The Eskenazi name is best known as a leading international Oriental Art dealership, but now Daniel Eskenazi has offered his own work, created in collaboration with Kate Daudy, in a collection titled "Yellow Mountains and Red Letters".
The Eskenazi family business was founded in Milan in 1925 and today enjoys a distinguished international reputation as one of the leading names in Oriental Art. The company's clients include more than 70 of the most important international art institutions and museums.
The exhibition of 10 unique photographic prints of Chinese scenery (each in an edition of five) were taken by Daniel Eskenazi on a trip to China. They are enhanced with quotations from classical poetry, delicately applied in polychrome felt lettering.
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In similar mode to the ancient scroll and fan paintings, these contemporary images follow a traditional method of linking image and text, which is both arresting and thought provoking.
Pictures, poetry and mountains...
When the ancient Chinese scroll painters set brush to paper to record their vistas and verse, little did they realise that several hundred years later and several thousands of miles away, another generation of artists would be inspired by their work which would lead them to continue the tradition of pictures with poetry.
The mountain has long been associated with Chinese cultural tradition and it was in 747 that Emperor Li Longji of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), who believed the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan became immortal whilst in the mountains, renaming it Huangshan or Yellow Mountain.
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The photos in this exhibition have been cropped in traditional landscape or fan shaped format, which combined by the duotone print on cotton based paper, gives the photos a more painterly feel associated with Chinese paintings.
Chinese painting and calligraphy have always been closely related and it seemed natural for Daniel's photos derived from Chinese painting, to be adorned by Kate's calligraphic quotes.
An artist worthy of the Sackler collection
Kate Daudy, meanwhile, is an artist who works with poetry. Her work draws on the ancient Chinese tradition of inscribing poetry on objects and it can be found in private and public collections across China, the US, and Europe.
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Her technique involves composing or carefully choosing poetry that reflects or contrasts with the nature of the object in question. The letters that form these poems are then cut from felt fabric and applied in differing techniques, depending on the object.
Examples of her work are now in the following collections; Mr and Mrs Robert Guinness, the Royaumont Foundation, Canongate publishing, Lord and Lady Bamford, Bjork, the Sackler family, Rufus Wainwright as well as many others.
"Yellow Mountains and Red Letters" will be on view at Bonhams, London in a Selling Exhibition from November 4-12. Prices will range from £3,000 to £8,500.
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