NOV/DEC 2016

VOLUME 47 - NUMBER 8

Our November/December issue spotlights Shangri La, a museum in Honolulu, Hawai‘i that was the former residence of the American heiress Doris Duke (1912–93) and houses her collection of Islamic art. Following an introduction by Shangri La’s Executive Director Konrad Ng, Sharon Littlefield Tomlinson examines the history of the collection, which could be termed idiosyncratic in that Duke largely selected and commissioned works for their visual appeal, contextualizing them within her home and often going against the general trend in collecting. Yumiko Kamada discusses the textiles and carpets in the collection, while Tomoko Masuya focuses on the Ilkhanid period tiles.

Next, Lhagvasuren Erdenebold, Ah-Rim Park and Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt describe a little-published tomb in Bayannuur, northern Mongolia, positing a date and an identification for the burial and situating it within the history of Chinese art and, more broadly, that of the Eurasian continent. Regina Krahl presents some of the works from the Oriental Ceramic Society, London on view in the show ‘China without Dragons’, and Shi-yee Liu introduces some of the narrative paintings in the exhibition ‘Show and Tell’ at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. We also interview the curators of ‘Tales of Our Time’, the second commission of The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, which includes new works by artists from Greater China. The issue concludes with a commentary by Steven B. Gallagher on a legal absurdity that legitimizes the sale of looted antiquities in Hong Kong.

FEATURES
Sharon Littlefield Tomlinson. Fringe Benefit:The Margins of Islamic Art at Shangri La
Yumiko Kamada. A Passion for Collecting: Islamic Textiles at Shangri La
Tomoko Masuya.Iranian Tiles from the Ilkhanid Period at Shangri La
Lhagvasuren Erdenebold, Ah-Rim Park and Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt. A Tomb in Bayannuur, Northern Mongolia
Regina Krahl. ‘China without Dragons’: An Exhibition of the Oriental Ceramic Society
Shi-yee Liu. ‘Show and Tell’: The Art of Storytelling in Chinese Painting
PREVIEWS & REVIEWS
Book Review: ‘Discovering Tibet: The Tucci Expeditions and Tibetan Paintings’ by Milan Skira
Exhibition Review: ‘The Secret Garden: Symbols of Nature in Wood, Silver and Gold’
Guardian Fine Art Asia
Asia Art in London 2016
INTERVIEWS
‘Tales of Our Time’: An Interview with Hou Hanru and Xiaoyu Weng
NEWS
Sakamoto Goro (1923–2016)
News
Gallery News
COMMENTARY
Steven B. Gallagher. Market Overt in Hong Kong: A ‘Legal Absurdity’