Highlighting the beauty of bamboo, this is the sixth such show Flying Cranes have mounted and it has now become something of a holiday season tradition in gallery 58 of the city’s top antiques centre.
The exhibition comprises more than 60 baskets worked by masters such as Chikubosai, Chikuunnsaii I and II, Shokosai and others.
Some of the baskets hark back in form to ancient Chinese vessels, tightly woven with slim slats of bamboo in symmetrical weaves, while others have rich colours and a looser, more spontaneous form.
Also from the Manhattan Center comes news that Islamic works of art specialists, the Anavian Gallery, have just opened on level 2 in space 81.
The gallery is owned by Paul Anavian. and his opening stock comprises three collections of Middle Eastern items gathered by his father Habib Anavian for the Shah of Iran during the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
Born in Iran Habib Anavian was a leading dealer in ancient Middle Eastern art who worked from his Madison Avenue gallery from the 1950s to the 1980s and sold to many museums as well as serious collectors.
Paul says the goal of the Anavian Gallery is to offer the public only authentic artefacts with a known provenance that have definitely not been looted from war-torn areas. His current stock is priced from $200 to $200,000.
The beauty of bamboo
STAYING in New York, dealers in Japanese works of art Flying Cranes Antiques hold a selling exhibition of Japanese Ikebana baskets at their galleries within the Manhattan Art and Antiques Center, 1050 Second Avenue at 56th Street, until January 31.
