NEW YORK—The International Asian Art Fair opened last Friday night to a packed house in its new location, 583 Park, a restored church a few blocks south of the Armory in Manhattan's Upper East Side where it was not able to be held this year due to scheduling conflicts.
Although, the new location is smaller and reduced the number of exhibitors this year from 53 to 31, the new venue has elegance with its 50 foot ceilings and crystal chandelier. The opening night party was elbow-to-elbow last Friday night as honorary co-chair and Broadway star Bebe Neuwirth, Martha Stewart, and painter Brice Marden shopped Asian arts, sipped champagne and chatted with friends and gallery owners from around the globe.
The exhibitors were spread out over three levels, with the top floor galleries nearly cantilevering out over the open main space. The collections ranged from the contemporary to the ancient. A great deal of works on paper were featured this year, from large swooping contemporary Japanese calligraphic works to finely detailed antique Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Indian works on paper.
Japonesque, of San Francisco, offered massive ponderous contemporary stone sculptures on the ground floor. A large number of religious items were on display, the serene Ming Dynasty Guanyin ceramic statue at Jonathon Tucker/Antonia Tozer, and the over-sized bronze Head of a Buddha from 15th Century Thailand.
A nice display of Han era sword hilts was on display at Douglas Dawson Gallery, made of bronze and iron and dating to 200 BC, but taking first place in the ancient category is the Egyptian wood boat with 11 sailors, dated from 2030-2640 BC at Phoenix Ancient Art, priced at $900,000. Also at Phoenix was a dramatic wide-eyed priest from the 1st Century AD Syria (Palmyra) priced at $320,000.
A great number of Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) works were on display from several galleries this year. Christian Deydier of Paris displayed a pair of large terra cotta horses, as did Hong Kong gallery Oi Ling. Oi Ling's extensive collection of Tang white pottery sculptures included prancing horses, court ladies, stately noblemen and bearded civic officials. The rosy cheeked and full figured court ladies smile demurely, their smooth round contours and quiet demeanor in sharp contrast to the powerful and energetic Lokopalas tomb sculptures. These sculptures were created to guard a tomb from intruders—their bulging eyes, fierce grimaces and military garb would scare off any would be tomb raiders.
The International Asian Art Fair is open at 583 Park Avenue at 63rd Street through March 19.
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