New York never lacks for art, but as spring approaches, movable feasts of it seem to arrive in waves. Last week nearly a dozen fairs put extra servings of contemporary and Modern art on the table. Friday is the official beginning of Asia Week, a visual repast of more than 40 shows staged by New York and out-of-town dealers and spread mostly through galleries around the Upper East Side, on or just off Madison Avenue.

That’s not all, of course. There are auctions, museum exhibitions and lectures and symposiums, as well as a small, choice art fair. For a reasonably complete, if not overwhelming, sense of what is on offer, consult the Asia Week Web site (asiaweekny.com) and that of the Japanese Art Dealers Association (jada-ny.org); printed guides from both organizations can be picked up at participating dealers. What follows are recommendations based on shows that could be previewed this week.

South Asia

As is often the case, Asia Week has outstanding offerings from the many cultures of South Asia…pop into Kapoor Galleries (1015 Madison Avenue, at 78th Street, through March 30) to consider a large marble Jain tirthankara (an enlightened being not unlike a Buddhist bodhisattva) from 12th-century Rajasthan that has the awkward rightness of great folk art. The gallery’s splendid display of Indian paintings is worth savoring.

Illustration to a Gita Govinda series, featured in the NY Times article which can be viewed here http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/16/arts/design/asia-week-in-new-york-includes-more-than-40-shows.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0