Selling the Traditional and the Modern in Chinese Art
VIEW EVENT DETAILSAsia Society Curators and Collectors series
Evening Presentation
Drink Reception 6:30 pm
Discussion 7:00 pm
Close 8:00 pm
Taking a long view in considering the market for Chinese art from the Ming period to the 20th Century, this evening presentation with History of Art Professor Craig Clunas from the University of Oxford will dissect whether it is the changes or the continuities that matter more, and which we should be paying attention to when selling Chinese art. The presentation will have a particular focus on how the invention of the categories “traditional” and “modern” in the 20th century relate to the commodities of the art market and the contexts in which they circulate.
Chinese Painting and Its Audiences
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, Professor 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.
Craig Clunas is Head of History of Art Department, University of Oxford, and the first holder of this position to work on art from outwith the European tradition. He is the author of numerous books on the art of China, particularly of the Ming period, and his 2012 A. W. Mellon Lectures at the National Gallery of Art are forthcoming under the title Chinese Painting and its Audiences — which is also the title of his most recent publication.
Click here for more upcoming events.