Go East
17 March 2020
Jan-Peter Westad speaks with some of The Open Art Fair’s exhibitors specialising in Asian Art.
Jan-Peter Westad
Jan-Peter is a freelance journalist and researcher based in London.
Astrological study, 18th–19th century, ink and gouache on paper. Origin: North India.
Wandering through Portobello Road market almost 30 years ago, Joost van den Bergh picked up a small catalogue with what he took to be a subtle modernist cover. Far from an example of European modern art, the catalogue was for the Hayward Gallery’s historic 1971 exhibition Tantra: the Indian cult of ecstasy. In that moment in rainy West London, Joost discovered an esoteric tradition from the Far East that would become a lifelong passion. He remembers being immediately struck by the minimalist geometric patterns. “They appear simple at first, but carry so much history with them”, he tells me. Joost has since put on multiple tantra exhibitions of his own, building on his passions for Indian decorative art and Japanese art deco. Tantra as an idea is difficult to tie down. The word itself can be loosely translated from Sanskrit to mean ‘system’ or ‘doctrine’. Aspects of tantra are found in early Hindu, Jain and Buddhist traditions. Its practices encompass medicine, religious ritual and cosmology. And there are, of course, other more erotic connotations.
After failing secondary school in his native Holland, Joost worked in Sotheby’s Old Masters department, later training as a paper restorer. His own interest in tantra is academic. “These esoteric works represent ancient thoughts”, he enthuses. Examining some of his astrological studies and architectural sketches, it is, indeed, easy to imagine the mind behind the delicate systems where belief meets design. Alongside ink and gouache drawings, Joost will exhibit 20th century Japanese ceramics and, for the first time, Western art: a 1983 painting by the modernist American artist Joan Witek. “The Open Art Fair seems to me the right place to do something new”, he says, adding “It’s going to be abstract, different and maybe a bit mad”. Not unlike tantra.
For Caroline Wallrock, exhibiting with Wick Antiques, colour and not form sparked her fascination with Asian art. “I was early for a job interview, so I wandered through the V&A museum”, she tells me on the phone from her office on the edge of the New Forest in Lymington. Upon entering a room dedicated to Middle Eastern art, she discovered a tile panel from the 17th century, Isfahan, Iran. “It was the blues and turquoises that grabbed me”, she says. “It was a totally different culture from anything I’d known”.
A large bronze tripod Koro attributed to the Kanazawa Doki Company, circa 1900. Origin: Japan.
Caroline was inspired to take up Persian studies at Durham University. As part of the course, she spent almost a year in Isfahan teaching at the university before the revolution of 1978 forced her to return home. “We had to be escorted out by police. There were riots”, she says. This was followed by stints in Sotheby’s Islamic and Japanese departments. She then joined Wick Antiques after marrying its founder, Charles Wallrock. Wick Antiques specialise in fine nautical pieces as well as Japanese metal-work from the Meiji period. “The emperor banned the making of arms and armour”, Charles explains. “All the great swordsmiths turned to themselves to the new European market and made sensational 19th century bronzes”. And is Europe still the primary market? “Our clients are very international, including within Europe”, says Charles. “The Japanese works are especially popular in China”.
Chinese export lacquer model of the Nemesis Warship, circa 1840.
Alastair Gibson, of Gibson Antiques, agrees. “I’ve always relied on international fairs and clients”, he says. It’s not the easiest time to be selling to a market based largely out of Hong Kong. Last year, Alastair was caught up in riots of his own during widespread protests in the city against Chinese authorities. “I walked a couple of blocks with the black shirts”, he says. “They were very polite”. Multiple art fairs have also been cancelled due to the Coronavirus outbreak. Still, Alastair remains optimistic: “we might lose some footfall, but we have access to new markets and fairs”. The growing Asian market sheds light on broader historical changes. Many of Alastair’s pieces are ceramics originally from Asia and sold to a burgeoning European market in the 17th and 18th centuries. “Simplicity of design, blue and white palettes, famille-rose, all these secrets came from Asia. They were way ahead”, he explains.
Alastair’s show piece for the Open Art Fair tackles this complex – and sometimes ugly – history head on. It is a lacquer model of HMS Nemesis, Britain’s first iron-clad warship which terrorised Chinese towns during the First Opium War in the mid-19th century. In China, HMS Nemesis was called the “Devil Ship”. “It was commissioned by the East India Company and made by Chinese craftsmen”, says Alastair. “At the very moment they were being bombarded by the ship, they were able to make this beautiful model, which was then sold to Europe”.
Alongside elegant design, there is clearly plenty of politics, history and spirituality to be found in The Open Art Fair’s stands specialising in Asian art. But whatever it is that captures viewers’ imaginations, I’m sure we can all agree that the ability to create beautiful things in difficult times is something to be celebrated.
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