Search

One of the best known painters of the 20th century, Qi Baishi came from a poor family and owed his education to scholars who had recognized his talent and determination. This article tries to answer the question of how much of the literati (wenren) tradition can be traced in Qi Baishi’s works. Although they only form a small portion of his oeuvre, he made paintings which correspond to the literati topics; whether they also comply with the literati aesthetics is more ambiguous, however. Six paintings from the collection of the National Gallery in Prague were selected and analyzed in search of the answer.

The article focuses on the introduction of photography and etymology of the terms for photography in nineteenth century China. The article discusses ways in which the Chinese believed photography to be a Western style of portrait painting, the introduction of photography to China through Hong Kong following the first Opium War and the practice of retouching photographs or adding calligraphy. The article goes on to discusses the sense of wonder suggested in the terms the Chinese used to describe photography, including the use of the word for mirror, and the speed of photography relative to portrait painting.

This article examines the transition of Chinese painting from literati painting, exclusive to the scholar-amateur or scholar elite--the backbone of the Chinese traditional culture--to a new genre, guohua (national or traditional Chinese painting). It studies the role of artistic institutions in this process, using the Shanghai Fine Arts College as an example. This research draws upon a number of primary sources to shed light on the way in which modern art schools institutionalized literati painting, and the rationale of guohua education in the Chinese Painting Department in the College. This research shows that while competing with professional artists teaching in private studios, the College developed its own pattern of guohua education which preserved literati painting principles and enhanced efficiency in teaching technical skills but was intrinsically weak in inculcating the scholarly spiritual content of literati painting. Thus, the College played a role in developing a style of semantically exhausted literati painting known as guohua. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the importance of scale as an artistic device, noting that artworks are scaled according to a predetermined rule or a standard of judgment. The relationship between an artistic work's capacity to communicate a specific agenda and the way it uses scale is discussed. The author pays special attention to the social and political implications of the scale used in art through examples of 20th-century Chinese paintings, with particular focus paid to a large painting depicting Mount Yandang by the artist Pan Tianshou.