JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2015 LECTURES

I'm going to be very busy in January and February, giving a variety of lectures. Here's my lecture schedule:

3 PM January 11, 2015, at the Lawrence, KS, Public Library. 
MIDCENTURY MODERN & JAPANESE DESIGN
A lecture based on research for my new book, Japanese Design: Art, Aesthetics, & Culture; sponsored by the Lawrence Modern group, in conjunction with the Lawrence Public Library and the Center for East Asian Studies, University of Kansas, with a book signing arranged by the Raven Bookstore.


 7:30 PM January 20, 2015, The Huntington Library, Pasadena, CA
SEARCHING FOR THE SPIRIT OF THE SAGES:  THE JAPANESE TEA CEREMONY FOR SENCHA
A lecture derived from my earlier book, Tea of the Sages: The Art of Sencha and subsequent research. The lecture is part of an ongoing series in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Huntington's Japanese garden and its new teahouse.

January 23, 2015, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (time & place not yet announced)
LANGDON WARNER'S VISION FOR THE JAPANESE COLLECTION AT THE NELSON-ATKINS MUSEUM OF ART, 1930-1935
My presentation is part of a two-day conference on "Ideas of Asia in the Museum," January 23-24 (the talks on the 24th will take place at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art).

January 26  (evening), Scripps College, Claremont, CA
 January 29, 1 PM, at the San Diego Museum of Art
February 18, Phoenix Art Museum
JAPANESE DESIGN: AESTHETIC COMPONENTS, CULTURAL SOURCES, WORLDWIDE PROMOTERS

A public presentation based on my new book. The talk in San Diego is sponsored by the museum's Asian Arts Council. The talk will explore the varied formal characteristics of Japanese design, the religious and cultural factors that contributed to its creation, and the writers, both foreign and Japanese, some famous and others nearly forgotten, responsible for creating worldwide awareness of and sustaining interest in Japanese design from the 19^th century to the present.

UPDATED INFORMATION ON TRADE IN OBJECTS CONTAINING ENDANGERED SPECIES

The law firm Pearlstein & McCullough has posted a useful FAQ about the new regulations restricting trade in endangered species artifacts (focusing on ivory, mammoth ivory, & rhinoceros horn), especially as they pertain to New York State. It requires people who wish to continue such trade for articles made of these materials that qualify for exemptions to the rule. The law firm's FAQ includes a very useful guide in table form for consumers, "What can I do with my ivory articles or rhinoceros horn?"

WHERE TO BUY FAKE CHINESE ANTIQUITIES

The World of Chinese online magazine has a very interesting article by Ginger Huang, posted August 3, 2014, "The Antique Hustle," that describes how prevalent the forging of Chinese art is in China. She says that the place to buy these in Beijing is Shilihe Antique Plaza, just south of Panjiayuan, China's "CBD of antiques" (just south of Guomao). She also describes how so-called scholarly experts, who work in museums and research institutes are too far removed from the world of the antiques trade to be able to spot fakes and so having authentication from these people is no guarantee of authenticity. The article describes how before 1949 experts were university trained, but because of the Cultural Revolution, that lasted through the opening up of China to the West in 1978, people were forbidden to study historical relics and the younger generation of scholars lacks the continuity of learning from their elders. Furthermore, since the late 1980s, counterfeiting has gotten very sophisticated and harder to detect. A recent scandal that came to light, recounted in the article, made the headlines with the title"Forbidden Palace Experts No Rivals for Henan Peasants." Forgers, often peasants, specialize in different types of fakes. Some, for example, grind up ancient Han dynasty bricks to produce fake pieces that fool the scientific tests. The bottom line: BUYER BEWARE AND CONSIDER PROVENANCE* BEFORE PURCHASING CHINESE ART.

*Take heed that although papers might indicate a piece to have been owned by someone's relative or friend for many decades, before the prevalence of production of these recent fakes, these documents too are often forged. That is why pieces coming out of older foreign collections with undisputed chain of ownership records command the highest prices these days.