Asia Week New York, 12-19 March 2020

March 9, 2020

Many exhibitions, discussions and talks are set to take place in the heart of New York City as part of the annual celebration of Asian art, Asia Week New York, 12-19 March 2020. Over thirty specialist exhibitions, at various city galleries, will cover a wide array of both contemporary and antique Asian art forms, and while the majority of Asian auctions have been rescheduled for the week of 22 June 2020, the South Asian Modern & Contemporary sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s are scheduled to take place during the event.

Vaishnavite ritual textile depicting scenes from the Bhagavata Purana Assam, late 17th – early 18th century (2.21 x 0.82 m)

Francesca Galloway’s exhibition is at Stellan Holm Gallery, featuring a Vaishnavite ritual textile depicting scenes from the Bhagavata Purana, and other Indian textiles. The above textile forms part of a small corpus of Vaishnavite ritual textiles all woven in horizontal registers, picturing scenes from the life of Krishna. These silk lampas sometimes also illustrate scenes from the Ramayana which concerns Rama, another incarnation of Vishnu. Almost all the pieces bear woven inscriptions in Assamese describing the scenes above them. Although they are thought to have been woven in Assam, most have been found in Tibet, the earliest being a large hanging discovered on the 1904-’05 Younghusband expedition, now in the British Museum.

Japanese kesa, silk and gold, early 19th century

Further textiles of note are at Alan Kennedy’s exhibition at James Goodman Gallery, featuring Chinese and Japanese costumes, textiles and paintings, and at Thomas Murray’s exhibition, ‘Rarities: The Himalayas to Hawaii’ at Arader Galleries.

The Presentation to Akbar of the Keys of Mankot Fort, Ascribed to Dhanu Naqqash, Mughal, c. 1595-1600. Opaque pigments and gold on paper. Painting: 32.5 x 19.5cm; Folio: 36 x 23.5 cm

Paintings on display at Prahlad Bubbar’s ‘India 1600-1900’ exhibition at Jill Newhouse Gallery include a major Imperial Mughal folio from the ‘Third Akbarnama’, depicting the presentation to Akbar of the keys of Mankot Fort (detail above).