Between Two Cultures; Late-Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Chinese Paintings from the Robert H. Ellsworth Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art

by Wen C. Fong

• ISBN13: 9780300088502
• ISBN10: 0300088507
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2001-05-11
• Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Summary

During a crucial period from the 1860s to about 1980, Chinese painting was transformed into a modern expression of its classical heritage. This book draws on a selection of modern Chinese paintings from the Robert H. Ellsworth Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in order to explore this period, discussing issues of modernity and creativity in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Chinese painting.

Wen C. Fong deals with both traditionalist and modernizing Chinese masters from the comparative perspective of East and West, traditional and modern. He begins by examining the last traditional "revival", the epigraphic school of painting, and the rise of a populist art in the cosmopolitan city of Shanghai. Next he focuses on painters who absorbed the lessons of Western realism, in particular one artist who followed the Ecole des Beaux Arts and one who adapted the model of the Japanese Nihonga painters, and on three great traditionalist masters, two of whom were professional populist painters. Finally he explores Chinese painting from about 1950 to 1

Author Biography

Wen C. Fong is Douglas Dillon Curator Emeritus of Chinese Painting and Calligraphy at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University.

Table of Contents

Director's Foreword	ix
Acknowledgments	x
Map of China	xii
Introduction: East Meets West	3	(20)
Painters in Shanghai and Guangdong	23	(52)
The Westernizers	75	(62)
Three Great Traditionalists	137	(68)
Mainland Chinese Painting, 1950s--1980s	205	(48)
Epilogue: Reflections on Chinese Art and History	253	(9)
List of Artists	262	(1)
List of Plates	263	(6)
Bibliography	269	(11)
Index	280	(5)
Photograph Credits	285