NEW YORK, NY.- On March 23, Christie’s will present Japanese and Korean Art, which will include over 300 traditional and modern works of art. The Japanese section of the sale will feature a noteworthy group of classical screens of beauty, and the Korean section will offer an exquisite group of ceramics including a fine group of modern paintings. This spectacular sale will be one of the most valuable Japanese and Korean sales yet held in New York, with a value in excess of $14 million.

Japanese Art
The highlight of the Japanese Art sale is Southern Barbarians Come to Trade, a pair of six-paneled screens attributed to Kano Naizen (1570-1616) (estimate on request). The newly discovered screens have been stored away for four hundred years that they have not previously been published. They present a narrative of the dynamic commerce of the East and West around 1600 depicting a ship setting sail from an imaginary foreign land, perhaps China, and another ship unloading cargo in the port of Nagasaki on the west coast of Kyushu, the southernmost of the four main islands of Japan. The pair of screens, in exceptionally fine condition, features the gold leaf and jewel-like colors of costly ground malachite and azurite that signal the work of the master, Kano Naizen, whose seals appear on both screens.

Property from the Collection of Max Palevsky
Born in Chicago, Max Palevsky (1924-2010) was an innovator and forerunner in computers and systems technology. His work continues to influence computing technology today. Max Palevsky collected Japanese prints for over thirty years. One of his first purchases was in the late 1970s, when he walked into Ronin Gallery in New York and bought two images from Yoshitoshi’s series One Hundred Aspects of the Moon (1885-92). By the early 1980s, he had traveled to Japan and was buying ukiyo-e prints steadily at auction in New York, London and Paris. He was still buying at auction in 2002.

Offered in this sale are twenty-eight works from the Collection of Max Palevsky, including the cover lot- Kitagawa Utamaro’s Needlework (Hari-shigoto), from an untitled set of five prints of everyday life, ca. 1797-98 (estimate: $180,000-220,000). The exceptional state of color preservation is a hallmark of this impression. It is extremely rare to find light blue and violet in perfect condition—both are notoriously fugitive pigments. The printer used three shades of purple to suggest the transparency of the thin fabric: the lightest over the woman’s white breast and the cat’s white body; a deeper shade where it overlaps the blue kimono; and the deepest where it is doubled over or held against the gray background. The one other known impression of this image is in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Also of note is an exceptional Noh robe, karaori with autumn grasses, Edo Period, early 19th century (estimate: $100,000-150,000). This silk robe, previously at the Idemitsu Museum of Arts in Tokyo, was used during Noh performances and most likely worn for a main character of a lonely woman due to the muted, cool colors of brown and light blue. Noh robes were never identical, but there was a similar robe date from the 17th century in the collection of the Tokugawa Art Museum in Nagoya, Japan.

The sale will also offer exquisite works of the Meiji period including a pair of inlaid mixed-metal vases, late 19th century (estimate: $80,000-120,000) and a cloisonné- enamel vase, 1890 (estimate: $70,000-90,000)

Korean Art
The Korean section presents an elegant and scholarly ensemble of porcelain, screens and traditional and modern paintings. One of the outstanding pieces in the group of porcelain is a rare and important blue and white porcelain dragon jar for the Korean Royal Court, Joseon Dynasty (18th century) (estimate on request). The massive jar, almost two feet high, was sculpted on a wheel by an expert potter and is a testament to the mastery required to achieve the symmetry of the swelling body and tapering foot that ends with a discrete flare. The artistic quality of the dragons on this jar points to a member of the royal painter atelier who would make a twice-yearly trip to the royal kilns to decorate the most important vessels. Dragons with five claws appear on works of art made exclusively for the royal family of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). The dragon is a symbol of the king, representing power, authority, and dignity. Additional ceramic highlights include an expertly proportioned white porcelain jar, Joseon Dynasty (15th century) (estimate: $280,000-350,000) and an incised celadon stoneware ewer, Goryeo Dynasty (12th century) (estimate: $250,000-300,000), noted for its bright celadon glaze and dragon carvings.

Scholar’s paintings are well represented in the sale including a ten-panel screen of Scholar’s Accouterments (chaekgori), second half of 19th century (estimate: $250,000-400,000), a powerful expression of Korean culture illustrating rare and luxurious objects of a wealthy Joseon-period scholar; and The Ten Signs of Long Life (sipjansaeng), late 18th century, (estimate: $600,000-800,000), an elegant eight-panel screen with ten auspicious symbols associated with the Daoism- sun, clouds, water, rocks, deer, cranes, tortoises, pine trees, bamboo, and mushrooms.

Following the success of The Jerry Lee Musslewhite Collection sale in September 2010, Christie’s will offer Part II of the collection. The late American collector had a keen appreciation for Korean Art from the early 1960s during his post as Director of the Crafts shop at the U.S. Army military base in Daegu. Musslewhite began acquiring Korean art from nearby antique shops and befriending Buddhist monks at local temples. He continued to collect in 25 years in the country, and quietly assembled one of the largest collections of Joseon Buddhist paintings outside of Korea such as Assembled Deities, 19th century, a framed ink and color on silk (estimate: $8,000-12,000); Dokseong, the Solitary Ascetic, 19th century, a framed ink and color on silk (estimate: $4,000-6,000); and Butterflies and Flowers, 20th century, a wonderful ten-panel silk screen (estimate: $5,000-7,000).

The Korean section also offers a noteworthy group of fourteen modern and contemporary art with estimates ranging from $3,000- $800,000. The sale offers a fine selection by established artists including Kim Whanki’s 2-V- 73 #313, 1973, oil on canvas (estimate: $800,000-1,000,000) from a private collection, a masterpiece by Kim Whanki - an important Korean Artist of the 20th century with a unique blend of Eastern and Western sensibilities; Kim Tchah-Sup’s PI’s window 2009 (estimate: $100,000-120,000), a painting of harsh stones exploring the symbolic relationship between the natural world and (pi), a transcendental number used to express ratios in mathematics, physics and chemistry; and Kim Tschangyeul’s ENS 8027, 1980, oil on canvas (estimate: $20,000-30,000), one of his signature water droplets series.

Auction: Japanese and Korean Art March 23 at 2pm
Viewing: Christie's Rockefeller Galleries March 18-23