After America…After Japan
(Regge Life/1999/120 min/video)
Thursday, March 18, 6:30 P.M.
New York premiere of a documentary examining the experiences of "coming home" for Americans who have lived in Japan and for Japanese who have lived in America. After America takes a hard look at Japan's current economic and social crisis through the views of top Japanese businessmen and includes interviews with people from academia and the arts including Chalmers Johnson, Barbara Adachi and Kenny Endo, among others.
Discussion with filmmaker Regge Life, producer of Struggle and Success: The African American Experience in Japan, follows screening. Cosponsored by Japan Society. $10; $7 members (Asia Society/Japan Society)

Lectures/Panel Discussions/Demonstrations/Meet the Author Programs

Janet Koplos
Looking Into Basket Space
Tuesday, February 23, 6:30 P.M.
Art in America's Senior Editor and author of Contemporary Japanese Sculpture, Janet Koplos discusses the sculptural qualities of selected baskets from the Asia Society exhibition Bamboo Masterworks: Japanese Baskets from the Lloyd Cotsen Collection and compares them with basket imagery in contemporary American art. $10; $7 members

Patricia J. Graham
Chinese Baskets, Japanese Tea
Tuesday, March 9, 6:30 P.M.
University of Kansas art historian talks about how, since the late 19th century, Japanese basket makers have been producing extraordinary baskets in Chinese-derived styles as containers for flower arrangements which are used in different types of tea ceremony, both chanoyu and sencha. Graham is the author of Tea of the Sages: The Art of Sencha. Book signing and reception follow. $10; $7 members

Japanese Tea Ceremony
Thursday, March 25, 6:30 P.M.
Hisashi Yamada, tea master from the Urasenke Tea Ceremony Society, New York, talks about the art, philosophy and ritual of chanoyu (Japanese tea ceremony) and guides the audience through a traditional tea ceremony. Limited space. $15; $12 members

Yukiko Yanase
Companions in Beauty: Ikebana and Bamboo
Saturday, April 17, 3:00 P.M.
Leading bamboo specialist of Japan's renowned Ikenobô Ikebana Society will discuss and demonstrate the relationship between bamboo, nature and space. Limited space. $10; $7 members

Store Event

Arise Inc. Kimonos, Japanese Baskets and Textiles
Friday and Saturday, March 12 and 13
Arise Inc., a company specializing in hand-selected antiques and textiles from Japan, China, Indonesia and the Philippines, will be selling wearable art and home decorative items for the home, including ikebana baskets and silk vintage kimonos, in the lobby of the Asia Society.


Exhibition

Bamboo Masterworks: Japanese Baskets from the Lloyd Cotsen Collection
February 18 through Sunday, May 30, 1999
Connoisseurs have long regarded Japanese bamboo baskets as art objects of great sophistication and beauty. Now, for the first time, one hundred exquisite baskets from one of the world's most important collections are on view in this comprehensive exhibition, which blurs distinctions between utilitarian objects and sculpture. While celebrating the sheer aesthetic beauty of the baskets, the exhibition also introduces the historical background of basketry and its role in Japanese society, particularly in the context of flower display and the tea ceremony. An amazing variety of forms, textures and techniques is evident in the selection of baskets, which imitate, for example, lanterns, wells, or even boats, and abstract wave forms.

The Bamboo Masterworks: Japanese Baskets from the Lloyd Cotsen Collection exhibition and related programs are supported in part by the Mary Livingston Griggs and Mary Griggs Burke Foundation; Ellen Bayard Weedon Foundation; J. Aron Charitable Foundation, Inc.; and private funders. Support for Asia Society exhibitions and public programs has been provided by the Friends of Asian Arts, The Starr Foundation, The Armand G. Erpf Fund and the Arthur Ross Foundation.

The Asia Society is located at 725 Park Avenue (at 70th Street) in New York City. Galleries are open Tuesday - Saturday, 11:00 A.M. - 6:00 P.M.; Thursday, 11:00 A.M. -8:00 P.M. and Sunday, noon - 5:00 P.M. Admission is $4 adults; $2 students and senior citizens; free for Asia Society members and children under 12; and free to all on Thursday 6:00 - 8:00 P.M. For general information the public should call (212) 517-ASIA or visit the Asia Society on the world wide web (www.asiasociety.org).