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Japanese screen ‘crowning jewel’ in exhibit

100-piece Asian Art Through the Ages hailed as ‘the best of the best’ in Art Gallery of Greater Victoria collection

What: Millennia: Asian Art Through the Ages
Where: Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
When: Opens Saturday, continues to March 31
Admission: Adult $13, students and seniors $11, youth $2.50, under five free

 

The old Japanese screen once owned by architect Frank Lloyd Wright is in pristine condition. But when it was donated to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria in 1995, it was in deplorable shape.

“It looked like it’d been used for a hockey backstop. It had dents and holes in it,” said Barry Till, the gallery’s Asian arts curator.

The $500,000 screen, created by artist Sanraku Kano, is a crowning jewel in the gallery’s new exhibit, Millennia: Asian Art Through the Ages. Till describes the 100-piece show as “the best of the best” of the AGGV’s Asian collection, itself ranked as one of the most important and comprehensive in Canada.

The screen, measuring 197-cm-by-370-cm, portrays a peacock displaying its grand plumage beside a pine tree. Painted on glimmering gold leaf in the 17th century, it was acquired in the 1900s by Wright, who used such artworks for his show-homes.

Years later, when Vancouver art dealer Uno Langmann acquired it from an antique shop near Indianapolis, it was already badly damaged. Aware of its rarity and potential value, Langmann hauled the giant screen back to Vancouver in his Ford 150 van. His children had to bend their heads the whole way to accommodate it.

Till convinced Langmann to donate the screen, arguing it would be unsellable in its damaged condition and expensive to repair. The curator then persuaded the Japanese government to spend $150,000 to restore the screen. (Such funding is a matter of national pride. Japan, Till says, finds it embarrassing if its artworks are publicly displayed in poor condition.)

It’s not the most valuable artwork in Millennia: Asian Art Through the Ages — there is, for example, a Chinese painting worth $6-million-plus. China’s ongoing financial boom has been a bonus for the AGGV. Till said in the past five to 10 years, the gallery’s 10,000-plus-item collection has increased in value “five-fold, maybe as much as 10-fold.”

He added: “You’re looking at tens of millions of dollars for what we have here.”

The exhibit showcases both old and new artworks: paintings, bronze objects, ceramics, textiles, amber and ivory carvings. There are oracle bones, crossbow mechanisms, tomb figurines and funerary pillows. Among the treasures are scrolls portraying the 10 judgments of Hell complete with dogs gnawing on limbs and bodies sawed in half and impaled on spikes.

Another exhibition highlight is a pair of tapestries made from cut silk from the late-17th/early-18th century. While the provenance is somewhat uncertain, it’s believed they were once owned by British aristocrats. The story goes that the Prince of Wales (later George IV) once offered 500 pounds for the full set of five or six, but was turned down. Another tale is that the owners acquired them in exchange for a set of white carriage horses.

What’s known for sure is that Renée Chipman of Lilloet donated them to the AGGV in 1977. Tapestries of this type and large size (235 cm by 135 cm) are extremely rare — only 20 are known to exist. One shows scholars chatting next to a lake. The other, which Till deems the more interesting, depicts a Manchu emperor sitting while devotees shower him with gifts. In the foreground a mounted archer makes a backward shot over his horse’s rump.

This is serious art. Yet if you look closely, the exhibit has a sense of humour, too. One of Till’s favourite objects is far from priceless — but it’s fun. What appears to be a jug is in fact a 19th-century chamberpot in the likeness of Sir Harry Smith Parkes.

In China, the British diplomat was despised for making blundering statements believed to have helped trigger the Second Opium War. In retaliation, Chinese potters made works such as the Parkes chamberpot.

“It’s not particularly valuable,” Till said, “but I love the story.”

The AGGV’s Asian collection was started by Colin Graham, the gallery’s first director, who retired in 1973. Among the first acquisitions were Japanese prints donated by Catherine and Alexandra McEwen in 1950. The two sisters were Americans stranded in Victoria during the Second World War. When the AGGV took possession of its current Moss Street premises, there was no room for such prints other than a closet for chairs and cleaning fluids.

Today, the internationally recognized Asian collection is particularly strong in the categories of Japanese and Chinese art, although it also has many works from India, Asia, China and Korea. Over his 35-year tenure at the gallery, Till solicited additions to an already impressive collection of Japanese art and was instrumental in bolstering the Chinese collection, which he says is now “quite superb.”

With little funds at his disposal, Graham became clever at cultivating the acquaintance of Asian art collectors and encouraging them to donate.

“He was very charming,” Till said. “He was a bit of a mentor. He’d say, this is how you handle things.”

Till’s own expertise and enthusiasm for Asian art has been a boon for the AGGV. He followed Graham’s advice, that the cleverest way to grow the collection is to “collect the collectors.” It means sleuthing out who has the best collection, cultivating relationships, learning about the most prized pieces and persuading owners to lend them for exhibitions.

Once such groundwork is in place, finessing donations becomes, well ... not easy. But easier.

There are still some private collections Till would love to tap. Asked if there is a single “holy grail” he’d like to obtain for the art gallery, the curator hesitated, then nodded.

Is it in town? Yes, he said.

Can you say what it is?

Till just smiled.

“No,” he said.

achamberlain@timescolonist.com