Contemporary Chinese Works on Paper is the largest exhibition of contemporary Chinese works on paper outside of China. It explores the rich diversity of contemporary practice in Chinese drawing, printing and painting on paper in the 21st century at Ipswich Art Gallery. 28th April – 17th June 2018.
Li Wang, will give the Curator’s Introduction on 2nd May will explore how contemporary Chinese artists are combining calligraphy, stamping and painting with new techniques and materials
Polseden Lacey is having Adventures in Asia, reflecting the Mrs Greville’s travel. Beyond the Dragon shows some of their oriental pieces, including Chinese Fo dogs throughout the house.
Good to see Chinese art getting attention in the BBC series “Civilisations“.
The wonderful Mary Beard viewed the Terracotta Warriors in episode 2, and Simon Schama rhapsodised about landscapes, including the the turbulent peaks of Wang Meng, in episode 3. There were good close-ups of the ink work and also some lovely shots of the Yellow Mountains and the Qingbian Mountains.
David Olusoga highlighted the work of Japanese artist Maruyama Okyo – wonderful screens of “Bamboo in wind and rain”, and the stunning masterpiece “Cracked Ice”! Just a few brush stroke in varying tones to show the essence of imperfection and impermanence.
The final programme included a large new work by Cai Guo-Qiang, who used giant papercuts with his usual gunpowder to create ghostly flowers and misty impressions by fun and chance!
Have a look at these photos of how a dog can enjoy Chinese ink! (ignore the adverts).
We are delighted to announce the publication of our new calligraphy book.
This is a step-by-step guide to writing phrases in running script (xing shu). The phrases are suitable to put on landscape and flower-and-bird paintings. We are very grateful to Dr Li Xuzhuang for allowing us to use his elegant calligraphy.
A copy of this book will be free to all members, and will be sent out with the April Newsletter. SO JOIN NOW TO GET THIS GREAT BENEFIT!
You might also like to know that Dr Li has a short course in running script at Missenden Abbey, 9th & 10th June:
From 21 May, Turner Contemporary, Margate, presents exhibitions by Yin Xiuzhen and Duan Jianyu as part of NOW: A dialogue on female Chinese contemporary artists.
The NOW programme includes exhibitions at Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (Manchester), Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (Middlesbrough), Nottingham Contemporary (Nottingham) and Turner Contemporary (Margate), an artist film series at HOME (Manchester) and a symposium hosted by Tate Research Centre: Asia (London).
The art is not traditional CBP, but should give an insight into how modern Chinese women see the world.
The Chinese Gallery at the British Museum has reopened, with more and new exhibits. The BM will include and rotate different types of objects such as paintings, prints and textiles. The gallery also introduces new research and contemporary objects such as a newly-made lacquer box. It includes a digital version of the rarely-displayed Admonitions Scroll.
The Chinese Jade gallery has also been refurbished, with some exquisite new items.
The Percival David collection of Chinese ceramics remains well worth a visit.
The University of Cambridge have digitised the famous Ten Bamboo Studio Manual of Painting and Calligraphy. This is an early printed manual of paintings, with lots of appealing compositions. You can click through the pages (remember the books are “backwards” compared to western order).
Image 220 is the persimmon and tangerines used to illustrate the Wikipedia article on the manual’s publisher Hu Zhengyan. It also appears in a video about the Huntington’s copy of the Manual, with more information in their blog.
