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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 222 436 SQ 014 341 TITLE Traditional and-Contemporary Painting in-China. A Report of the 1,isit of the Chinese Painting Delegation to the People's Republic af China. INSTITUTFON National Academy of Sci'ences, Washington, D.C. Cothmittee on Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of China. SPONS AGENCY National Endowment for the Humanities (NFAH), Washington, D.C. PUB DATE 80 NOTE 170p. 'AVAILABLE FROM Chinese Painting Delegation ReporX, CSCPRC, National ,Academy of Sciences, 2101 tonstitution Avenue, N.W,, , Washington, DC 20418 (free). EDRS PRICE MF01/PC07 Plus- Postage. DESCRIPTORS Administration; Archaeology; Art Appreciation; Art Education; *Art aistory; *Asian Studies; *Chinese Culture;.Higher Education; Manuscript Writing (Handlettering); Museums; *Painting (Visual Arts); Religion;' Travel IDENTIFIERS *China ABSTRACT A group of American scholars who visited the,People's Republic of China in October and November of 1977 to study Chinese paintings report on their trip. The purpose of the report is to provide informatioh and insights which will be useful to other scholars,in the fierd and which will help promote the development of strong ties between U.S. and Chinese art histbrians. Reports on the following are provided: Chinese paintings in Chinese4 museums; religious paintings;'/Iian and Ming paintings; contemporary painting"; Chinese;calligraphy; art and archaeological finds on display in museums; and museums in China. Included in the appendices are the trip itinerary, names of the people met, and a listing of the paintings seen in China. (RM) ******************************************************.***************** Reproducti.ons supplied by EDRS are the best that can b'a made * 'from the original document. **********************************.************************************ . U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER IERICI Ns document has been mproduce4 as received horn the person or wpm:awn originating it Minor schaApes have beet) made to improve reproduction quality Points of view or opinions stated in this docu t ment do not necessarily regrownt ofictal NIE position or policy "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCETHIS* MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTEDBY . crl TRADITIONAL . S T-c4ch Jinn AND TO THE EDUCATIONALRESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER(ERIC)." CONTEMPORARY- PAINTING IN CHINA A Report of the,yisit of the thinese Painting Delegation 4. to the People's Republic of China Committee on Scholarly Corfimunication with the ,People's Republic of China 4 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF.SCIENCES WASHINGTON, D.C. 1980 / Painting Delegation to thePeOple's A NOTICE: The exchange/visit of the Chinese Republic of China was supported by a grantfrom the National Endowment for operated,by the Humanities, This visit was part of the exchange program Republic.of China, the Committee onr§cholarlyCommunication with hè People's founded jointly in 1966 by the AmericanCouncil of Learned Societies, the National 'Academy of Sciences, and the 4.ocialScience Research Council. Sources of funding foi the Committee include theNational Science Foundation, - for the the InternationalCommdiication Agency, the Naxional Endowment Education, and Welfare, and theFord Humanities, the Department of Health, % Foundation. The Committee'represents Americanschorars in the natural, medical, It advises individuais and social sciences, engineering,and the hdmanities, and institutions on means ofcommunication with their Chinesecolleagues, on China's internatibnal ScholarlyactiVities, and oh the state-of.China's scientific and scholarly pursuits. Members of the Committee are scholars ,from a.broad range of fields, includingChina studies. Administrative offices of the Committee arelOtated at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C. Che members of the Chineye The views expressed in this reportare those of Painting:Delegation and are in no waythe official Views of theCommittee its on Scholarly.Communication with the People's Republic of China or Societies, the sponsoring organizations --the.American Council of Learned Research'Council. National Academy of Sciences, andthe Social SFience e Available from: Committee on Scholarly Communication. with_the People's Republic ofChina National Academy of Sciences 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20418 A.11. CONTRIBUTORS' . SUSAN BUSH, Radcliffe Instittite, Cambridge, Massachusetts JAME'S CAHILL, Chairman of the Delegation, Department of Art and Art Higtory, University,of California, Berkeley, California pa. ANNE de COUASEY CLAPP, Department of Art History, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts JACK L.'DULL, Institute for Comparative and ForOgn Area Studies, University pf Washington,'Seattle, Washington SHEN FU, Departint of Art History, Yale University, New Hgven, Connecticut WAI-TKAM HO, Cleveland MuseuM of Art, Cleveland, Ohio ELLEN JOHNSTON- LAING, Deputy Chairman of the Delegation, Department of Art and Art History, Wayne St'ate University, Detroit, Michigan ROBERT A. ROREX: School of Art and Axt History, University of Iowa., Iowa City, Iowa ; 11, FOREWORD Two years'have elapsed sinc'e th7e visit o£ the Chinese Pairkting . Delegation to the People's Republic of China in October and Noveaber of 1977. Though publication of this report has been delayed, the Committee on Scholarly.Communication with-the People's Republic of, - China feels that the information and insights contained herein will be invaluable to scholars in the field and will help to promote the development of strong ties betWeen the art his.torians of the United States and thet'eople's Republic of China. During their visit tb China, the,Chinese Painting Delegation took' about 3,000 photpgraph and 'slides of the gaintings they saw.. Under an agreement made with their hosts the delegation has arranged to make available, to institutions, sets of duplicdte slides. Slides'are riot available fron members of the delegation or,from the Committee on 5chol- . # ,arly Communication with the People's Republic of China. Inquiries should be addressed E6: Asian Art' Photographic Distribution Department of the History of Art University 0 Michigan Ann Arbor,ikth.igan48109 a , Slide6 will be available only in pre-established setsiof c.1,000. This report,was prwred with the assiseance of staff members of the Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of . China. The report is available without charge from.the Committee. Please send requests to: Chinese PaJ.nting Delegation Report CSCPRC National Academy of ScienceS:. 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20418 0 ., 4 ,.. f CONTENTS. Introduction JameS Cahill 4 . Chinese Paintifts.in Chinese Museums 4 1 AO James Cahill Religious Waiaings Wai-kam Ho Man and Mingyaintings 35 Anne de Coursey Clapp 4 COntemporary Painring 54 Ellen Johnston Laing , Chinese Calligraphy 68 Shen Fu Art and Archaeological Finds on Display in Museums 87 Susan Bush a Museums in China: Administrative and Related Aspects 107 Jack L. Dull, Appendices I Brief Itinerary, 122 Robert Rorex People ;et, 128 ,Ellen,Johnston Laing III Paintings Seen in China, 133 James Cahill 0 - 1 - 1, 1) 04- Introduction e The Chinese Painting Deregation's trip to China in October and S. Novethber of 1977 was, for those of qb who went, the fulfillment of a hope we'had-harbored over many years. !jilting the four decades or so ; since Chinese painting began to be studied seriously in the United Sta)tes% we had become familiar with mOst4 collections outside the Chinese mainland,.and mcst of the hest works ia them had been studied and pub- lished.% The great uncharted territories, we realized; where major discoveries were still to be made, were in the museums of China. The .collections of these museums remain latgely unknown despite the publica- tion, during the 1950s and early 1960s, of some good picture-catalogues presenting selections from their holdings. The sheer quantity of paintings - in Chinese museums is staggering; even after the steady flow of Chinese paintings into museums and private hands abroad over the past half-century and the loss to Taiwan of, the greaiest single collection of Chinese art, the Palace Museum.Collection now kept near Taipei, the bulk of Chinese painting remains in China. When, for instance, in 1973, the director of the Nanking Museum was asked how many paintings were in his museum, he answered "around forty thousand."Most'of those, to be sure, are ninete and twentieth century works, as he admitted on being questioned further; ,but the numbers are impressive for the early periodsas well. Having . publfshed an article on the early styles of the seventeenthcentury Nanking lanascapist Kung Hsien, I asked low many of his works theyown and was told, "We don't know exactly- maybel'ifty, maybe seventy-five." Clearly, definftive studies of Many artists and schools must await the time when these collectitins become accessible for research. 'The incidents juk recounted,occurredon the visit of the Art and Delegation in November and DeCember of 1973. One of the first Amer'ican groups to China sponsored bYthe Committee on Scholarly Communica- tion with the People's RePublic of China, the Art and ArchaeologyDelegation included several scholars, one of them myself, whosearea of specialization was in fact Chinese painting. Our Chinese hosts soon learned of this adilitional interest within thedelegation and accommodated somewhat to it, while keeping archaeology and early art as the focus ofour program. Paintings ,/ that we asked to see in museums