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Art News:
FYI
In
celebration of Mexicos bicentennial, the Crow Collection of Asian
Art
explores the imprint of Asian art on Mexico in Black Current: Mexican Responses to Japanese Art, 17th
19th
Centuries. Mexico, as The Viceroyalty of New Spain
between
1521 and 1821, was a strategic player in a global trade network that
linked
Asia, the Americas and Europe. Black
Current highlights works of art
made
in Mexico between the 17th and 19th centuries that reflect exposure to
Japanese
art only one of many offerings of the trade, but one that left
an
identifiably distinct imprint on Mexican material
culture.
Free and open to the public, the Black Current exhibition
will
run from October 21 through January 2 at the Crow Collection. Please
see
details below, and let me know if you need anything. Thank
you!
Taylor
Mayad
214.353.8976
wk
214.435.7756
m
214.352.6894
fx
taylormayad@sbcglobal.net
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
CROW COLLECTION OF ASIAN ART TO PRESENT
BLACK CURRENT: MEXICAN RESPONSES TO
JAPANESE
ART, 17TH 19TH CENTURIES, OCTOBER 21 JANUARY
2
Crow Collection celebrates Mexicos bicentennial
with
inspired exhibition highlighting the enduring cultural imprint of Japanese
art
forms in Mexico
DALLAS (October 13, 2010)
In celebration of the bicentennial of Mexicos independence, the Crow
Collection
of Asian Art explores the imprint of Asian art on Mexico in
Black Current: Mexican Responses to
Japanese
Art, 17th 19th Centuries. Mexico, as The Viceroyalty of
New
Spain between 1521 and 1821, was a strategic player in a global
trade
network that linked Asia, the Americas and Europe.
Black Current
highlights
works of art made in Mexico between the 17th and 19th centuries that
reflect
exposure to Japanese art only one of many offerings of the trade,
but
one that left an identifiably distinct imprint on Mexican material
culture.
Opening Thursday, October 21, the Black Current exhibition
runs
through Sunday, January 2, 2011. Free and open to the
public.
There
is a very interesting history of Japanese merchant ships sailing to and
from
Mexico, profiting from the mutually lucrative galleon trade, and the
residual
effects it had upon Mexican culture, said Trammell S.
Crow.
Were thrilled to have an opportunity to honor the
Mexican
bicentennial with the Black
Current
exhibition, which demonstrates the subtle influences between two
different
cultures in an insightful, enlightening
way.
The exhibition takes its name from the equatorial
current
flowing to Mexico from Japan. Japanese seafarers saw it as a dark band on
the
horizon and called it Kuroshio,
the
Black Current. The Black Current brought
Asia
to Mexicos doorstep in myriad curiosities, commodities, and
luxury
goods, their origins often obscured in labels such as China
and
the Indies. Stately galleons departed from Manila in the
Philippines
and brought trade goods from all over Asia to Mexicos shores. The
ships
returned to Manila with payment in silver and dyestuffs from
Mexicos
soil. With port cities on the Atlantic and Pacific, Mexico was
more
exposed in this period than any other part of the Western world to goods
and
commodities from Asia, whether they came indirectly from Europe or as part
of
the galleon trade that ran regularly between Manila and Acapulco Bay from
1571
to
1815.
In a selection of approximately 30 objects,
Black Current demonstrates
the
enthusiastic response of Mexicos artists and consumers to Japanese
art
forms: pictorial folding screens, lacquered objects of inlaid shell
and
precious metals, and votive paintings, conveniently rolled for travel.
These
responses range from pure quotation, to local equivalencies, to
independent
flights of distinctive Mexican cultural
identity.
Three folding screens in the exhibition made in 17th-century Mexico for
elite
patrons incorporate Japanese pictorial conventions, techniques
for
elements such as hinges on the convenient room screens. The grave black
and
gold beauty of Japanese lacquer appealed to 17th-century Iberian
sensibilities,
and shell inlay has a history among pre-Conquest cultures of the
Americas.
Japanese lacquer was a product not only of Japanese craft traditions, but
also
of a tree native to
Asia.
Two lacquer chests from the Crow Collection of Asian Art are included in
the
exhibition. They are painted in gold and silver, inlaid in mother of pearl,
and
were made in Japan for export. They provide evidence of Japanese
objects
available in Mexico through the galleon trade that were admired and
innovated
upon. The New World approximation of Japanese lacquer is a varnish known
as
barniz de
pasto.
Of particular note in the exhibition are two series of paintings called
enconchados or
[pictures]
incorporating shell.
The
subjects are Catholic narratives of the life of the Virgin, and one includes
an
image of the patron saint of Mexico, the Virgin of Guadalupe. The
narrative
style is European; only the Virgin of Guadalupe is shown in Mexican
iconic
form. It is the technique that assumes particular interest in the frame of
the
exhibition, as possibly inspired by Japanese mother of pearl pictorial
inlay.
The exhibition provides an opportunity to consider this proposition in a
visual
context.
Works of art for this exhibition were drawn from collections in Mexico and
the
United
States.
The Crow Collection of Asian Art thanks the Consulate General of Mexico in
Dallas
for its full support of this effort to further bridge east and west.
In
addition, the Crow Collection thanks the Black
Current Advisory Council for its leadership throughout the planning of
this
momentous exhibition. Advisory Council Members: Consul General Juan
Carlos
Cue-Vega, Mr. Adolfo Ayuso-Audry, Ms. Tricia
Bridges, Mr. Alfonso Montiel, Mr. Michael Mendoza,
Mr.
Jim Falk, Ms. Martha Hinojosa, Ms. Clara Hinojosa, Ms. Helene Rudberg,
Ms.
Patricia Clavo, Ms. Whitney Hyder More, Ms. Michelle Nussbaumer, Ms.
Anna
McFarland, Mr. Keith Evans, Mr. Ray Jobe and Mr. Roger
Wallace.
Admission is free. The Crow Collection of Asian Art is open Tuesdays
Thursdays (10 a.m. 9 p.m.), Fridays Sundays (10 a.m.
6
p.m.) and closed on Mondays. For more information, please go to
crowcollection.org
or
call
214-979-6430.
About The Crow
Collection
The Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art is located in the
Arts
District of downtown Dallas. The Crow Collection is a permanent set
of
galleries dedicated to the arts and cultures of China, Japan, India
and
Southeast Asia. LinkAsia, the newly dedicated gallery space at the
Crow
Collection, presents art works that provide a contemporary global path
to
understanding Asia through unique perspectives and mediums. The museum offers
a
serene setting for both quiet reflection and learning, which spans from
the
ancient to the
contemporary.
IMAGES AVAILABLE UPON
REQUEST
###
MEDIA
CONTACT:
Carrie
Ford
ph/214.271.4485
cell/512.663.6798
cford@crowcollection.org
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