HIROSHI YANAGI PRESENTS JAPANESE ART EXHIBIT AT BERRY-HILL GALLERIES

Hiroshi Yanagi is pleased to announce an exhibition of outstanding selections of Japanese art to be held at the Berry-Hill Galleries in connection with International Asia Week (New York City), from March 12-18, 2009. The exhibition comprises over 30 important works, spanning the Heian to the Meiji Periods (12th to early 20th centuries), and features a variety of media including Buddhist sculptures, ceramics, lacquer objects, folding screens, and hanging scrolls by leading masters. An adjacent presentation of over 10 works by modern lacquer artist Shigenobu Mochizuki accompanies the exhibition. Traditional and Modern Masters focuses on the highly refined decorative subjects and forms. A highlight of the sculpture group is an idealized image of the Buddhist divinity, Dainichi Nyorai, executed in wood with polychrome pigments and dating to the 14th century. Paintings and screens present the traditional subject of birds-and-flowers and other floral themes, as well as animals and insects imitating their human counterparts, a humorous treatment of seasonal festivities in Japanese art stretching back to the Heian-period. Each of these works reveals the artists’ idiosyncratic style and brushwork. Shigenobu Mochizuki is a leader of the Kyoto arts community and an award-winning practitioner of traditional Japanese lacquer. His works have been featured in numerous solo exhibitions in Japan. This exhibition marks Professor Mochizuki's retirement from the Kyoto City University of Arts and features his best-known pieces from 1995-2008. The technique for producing hollow-dry lacquer objects (urushi) is time-consuming, involving building up layers of lacquer over a plaster mould, removing this core, and treating the surface with sumptuous, highly-polished vermillion and black lacquer. This process can take up to 6 months to complete for a single work. While the technique is ancient, Prof. Mochizuki’s works are wholly modernist in design, with simple, dynamic organic forms and bold monochromatic surfaces. Traditional and Modern Masters marks Hiroshi Yanagi’s first private exhibition in the United States. A prominent dealer in Japanese art whose career now spans five decades, Mr. Yanagi is based in Kyoto, where he has assembled outstanding collections. Mr. Yanagi has earned a large American clientele, having participated in the International Asian Art Fair since 2000. The exhibition will be open Thursday, March 12 –Wednesday, March 18, 10:00 am-6:00 pm, Saturday, 12 noon-8 pm, Sunday, 12 noon-6:00 pm. Inaugural Open House, March 14th, 12 noon –8:00 pm. Berry-Hill Galleries are located at 11 East 70th Street, New York, NY, 10021 (between Madison and 5th Avenues). Tel. 212 744-2300 Founded in the 17th century, Berry of London evolved into the Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., one of the oldest operating galleries in the USA today. Berry-Hill is widely regarded as a pioneer in the field of American Art. The gallery also handles Contemporary American art, Modern European paintings, and Old Master paintings of the highest quality in addition to key 18th, 19th and early 20th century American paintings and sculpture. www.berry-hill.com