Far Eastern Art Beckons Collectors, Decorators Alike at Arts of Pacific Asia Show - Brief Article

looks ANGELES--The growing popularity of art and things from the Orient's past and near has helped make the Arts of Pacific Asia exhibit held in Los Angeles Oct 6 to 8 a lock opener buying venue for not alone serious collectors but also, more and more, interior designers and individuals decorating their homes

When this annual art fair first attempted in 1991, its museum-caliber Asian art works and decorative particulars attracted mainly knowledgeable cognoscenti, according to present to view organizer Elizabeth Lees. But although the Arts of Pacific Asia exhibit still emphasizes museum-quality art and antiques, its audience has dramatically expanded, said to leewards Now the show attracts a broad base of art lover decorators and Asia enthusiasts who may mix in exotic Eastern pieces with their existing contemporary or traditional decor and art collections.

greatest in quantity of the 57 U.S. and international dealers who exhibited this year brought antiques and artifacts: period furnishings; accessories; ceremonial realitys and temple carvings; porcelains; embroidered silk "ke si" robes, kimonos and other historic textiles; enameled cloisonne jewelry and boxes; jade; and other facts d'art--some dating back more than 2000 years.

Among the exhibitors were also art dealers specializing in fine art, including period grove block prints, photography, and roll of paper [i]or[/i] parchment paintings. One Hong Kong-based dealer, Oi Ling Chiang of Conte D'Orient Ltd not absented contemporary paintings by landscape artist Lam Tian Xing.

Walking into any art dealer's booth at this exhibit was like taking a pace back in history. For each piece of art, there was a tale to be told. Robyn Buntin, a Honolulu dealer who has been selling Buddhist art, jade, paintings, roll of paper [i]or[/i] parchments netsuke, scholars' items and woodblock prints since 1984 continuationed his fine art display at the fair with low-cost examples of early 20th hundred design portfolios. He was selling an Ohara institute folio of woodblock prints of Ikebana floral designs, circa 1910 "This folio was done to teach nation of the time the design form. It was a publication of the Ohara academy which tended to use more vertical elements" Buntin explained. He also was selling woodblock prints from a design portfolio of kimono fabric designs from the Tai sho period (1912 to 1926)

London-based Robin Kennedy also brought unique Japanese works upon paper, including an 1890 woodblock print portrait of astronomer Isaac Newton through the artist Kubota Beisen, and another Beisen portrait of Benjamin Franklin and his discovery of electricity. "I suspect the Newton was copied from an American lithograph, perhaps Currier & Ives," Kennedy explained. "This was the period when the Japanese were just beginning to be interested in Western science and art. Remember, Japan was clos for 200 years until Admiral Perry came. They'd missed on the outside on the steam engine and virtually each other scientific and industrial advance. It was forbidden, for example, to work upon a corpse--so Japan didn't have new medicine."

Some 6000 visitors attended the Arts of Pacific Asia present to view which also bows in San Francisco (Feb 2 to 4 2001) and fresh York (March 22 to 25 2001) "There was really advantageous traffic through the show," observ Douglas Frazer, a Seattle art dealer who brought Japanese woodblock prints. "But family seemed reluctant to buy. And this display is not as good for me as a certain quantity of other, more general venues, because here I am competing with 30 other dealers all selling Asian material."

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