In the exhibition “Hokusai’s Summit: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” is a section of very rare early works by Hokusai, including these two portraits of Kabuki actors. Shawn Eichman, Curator of Asian Art, fills us in Hokusai and Kabuki.

This is the second in a series of podcasts about works in “Hokusai’s Summit: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji,” on view through Jan. 3, 2010.

“Hokusai’s Summit: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji,” on view through Jan. 3, 2009

“Hokusai’s Summit: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” has been incredibly gratifying for Academy staff. Putting the exhibition together was a big team effort, and the curatorial departments—Asian Art, Education and European and American Art—collaborated and tried new things. But best of all, it’s a show that is completely from the permanent collection. We don’t need to bring in mummies or Monets from other museums to mount a riveting show. More than 1,300 members came for the special members-only opening reception on Sept. 23. It was so cool to see grown-ups doing the in-gallery activities conceptualized by the Education Department—making prints of “Red Fuji” at the four printing stations, writing haiku, and spinning the woodblocks ingeniously mounted by the Installation Department. And the interest hasn’t died—there is a steady stream of art fans drinking in the views of Mount Fuji every day. Here are scenes from the members’ opening. Photos by Shuzo Uemoto.

continue reading from this tag

For Shawn Eichman, Curator of Asian Art at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, two of the most interesting works in the current exhibition “Hokusai’s Summit: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” are not by Hokusai. Find out why he’s so intrigued by Tomioka Tessai’s two fan paintings in this podcast.

This is the first in a series of podcasts about works in “Hokusai’s Summit: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji,” on view through Jan. 3, 2010.

Just went to see the Charles Bartlett works in the Jhamandas Watumull Gallery. I love his prints and drawings—he’s like Beatrix Potter for grown ups. The works are just so damn charming, with their precise lines and seductive colors. Asian Art Curator Shawn Eichman’s juxtapositioning of the Englishman’s renderings of the Indian scenes with a dancing Krishna and the rest of our Indian art collection is brilliant. It’s total “Passage to India” through art—an Englishman in the land of nirvana. This 17-century lingam cover seems to be staring right at Bartlett’s print of the Taj Mahal.

The small, incredibly detailed paintings in the exhibition “Muraqqa’: Imperial Mughal Albums from the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin,” have visitors picking up the provided magnifying glasses in the galleries. Each work is chock full of things to find. I’m especially fascinated by the melding of painting styles and subject matter—you can see the influence of Persian miniature painting and Renaissance works. (Did you know that Persian was the administrative language of India until the British arrived? Found out on the PBS series “The Story of India“). India was a multicultural hub of trade and artistic exchange in the 17th century. I keep going back to check on the portrait of Jahangir, the size of an extra large stamp, put in the same folio as a portrait of Jesus. (During a staff tour, Academy Director Stephen Little pointed out that in these two-portraits-in-one folios, the Mughal emporer is always on top—he who pays for the painting gets top billing.) The catalog says duo depictions with Jesus wasn’t uncommon, though the reason for it has been lost to time. I see it as evidence of a religiously tolerant time during Muslim reign in India—much like Spain during its Islamic dynasties in the Middle Ages. Both cultures produced amazing art.

Here’s Shawn Eichman, Academy Curator of Asian Art, talking about this amazing exhibition, in a video produced by the Star Bulletin’s Nadine Kam, who also wrote an article on the artwork’s mash-up qualities. In today’s Advertiser is David A.M. Goldberg’s witty, illuminating review, making reference to everything from graffiti to facial hair trends. (One correction: Painters of miniature paintings used brushes of rat whiskers, not hairs, to achieve some of the incredibly tiny details.)
“Muraqqa’” is on view through March 1. You can take a docent-led tour of the exhibition on Feb. 17, 19, and 22. Or go on a zip tour during the next ARTafterDARK: Mughal.

In the exhibition “Literati Modern: Bunjinga from Late-Edo to Twentieth-Century Japan, The Terry Welch Collection at the Honolulu Academy of Arts,” on view through Nov. 16, there is a painting of two regal cranes, and a diptych of a dog and her litter of puppies. Listen to collector Terry Welch, exhibition curator Michiyo Morioka and Academy Curator of Asian Art Shawn Eichman talk about “Cranes (Tsuru zu)” by Tsuji Kakô and “Mother’s Breast (Chichi)” by Yano Kyôson, and you’ll learn that there’s a lot more than Hello Kitty cuteness going on.

At 8pm last night, people crowded the nook in the Henry Luce Gallery that holds Mika Tajima’s “Extruded Plaid (Suicidal Desires)” to see the New York artist’s performance piece that accompanies the installation. In five-inch black and gold glam heels Tajima crouched on the ground and smashed pieces of glass with a hammer—in a very deliberate, controlled, mesmerizing manner, a bang then a slow stir, as an alchemist at a cauldron. The crunching sound went into reverb and filled the gallery. Then she traded hammer for electric guitar, the volume slowly, almost imperceptibly rising, until it drowned out the sound of breaking glass. One art consumes another, like a serpent swallowing its tail.

Some raved about genius, others held their ears. It was the highlight of a night that brought the Honolulu art community together. 

At the 5:30 opening for the Society of Academy Fellows, the key players in Asian Sensation spoke. The three-pronged exhibition marks the first time the Asian art department and the European and American art department have collaborated. From left to right are Academy director Stephen Little; Karin Higa, curator at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles and one of the three curators of “One Way or Another”; former deputy director Susan Sayre Batton, who just left the Academy to become acting deputy director of the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles; April Lee, manager of special projects and curator of “Leland Miyano: Historia Naturalia et Artificialia”; Rui Sasaki, who coordinated “One Way or Another” at the Academy; and Asian art curator Shawn Eichman, who was instrumental in bringing “Shu: Reinventing Books in Contemporary Chinese Art” to the Academy.
continue reading from this tag