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The Art and Aesthetics of Form: Selections from the History of Chinese Painting
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Dates: 2009/04/01
~ 2009/06/25
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| Gallery: 210 (Permanent Exhibit, rotate the display objects every three months) |
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The history of Chinese painting can be compared to a symphony. The styles and traditions in figure, landscape, and bird-and-flower painting have formed themes that continue to blend to this day into a single piece of music. Painters through the ages have made up this "orchestra", composing and performing many movements and variations within this tradition.
It was from the Six Dynasties (222-589) to the T'ang dynasty (618-907) that the foundations of figure painting were gradually established by such major artists as Ku K'ai-chih and Wu Tao-tzu. Modes of landscape painting then took shape in the Five Dynasties period (907-960) with variations based on geographic distinctions. For example, Ching Hao and Kuan T'ung depicted the drier and monumental peaks to the north while Tung Yüan and Chü-jan represented the lush and rolling hills to the south in Kiangnan. In bird-and-flower painting, the noble T'ang court manner was passed down in Szechwan through Huang Ch'üan's style, which contrasts with that of Hsü Hsi in the Kiangnan area.
In the Sung dynasty (960-1279), landscape painters such as Fan K'uan, Kuo Hsi, and Li T'ang created new manners based on previous traditions. The transition in compositional arrangement from grand mountains to intimate scenery also reflected in part the political, cultural, and economic shift to the south. Guided by the taste of the emperor, painters at the court academy focused on observing nature combined with "poetic sentiment" to reinforce the expression of both subject and artist. Painters were also inspired by things around them, leading even to the depiction of technical and architectural elements in the late 11th century. The focus on poetic sentiment led to the combination of painting, poetry, and calligraphy (the "Three Perfections") in the same work (often as an album leaf or fan) by the Southern Sung (1127-1279). Scholars earlier in the Northern Sung (960-1126) thought that painting as an art had to go beyond just the "appearance of forms" in order to express the ideas and cultivation of the artist. This became the foundation of the movement known as literati (scholar) painting.
The goal of literati painters in the Yüan dynasty (1279-1368), including Chao Meng-fu and the Four Yüan Masters (Huang Kung-wang, Wu Chen, Ni Tsan, and Wang Meng), was in part to revive the antiquity of the T'ang and Northern Sung as a starting point for personal expression. This variation on revivalism transformed these old "melodies" into new and personal tunes, some of which gradually developed into important traditions of their own in the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties. As in poetry and calligraphy, the focus on personal cultivation became an integral part of expression in painting.
Starting from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), painting often became distinguished into local schools that formed important clusters in the history of art. The styles of "Wu School" artists in the Soochow area, for example, was based on the cultivated approaches of scholar painting by the Four Yüan Masters. The "Che School" consisted mostly of painters from the Chekiang and Fukien areas; also active at court, they created a direct and liberated manner of monochrome ink painting based on Southern Sung models.
The late Ming master Tung Ch'i-ch'ang from Sungkiang and the Four Wangs (Wang Shih-min, Wang Chien, Wang Hui, and Wang Yüan-ch'i) of the early Ch'ing dynasty (1644-1911) adopted the lofty literati goal of unifying certain ancient styles into a "grand synthesis" so that all in mind and nature could be rendered with brush and ink. The result was the vastly influential "Orthodox School", which was supported by the Manchu Ch'ing emperors. The court also took an interest in Western painting techniques (brought by European missionaries) that involved volume and perspective, which became known to and used by some Chinese painters to create a fused style. Outside the court, the major commercial city of Yangchow developed the trend toward individualism to become a center for "eccentric" yet professional painters. It also spread to Shanghai, where the styles of artists were also inspired by "non-orthodox" manners, which themselves became models for later artists.
Thus, throughout the ages, a hallmark of Chinese painting has been the pursuit of individuality and innovation within the framework of one's "symphonic" heritage. This exhibition represents a selection of individual "performances" from the Museum collection arranged in chronological order in order to provide an overview of some major traditions and movements in Chinese painting.
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