: - Sixty paintings, including album leaves, handscrolls and
hanging scrolls, most never before seen in the United States,
will be on view at China Institute Gallery in a major exhibition
entitled "Passion for the Mountains: Seventeenth Century
Landscape Paintings from the Nanjing Museum" from September 18
through December 20. A full-color bilingual scholarly catalog
will be available.
The exhibition focuses on the work of the famed "Eight Masters of
Jinling" who are being shown as a group together with other key
landscape painters for the first time. Passionate about the
beauty of Jinling, the southern capital city during the Ming
dynasty, these painters were to become the most important
landscape school in Seventeenth Century China.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has timed a companion exhibition
to coincide with China Institute's landmark exhibition. "Dreams
of Yellow Mountain: Landscapes of Survival in Seventeenth Century
China," on view September 13 through January 25, will showcase 50
late Ming to early Qing dynasty works from Nanjing drawn from the
museum's permanent holdings and private collections.
Artists were drawn to Jinling's magnificent vistas, and by the
Seventeenth Century the city was famous as an important cultural
center for art, calligraphy, literature and theater. Jinling
(today known as Nanjing) was the largest city in the world when
it was established in the Fourteenth Century, surpassing even
Paris. Located on the east coast of China (about three hours
today by train from Shanghai), Jinling is surrounded by two major
rivers and stunning mountains.
Eight Masters of Jinling
While there is some discrepancy as to which artists comprised the
"Eight Masters of Jinling," most accounts included Gong Xian, Gao
Cen, Zou She, Fan Qi, Wu Hong, Xie Sun, Ye Xin and Hu Cao.
Paintings by these artists, as well as others who may have been
contenders for the famed group, are featured in the show.
One of the highlights of the exhibition is a rare 32-foot
handscroll of the Jinling landscape by Gong Xian (1618-1689) from
the late Ming to early Qing dynasty. "A Thousand Cliffs and
Myriad Valleys," 1673, was painted during the last years of the
artist's life and is considered one of his masterpieces.
"Portrait of Kou Mei," a hanging scroll by Fan Qi and Wu Hong
from the late Ming to early Qing dynasty, depicts one of the
"Eight Beauties of Qinhuai (River)." The story of courtesan Kou
Mei, one of the area's most famous residents, is now legendary:
One day near the house along the river where she lived with other
courtesans, a prince admired her beauty. Within days, he paid for
her freedom and asked her to be one of his brides. Their ceremony
was one of the largest ever: 5,000 soldiers held up red lanterns
from her house to his, where the wedding was performed. A couple
of years later, the prince was captured by the Manchu Army and
became a prisoner of war. Kou Mei became famous for her ride back
to Nanjing on horseback to raise money that enabled her to free
the prince. When he asked her to come back home, she replied that
he had bought her freedom and now that she had bought
his, she would remain free.
An album of 12 leaves by Zou Zhe from the late Ming and early
Qing dynasty depicts a number of landmarks from Jinling. One of
the leaves shows the mountain where the tomb of the first emperor
of the Ming dynasty is located; he insisted that his burial spot
in the mountains be planted with 10,000 pine trees, a symbol for
strong will. Another illustrates the city wall from the
Fourteenth Century, known as the longest and strongest city wall
in China.
Fans painted with landscapes were a very popular fashion
accessory in Jingling, reflecting the good taste of the user. As
a result, the Jinling fan became an important "brand." Wu Hufaun,
an early Twentieth Century collector, set out to collect eight
fans by the Eight Jinling masters. The search took 20 years and
the results are included in the exhibition.
Educational Programs
Educational highlights are two lectures at China Institute by
Willow Weilan Hai Chang, director, China Institute Gallery and
curator of the exhibition. His talk, "Passion for the Mountains:
Seventeenth Century Nanjing and Landscape Painting" will take
place September 25, 6:30 to 8 pm. "Today's Artist from Nanjing,"
an illustrated introduction to contemporary Chinese artists from
Nanjing, will be held on November 18, 6 to 7:30 pm.
"Chinese Painting for Connoisseurs: Painting from the Seventeenth
Century" with lecturer James Cahill, professor emeritus, history
of art, University of California, Berkeley, will focus on issues
in early Qing landscape painting. The course will be held
December 2-4, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm, at China Institute.
A full-day symposium entitled "From Ming to Qing: A Cultural
Landscape in Transition" will explore the dynastic transitions
and political resistance that led to a flourishing of the arts
when the Ming dynasty fell to the Manchus, and Nanjing, the
Southern Ming capital, remained a vibrant cultural center. The
symposium will be held Saturday, December 6, 9:30 am to 5 pm, at
the Graduate Center Proshansky Auditorium, 365 Fifth Avenue at
34th Street.
China Institute Gallery is at 125 East 65th Street (between
Park and Lexington). Admission is $5 ($3 for students and
seniors). Gallery hours are Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10
am to 5 pm; Tuesday and Thursday to 8 pm, and Saturday, 10 am to
5 pm. Admission is free on Tuesday and Thursday from 6 to 8 pm.
For information, call 212-744-8181 or visit
www.chinainstitute.org.
