Page 32 - Bonhams Japanese Art and Antiqes sept 2015_Float
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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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