Both fans and collectors of Asian art are looking forward to Asia Week New York 2012 (March 16-24).
The event is “a collaboration among Asian art specialists, 5 auction houses, and 17 museums and Asian cultural institutions in the metropolitan New York area.”
One of the 17 cultural institutions is Japan Society.
They celebrate Asia Week New York 2012 with the opening of exhibit Deco Japan: Shaping Art and Culture, 1920-1945 in their gallery.
“Showcasing the spectacular craftsmanship and sophisticated design associated with both Japan and Art Deco style, this exhibition is the first in the U.S. to explore a little-known brand of pre-WWII modernism borne of competitive ingenuity and vivacious cosmopolitanism. Curated by Dr. Kendall Brown, Deco Japan: Shaping Art and Culture, 1920–1945 subtly conveys the complex social and cultural tensions in Japan during the Taisho and early Showa periods through dramatically designed examples of metalwork, ceramics, lacquer, glass, furniture, jewelry, sculpture and evocative ephemera such as sheet music, posters, postcards, prints and photography. The vitality of the era is further expressed through the theme of the moga(“modern girl”)–an emblem of contemporary urban chic that flowered briefly, along with the Art Deco style, in the 1920s and ’30s.”
Asian art and modern girls for Tokyo Thursdays # 227
Previously: 3.11 One Year Later, Commemorating Japan’s Tsunami and Earthquake at Japan Society
(* Illustration from Japan Society event pages…Credit: K. Kotani (dates unknown), The Modern Song (Modan bushi), 1930. Color lithograph, ink on paper, 16 x 20 in. Photograph courtesy of The Levenson Collection)