Three Thousand Years Of Chinese Painting

Written by a team of eminent international scholars, this book is the first to recount the history of Chinese painting over a span of some 3000 years.

Drawing on museum collections and archaeological sites previously closed to Westerners, a group of scholars traces the development of Chinese painting over three millennia

"Together the text and illustrations gradually reveal many of the major themes and characteristics of Chinese painting. To "read" these works is to enter a dialogue with the past. Slowly perusing a scroll or album, one shares an intimate experience that has been repeated over the centuries. And it is through such readings that meaning is gradually revealed."--BOOK JACKET.

What is Chinese painting? When did it begin? And what are the different associations of this term in China and the West? In Chinese Painting and Its Audiences, which is based on the A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts given at the National Gallery of Art, leading art historian Craig Clunas draws from a wealth of artistic masterpieces and lesser-known pictures, some of them discussed here in English for the first time, to show how Chinese painting has been understood by a range of audiences over five centuries, from the Ming Dynasty to today. Richly illustrated, Chinese Painting and Its Audiences demonstrates that viewers in China and beyond have irrevocably shaped this great artistic tradition. Arguing that audiences within China were crucially important to the evolution of Chinese painting, Clunas considers how Chinese artists have imagined the reception of their own work. By examining paintings that depict people looking at paintings, he introduces readers to ideal types of viewers: the scholar, the gentleman, the merchant, the nation, and the people. In discussing the changing audiences for Chinese art, Clunas emphasizes that the diversity and quantity of images in Chinese culture make it impossible to generalize definitively about what constitutes Chinese painting. Exploring the complex relationships between works of art and those who look at them, Chinese Painting and Its Audiences sheds new light on how the concept of Chinese painting has been formed and reformed over hundreds of years.

Westerners seeking to appreciate and understand Chinese art have long felt the need of a fundamental book that explains both the technical means used by Chinese artists and the traditional stylistic modes of artistic expression. In Chinese Painting Style Jerome Silbergeld addresses this need, beginning with a discussion of basic materials and methods and continuing with in-depth studies of the complex paintings created by these methods. No other work so thoroughly or systematically describes the Chinese artistic processes, ranging from the distinctively Chinese manner of handling the brush to the blending of brushlines, wash, color, and texture into a painted composition. The final chapters examine Chinese composition in terms of naturalistic representation and of abstract expression. Throughout the book, artistic problems are set against a background of Chinese history, ideas, and geography. The illustrations include drawings that reveal the principles of Chinese brushwork, together with a broad range of Chinese paintings and calligraphy. A unique feature is the precise coding of text and illustrations, by which the reader is invited to inspect the specific turn of the brush or adjustment of composition by which the artist achieves his effects. Chinese Painting Style provides a penetrating look into the formal basis of this age-old art, and one that will be useful and engaging both to the general reader and to the serious student.

Sullivan has thoroughly revised this classic history of Chinese art which covers the period from Neolithic times to the 1990s. 224 photos. 164 color illustrations. 14 maps.

From earliest times the delicate precision of Chinese painting has captivated Western art lovers. The sophisticated techniques, the evident love of nature and the glimpses of a quiet civilised life all add to the enchantment. This book begins with the quick sketch-like painting from the Lo-Yang tombs, dating from the 3rd century, and continues with the closely observed T'ang paintings of people, not only Emperors and court dignitaries, but also peasants and grooms with the celebrated T'ang horses. Sung painters produced some of the most powerful landscapes in Chinese art, with their strangely shaped mountains looming menacingly up through the mists, and with man, absorbed in fishing or in meditation, dwarfed by the immensity of his environment. Nautre always present in Chinese art, now preoccupied painters almost to the exclusion of all else, and the studies of trees, particularly bamboo and pines, set in mountainous river landscapes are superb. Bussagli takes the account right up to the 19th and 20th centuries, a period seldom covered in books on Chinese painting. -- Book jacket.

Over thousands of years, the art of Chinese painting has evolved, while also staying loyal to its traditional roots. Despite various schools of thought, styles and techniques, three primary categories have emerged across the discipline: landscape, figure and bird-and-flower. Using fine ink and water brush strokes on paper or silk, Chinese artists have developed a unique style—one that's famous throughout the world.This book highlights 50 Chinese paintings, pulled from museum collections in China and around the world, including British Museum (London), Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas), Osaka City Museum of Art (Osaka), Palace Museum (Beijing), Palace Museum (Taibei) and Shanghai Museum. The paintings shown are representative of the categories, historical periods and styles of this artistic tradition.Detailed professional interpretations and notes allow readers to learn more about the pieces themselves, the artists and the context in which they were created. Plus, photo enlargements of key details get readers up close to these masterpieces.As one of the world's oldest continuous art forms, Chinese painting has a truly special history. This comprehensive guide allows modern readers to travel through time, experiencing important moments in Chinese history and society through beautiful pieces of artwork.