Page 32 - Bonhams Japanese Works of Art September 2015 New York

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PROPERTY FROM A CALIFORNIA COLLECTOR 3036
URAGAMI GYOKUDO (1745-1820)
3034 Landscape with Figure
MIKI BUNRYU (1716-1799) Album leaf mounted as a hanging scroll, ink on paper; entitled Kantei
Group of Fish shokushin (Base of a waterfall, gathering firewood), signed Gyokudo,
Hanging scroll, ink and color on silk; of five different types of freshly with one seal Gyokudo kinshi (impressed upside down)
caught fish, signed Soansai [ ]sen-ga, with three seals, two reading With two wood storage boxes, one with collector’s inscription
Miki Akira/Shin and Bunryu 10 x 6 7/8in (25.5 x 17.6cm)
16 3/4 x 28in (42.8 x 71.1cm) $40,000 - 60,000
$800 - 1,200
Uragami Gyokudo (1745-1820) is one of the most fascinating artists of the
Miki Bunryu (1716-1799) studied painting in Edo with So Shiseki Edo period. Though not a professional painter – he prided himself on his
(1715-1786), a proponent of the Nagasaki school. This realistic work expertise with the qin (a Chinese zither-like instrument) - his paintings are
is clearly in the lineage of Shen Nanpin, a Chinese artist active in surprisingly in tune with a 20th/21st century sensibility. Landscapes that
Nagasaki during 1731-33. turn and twist, mountain peaks that tilt, odd circular “rock”-like forms that
both define and defy nature, brushwork not merely descriptive or simply
PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF FRANK KORN, TOKYO abstract – Gyokudo’s landscapes captivate the most jaded modern eye
that disparages all but contemporary art. Seemly simple, the execution is
3035 extremely sophisticated, recalling the best of Chinese literati painting. The
KAWAI GYOKUDO (1873-1957) brushwork, the interweaving and overlaying of wet and dry brushstrokes,
Isle of the Immortals the use of heavy and light ink, the sense of abandon though in total control
Hanging scroll, ink and color on silk; depicting pines on cliffs above a of the medium, is accompanied by a sensibility that conveys an intensity
seashore with a flock of seven cranes, signed Gyokudo, sealed Gyokudo and monumentality to the smallest of works. All in a state of continual flux,
With two wood storage boxes, one self-inscribed with signature and seal always intriguing – no rest but still a sense of stillness, the artistic image of
16 x 23in (40.5 x 58.5cm) this visionary still resonates without boundaries in today’s world.
$2,000 - 4,000
An excellent monograph on this extraordinary artist is presented in
James Cahill, Scholar Painters of Japan: The Nanga School, New
York, Asia Society, 1972, pp.71-86.

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