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FEBRUARY 2012
A Fragile Heritage, China Counts its Lost Ruins
January 2012
A Chinese Conundrum: Hong Kong Sales Slow Down
NOVEMBER 2011
Hong Kong Autumn Sales: Reading the Mixed Messages
OCTOBER 2011
Museum der Kulturen Basel Opens After Refurbishment
September 2011
Cover: World Heritage List New Sites
JUNE 2011
Thai Border Clashes Continue Around Preah Vihear Temple
March 2010
The Indian Portrait 1560-1860
The Indian Portrait 1560-1860
An exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London opens in March and aims to trace the history of the Indian portrait over three centuries, from the Mughals to the Raj. Bringing together 60 works from international public and private collections, The Indian Portrait 1560-1860 celebrates the beauty, power and humanity portrayed in these works of art. By gathering these paintings as a cohesive group, the exhibition shows that Indian portraiture – an area of artistic achievement often overlooked in Britain – should be seen alongside other outstanding portraits from around the world.
NORTHERN SONG RU WARE Recent Archaeological Findings
NORTHERN SONG RU WARE Recent Archaeological Findings
Ru ware is the most celebrated of Northern Song (960-1127) ceramics. These utensils were made exclusively for the court and were ranked among the Ding, Jun, Guan and Ge as the ‘five classic wares’ of the Song dynasty (960-1279). They began to be collected as early as the Southern Song (1127-1279) and as the rarest of all surviving classical wares, were transmitted from generation to generation. No copies were reproduced until the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), when the Yongzheng emperor (r.1723-1735) allowed prototypes from the imperial collection to be made at Jingdezhen. Today, only around seventy pieces of Ru ware are extant and might be found at The Palace Museum, Beijing, the National Palace Museum, Taipei and the British Museum, London.
THE TURKISH ROOM IN DRESDEN
THE TURKISH ROOM IN DRESDEN
When the Turkish Room (Türckische Cammer) opens in Dresden’s Residenzschloss this month (March), it will have created an extraordinary space to display the permanent orientalcollection in the former palace of the electors of Saxony. Furthermore, the collection has not been on public display in full for over 70 years.
WHERE THREE DREAMS CROSS
WHERE THREE DREAMS CROSS
To coincide with the flurry of Indian activity that has bled across thecultural landscape in London currently, an exhibition opens at Whitechapel Gallery that concentrates on the history and majestic of the photographic image from three countries that were originally one. Beautifully framed coloured and uncoloured works from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan are drawn together in the open rooms of the recently renovated Whitechapel Gallery, where works aredivided into five themes that include historical works with modern and contemporary photographs. Overwhelming for its ambition and wholly staggering for its inclusion of so many individual works, Where Three Dreams Cross could be in danger of falling on its sword, too much and too many might allow for very little meditative clarity among these episodes from history. Yet such initial apprehension is quickly absorbed by the sheer elegance and the beguiling rigour of these works from the sub-continent that rub side by side on choreographed walls of regions, districts and countries.