Private Art Collection on Bryn Mawr

A rare opportunity to purchase works on paper and canvas collages by well known Japanese contemporary abstract artist Yutake Ohashi, and master jeweler Miyé Matsukata, whose work is included in the Smithsonian collection of contemporary Japanese American designers. She and two friends founded Atelier Janiye of Boston in the 1950s. Miyé was a personal friend of the family and a few of her original drawings are included.

Artists include: Toko Shinoda, Nakao Matsubara, Mayumi Oda, Chizuko Yoshida, Yutaka Ohashi, Ukiyo-e prints, Utagawa Kuniaki, and several older woodblock prints that are in fair condition.

Also, you will find more Texas style pieces in several primitive trunks and two small scale dining tables and an oak trestle table, a pair of five-section barrister bookcases, and a pair of walnut bookcases with glass doors on top, a genuine Stickley arm chair, and small and medium size Persian rugs.

The built-in book shelves are filled with pottery, metal and whimsical works of art from the Spice Islands, Asia, Texas, and other parts of the globe.

There is an amusing collection of Tibetian spirit boxes and rustic initials in several sizes. And a small but good collection of Victorian belt buckles and other vintage jewelry.

Miyé Matsukata was among the first mid-century American studio jewelers to develop an expressionist feeling of spontaneity in one-of-a kind jewelry pieces. Known for combining precious and non-precious materials in abstract compositions, Matsukata also included found objects and antique pieces at times, as well as alternative construction techniques. Her combinations with high carat, multi-textured gold resulted in unique pieces with strong expression of design.

Her work was characterized by a mix of  beads, stones, coins, glass, enamel, fabric, and other materials in addition to unconventional uses of gold or silver. "Unlike much of the found object jewelry made during the 1960s and '70s,"  observes one scholar, "Matsukata's work did not celebrate cast-off goods, invoke shamanic tradition, or make sly pop cultural references."

She served on the board of directors of the Society of North American Goldsmiths in 1970, 1972, and 1973. 

Ohashi was known for paintings that included collage in abstract forms. He added semitransparent layers of rice paper to the foreground of his paintings and, at times partly obscured the rice paper with layers of oil paint. This technique, combined with large swaths of negative space and occasional highlights in gold leaf, contributes to the perceptions of space within Ohashi’s compositions  Ohashi was a true Japanese Abstract-Expressionist painter living in Japan and New York during the height of the period and was the recipient of two Guggenheim fellowships.

Please join us for this rare collection at reasonable prices to settle an estate.