection of the best of ukiyo-e printmaking, with superb impressions that have not been on the market or seen for decades.