China Books

Guo Quanzhong's art is cutting and coarse, utilising brush strokes that give his paintings a truly distinctive feeling. His works are featured in the permanent collections of a number of prominent art galleries, and they have appeared in numerous exhibitions overseas as well as in China. (ISBN:7536803834) (For this item please quote stock ID 13573) ISBN: 7536803834

A title in the ‘Traditional Paintings by Contemporary Chinese Masters’ series. The peony, the Queen of Flowers, occupies a unique position in the eyes of the Chinese people, and the editor - an art historian of modern Chinese painting - has included the peony paintings of several masters in this work. (ISBN:7505203444) (For this item please quote stock ID 14528) ISBN: 7505203444

~The Great Wall, more than 5,000 kilometers long, has been in existence for 2,000 years. Depending on such factors as time, location and circumstances, images of the Wall have varied in the eyes of different people. What one person sees is often what another misses.

~In the lens of photographer Li Shaobai, the Great Wall is reflected in a variety of images ranging from cows and sheep grazing by the Wall to elderly farmers leaning against it for a rest, to crops lying beside it just harvested, to rapeseed plants blossoming along it and wild buckwheat blooming on the mountain slopes around it... and, long after the flames of war have died out on its watchtowers, the calm and indifference of the Great Wall.

~The photographer is not content only with capturing the architectural beauty of the Great Wall. He also has incorporated his own sensibilities and experiences in a quiet and harmonious way through his careful selection of settings, the tempo of his narratives and the composition of the scenes he has captured. Despite a restrained approach to revealing his personal feelings, his pictures inevitably are tinged with their subtle but insistent presence whether the photograph itself is in bright light or haze. (ISBN:7119036963) (For this item please quote stock ID 23619) ISBN: 7119036963

A History of Chinese Painting takes the reader through the wondrous world of traditional Chinese paintings by a veteran painter and permanent member of the All-China Society of Art History. Working his way through a vast collection of records, the author classifies the material systematically. As he recounts the long history of Chinese painting, he defines its traditions through the ages, beginning with pictures drawn by men of the Neolithic period, through the successive dynasties, to modern and contemporary Chinese paintings which have inherited and developed these traditions. The author even probes early man's understanding and concept of painting by examining pictures mentioned in mythology and legends, and painted on unearthed relics. Zhang Anzhi provides a running commentary throughout on the representative painters of various periods, their works and aesthetic views. The book contains a wealth of data of both academic and common interest. There are 190 illustrations throughout the text. (For this item please quote stock ID 16981) ISBN: 9787119014814

(For this item please quote stock ID 918) ISBN: 9789621417893

(For this item please quote stock ID 929) ISBN: 9789621403247

(For this item please quote stock ID 1231) ISBN: 9789622013636

(For this item please quote stock ID 1232) ISBN: 9780835116800

This title is now only available as a Book/CD-ROM set. However, we still have a copy or two of the 'book only' at $17.95 (quote ISBN 9621403154). (For this item please quote stock ID 2502) ISBN: 9789621418036

Ah Wanti?s paintings depict the people of Xinjiang, their environment and customs. His sketches are plain, simple, and free from any kind of affectation. By combining the exaggeration of caricature and the bright colours of Chinese folk painting, Ah Wanti has created a jocular, lively and relaxing painting style. His paintings have many devotees and collectors both in China and elsewhere, but this success which seems easily achieved results not only from his arduous probe into art but also from his wise choice and persistence. Contains over 100 of Ah Wanti?s works and the text and captions are bilingual (Chinese-English). (For this item please quote stock ID 4024) ISBN: 9787535607171

This magnificent book, written by a team of eminent international scholars, is the first to recount the history of Chinese painting over a span of some 3000 years. Both accessible to the general reader and revelatory for the scholar, the book provides the most up-to-date and detailed history of China's pictorial art available today. Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting is the inaugural volume in a new series, The Culture & Civilization of China. 'This is the most comprehensive and up-to-date single volume account of Chinese painting from prehistoric times to the present. For some time to come, it will be an indispensable work for students and the general reader who wishes to gain an in-depth knowledge of Chinese painting. Not least among the merits of the book are the numerous illustrations and discussions of important paintings in Chinese museums hitherto little known outside China. This book, which is the first in the Culture & Civilization of China series, augurs well for the success of this significant and far reaching collaborative effort between scholars in and outside China. It is indeed a welcome development' - James Watt. '[A] magnificent book...Accessible to the general reader and revelatory for the scholar, it provides the most up-to-date and detailed history of China's pictorial art available today' - Apollo. 'The most comprehensive survey of Chinese painting yet attempted. Featuring a refreshing selection of lesser-known masterpieces from Chinese collections, the book succeeds admirably in conveying the richness and variety of figure painting, landscape, and flower-and-bird painting through hundreds of images and a highly readable narrative' - Rachel King, Arts and Antiques. (For this item please quote stock ID 4288) ISBN: 9780300094473

Author Dai Dunbang is a famous gongbi painter of ancient Chinese figures, and the characters under his brush are incredibly lifelike. He designed images of over 180 characters for the Chinese television series, Outlaws of the Marsh, and the personalities of the characters were so expertly conveyed by Dai?s paintings that the producers of the TV series chose the actors, and designed the costumes and make-up based solely on his precise depictions. The actors and actresses even studied the expressions of his painted characters for their own performances! Dai?s paintings are presented in this thread-bound volume on Xuan paper and are the same size as the original works. (For this item please quote stock ID 6239) ISBN: 9787530507957

This album (in 2 volumes) is a collection of 808 colour photographs of 93 streets from 44 cities shot by 73 photographers, and accompanied by 45,000 words of text. Deluxe edition in slipcover (For this item please quote stock ID 6679) ISBN: 9787800072888

Fang Nan is skilled at landscape, orchid-bamboo and figure painting. Out of love for his birthplace - the Taohua Islet, Zhousan Island - Fang strives to depict in his landscape and figure painting the beauty and simplicity of nature which has been strongly influenced by the life of fishermen. Another part of his work depicts scenes of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River which give a fresh and elegant flavour of this country of rivers and lakes. And the orchid-bamboo under his brush are the result of an effort to blend traditional and modern techniques. This book with bilingual (Chinese-English) text depicts over 50 colourful works by Fang Nan. (For this item please quote stock ID 6840) ISBN: 9787507208146

(For this item please quote stock ID 6845) ISBN: 9789620404276

Dong Chensheng draws inspiration from ancient and modern figures to portray traditional morality and to provide examples from which people can learn. He paints characters from famous opera, for instance, to remind us of the lessons to be learned from historical events and he draws Buddhist figures to praise the virtues of honesty and goodness. Dong Chengsheng was greatly moved by the merits and contribution of China?s many historical and traditional celebrities and hoped to bring them to life with his brush. Dong?s paintings are a fine expression of Chinese ancient and modern culture and embody the finest in Oriental fine art. His paintings have earth-moving potential. Trilingual (Chinese-English-French) text and captions. (For this item please quote stock ID 7628) ISBN: 9787505202931

Exhibition catalogue. (For this item please quote stock ID 7632) ISBN: 9781875632640

An album (in full-colour) of the work of an outstanding flower-and-bird painter who uses meticulous brush strokes to depict his subjects with inspiring sentiment, skill and naturalness. (For this item please quote stock ID 8534) ISBN: 9787505203259

Collected in this album are 112 works of refreshing originality by Jiang Bibo, a well-known Chinese woman artist. They portray the life style and folk customs of the ethnic minorities in south-western China and express the artist's longing for her homeland during her stay overseas. New in concept and atmosphere, all her works are filled with a warmth that can only be experienced by someone from the East. Whether they are sketches, images painted from memory or her own creations, there is always a wonderful touch of modernism in them. In some of her monoprints in particular she has successfully borrowed from the techniques of oil painting, traditional Chinese painting and watercolour and blended them to give her works a completely new look. (For this item please quote stock ID 8559) ISBN: 9787119014036

(For this item please quote stock ID 9102) ISBN: 9780195854275

The murals at the Yongle Palace - a famous Taoist Monastery built in the 14th century in Ruicheng, Shanxi Province during the most flourishing period of Taoism - are one of the most outstanding examples of Taoist painting in China. The scale and artistry of these wall paintings are rare among surviving Chinese temple murals. Yongle Palace Murals has over 100 full colour plates of the main buildings and their murals, with captions describing the contents of the murals and their characteristics. The murals themselves cover over 800 square metres of wall area. (For this item please quote stock ID 9707) ISBN: 9787119019697

A commemorative album of the work of master painter Liu Zigu who died in 1986. Liu Zigu was skilled in many forms of Chinese art, including landscape painting, bamboo painting, and flower-and-bird painting. He skill has been compared to that of Xu Beihong but whereas Xu Beihong was a master of horse painting, Liu Zigu was pronounced ?Master of Bamboo Painting?. A beautiful album showing the dexterity, vitality and breadth of Liu Zigu?s work. Bilingual (Chinese-English) text and captions. (For this item please quote stock ID 10032) ISBN: 9787505404311

Marc Riboud joined Magnum in 1955, travelling to the Far East and sending his first picture report on China in 1957. Since then he has visited the country many times, observing and recording the changes that have taken place, seeing Mao's revolution erode until in many respects China has become a mirror of the capitalist West. The contrast between these two worlds can often be caught more vividly in a single image or pair of images than in analytical prose, and Riboud shows a uncanny instinct for choosing such images. They are brilliantly displayed in this beautifully reproduced book. (For this item please quote stock ID 12115) ISBN: 9780500542057

Over many years and many journeys, Daniel Schwartz has patiently and meticulously photographed one of mankind?s supreme monuments ? the Great Wall of China. Schwartz was the first foreigner ever to be allowed such privileged access to the Wall. From the border of North Korea he travelled westward through mountains and deserts and frozen grasslands to the borders of Central Asia. He said at the time: ?I wanted to find out where the boundaries of the impossible lay and how close I could get to them.? Recently, China?s new policy of openness encouraged him to revisit the Wall and to photograph areas that had been closed even to him on previous journeys. To place the photographs in context, the Chinese historian Luo Zhewen, who has dedicated his life to the study of the Great Wall, has written an essential brief history. Also included is Jorge Luis Borges?s meditation ?The Wall and the Books? and an extract from Franz Kafka?s short story ?The Great Wall of China?. This extraordinary project is at once a beautiful photographic essay, an intriguing conceptual art project, and a personal odyssey. Daniel Schwartz, with his profound and haunting vision of the Great Wall, has made not only a unique document but a book that is a work of art in itself. (For this item please quote stock ID 12394) ISBN: 9780500541562

Contemporary Chinese Women Painters is the first hardback collection published in China since the founding of the People?s Republic which exclusively features Chinese women painters and colour reproductions of their work. It includes 173 works by 69 Chinese women artists from the mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and overseas. Seventy of the works shown are traditional Chinese paintings, 48 oil paintings, 34 woodcut prints, and the remaining 21 are water colours, murals and gouaches. The majority of the 173 works were produced after 1980, and they are original in conception, bold in expression and consummate in artistry. In addition to providing a brief biography of each artist the editors have prevailed upon the artists to explain in their own words their feelings towards their art and life. The text writers and the editors of this book are all women, and the text and captions are bilingual (Chinese-English). A book of simply stunning beauty. (For this item please quote stock ID 12607) ISBN: 9787119007243

(For this item please quote stock ID 12841) ISBN: 9787533002060

Zhao Lei is a versatile female artist in contemporary China. Her paintings depict a wide and diverse range of subjects taken from the natural environment, and her style is both rough and delicate which makes her work plain and natural but quite fresh. In the past 30 years Zhao Lei has visited nearly all of the famous mountains and rivers in China and these having given great stimulus to her creative spirit. Bilingual (Chinese-English) text. (For this item please quote stock ID 13855) ISBN: 9787507208153

A collection of 64 prints by the famous Chinese print-maker, Wang Jinxu. Wang began to publish his prints in 1958, and over the past thirty-odd years, he has established his personal style that embraces both Chinese traditions and modern aesthetics. His prints have been displayed at many exhibitions, and a number of them are prize winners. (For this item please quote stock ID 14057) ISBN: 9787507103939

(For this item please quote stock ID 14911) ISBN: 9787505401075

A remaining volume of a remarkable set (of 5) that canvassed the history of Chinese painting from its ancient origins. Text is in Chinese only but the art transcends mere words. (For this item please quote stock ID 15539)

Painting in 18th-century Yangchow, a city that dominated the political and economic scene of mid-Qing China, has traditionally been viewed as the product of a group of nonconformist, 'eccentric' artists who were supported by wealthy merchants. This book, however, does not focus on the creative energy of the individual artist, the rise of the Yangchow school of painting, or patronage narrowly defined. Rather, it studies 18th-century Yangchow paintings as artistic products shaped by collective social and cultural experiences, and by constant exchanges between the artists and their audience. The author examines the paintings as commodities, revealing the mechanism of their exchange and the values negotiated, and she interprets the paintings in a framework that moves beyond economics into the social, political, historical, and literary contexts of their creation and appreciation. The book begins by considering merchant patrons long associated with the Yangchow school of painting, and goes on to reveal that there were patrons from lower socioeconomic levels who were, in fact, perhaps the major consumers of Yangchow painting. The author then discusses four artists who exemplify the diversity of backgrounds and artistic traditions of Yangchow painters and patrons. By reconstructing the economic lives of these artists, examining their social roles, identifying their networks of patronage, and investigating their aesthetic choices, this book illuminates the process of professionalization of the scholar-artist and the commodification of literati culture in late imperial China. (For this item please quote stock ID 16435) ISBN: 9780804732529

As the first comprehensive biography of Ting Shao Kuang, this beautifully illustrated book focuses on the artistic development and achievement of a man who is commonly recognized as one of the most successful artists in the world today, both aesthetically and commercially. Ting, who is president of the World Chinese Artists?s Association and founder of the Yunnan school of painting, endured a number of hardships including early separation from his parents due to political turmoil, persecutions during the Cultural Revolution, and the lack of freedom to create the kind of art to which he aspired. More than just a rags-to-riches tale, this is an inspiring story of the artistic endeavor of a whole generation of Chinese artists, comprising nearly all of Ting?s most important work as well as the work of his teachers and colleagues. The cloth-bound edition comes with a sturdy slip case that will make it a splendid addition to any art lover's library. (For this item please quote stock ID 16827) ISBN: 9780835126373

Xu Bing (born 1955) stands out as a leading figure in the international art world. His works and installation pieces, including Ghosts Pounding the Wall (an acutal rubbing of the Great Wall< done at Jinshanling in 1990) and Wu Street (1993), and his ongiong exploration of language have brought worldwide attention to this unassuming provocateur. As a teenager in China during its Cultural Revolution, Xu Bing experienced the emotional and social upheavals that marked this tumultuous time. He was removed from his 'reactionary' parents in Beijing and sent to the provinces to work in a small farming commune as part of Mao Zedong's 'rustication' program in 1974. His forced participation in the revolution led him to question and re-examine all he had known, from the meaning and appearance of Chinese characters to the purpose of the Great Wall of China and the value of art and culture. An accomplished calligrapher, printmaker, and art teacher, Xu Bing turned his simultaneous interest in and mistrust of language into an extended examination of Chinese characters. The result was the Book from the Sky, a powerful installation of books, scrolls, and panels for which Xu Bing invented hundreds of new characters in the late 1980s. This uneasy play between the familiar and the unknown - these words without meaning - caused an uproar in Beijing art community and led the Chinese government to censor Xu Bing and his art. The artist emigrated to the United States in 1990. Featuring works in Square Word Calligraphy, his whimsical, invented language, The Art of Xu Bing traces the calligrapher's career and provides illustrations and in-depth descriptions of his works, which have been shown from Finland to Australia and the United States. Author and art historian Britta Erickson leads his insightful look at Xu Bing's development as a significant artist, and Xu Bing himself contributes a fascinating chapter on his life and work. (For this item please quote stock ID 17166) ISBN: 9780295981437

[Indent only] Central Academy of Fine Arts is the national and top art institute in China. Established in 1918, it epitomises the history of art education and development of art and culture against the turbulent social background in modern China. This collection of Chinese paintings, dating from the Song and Yuan dynasties to the present, unfolds a complete picture of the dynamic artistic production evolving over 1000 years. The book reveals the individual style of different artists and the dynamics of Chinese painting in its historical and cultural context, and is a wonderful combination of rich illustrations with elaborate and insightful description and analysis. (For this item please quote stock ID 17510) ISBN: 9787543444201

[Indent only] Zhou Cangmi is an important member of the Zhejiang school of figure painting. (For this item please quote stock ID 19005) ISBN: 9787507206968

A History of Chinese Painting takes the reader through the wondrous world of traditional Chinese paintings by a veteran painter and permanent member of the All-China Society of Art History. Working his way through a vast collection of records, the author classifies the material systematically. As he recounts the long history of Chinese painting, he defines its traditions through the ages, beginning with pictures drawn by men of the Neolithic period, through the successive dynasties, to modern and contemporary Chinese paintings which have inherited and developed these traditions. The author even probes early man's understanding and concept of painting by examining pictures mentioned in mythology and legends, and painted on unearthed relics. Zhang Anzhi provides a running commentary throughout on the representative painters of various periods, their works and aesthetic views. The book contains a wealth of data of both academic and common interest and contains 190 illustrations. (For this item please quote stock ID 19142) ISBN: 9787119030425

[Indent] This book presents 12 major paintings by masters of the Ming dynasty (1368?1644), Qing dynasty (1644?1911), and modern periods, works given or promised to The Metropolitan Museum of Art by New York collectors Marie-Hélène and Guy Weill. The fully illustrated catalogue presents an in-depth discussion of each painting as well as a transcription and translation of inscriptions and seals. The book begins with paintings that are quintessential embodiments of Ming literati values: a meditative landscape by Shen Zhou and an idealised portrayal of a gentleman in his yet-to-be-built retirement garden by Wen Zhengming. These are followed by an outstanding group of paintings by early Qing loyalist and orthodox artists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: a rare handscroll composition by the Nanjing painter Liu Yu, a monumental hanging scroll by the Anhui school artist Dai Benxiao, albums by the Anhui painter Mei Qing and the Yangzhou 'eccentric' Li Fangying, as well as important works by the two leading Orthodox school painters of the time, Wang Hui and Wang Yuanqi. Also included are selections from a rare set of imperially commissioned rubbings of calligraphies in the Qing palace collection. The book concludes with noteworthy early works by the twentieth-century masters Zhang Daqian and C. C. Wang. (For this item please quote stock ID 19183) ISBN: 9780300097825

(For this item please quote stock ID 20527)

A remaining volume of a remarkable set (of 5) that canvassed the history of Chinese painting from its ancient origins. Text is in Chinese only but the art transcends mere words. (For this item please quote stock ID 20533)

[Indent] Performing the Visual explores the practice of wall painting in China from a new perspective. Relying on rare, virtually unpublished drawings on Buddhist themes from a long-hidden medieval library in western China, the author analyses the painters? pictorial strategies. She also examines the financial accounting of Buddhist temples, providing practical information that ninth- and 10th-century critics ignored: how artists were paid and when, the temple's role as mediator between patrons and artists, and the way painters functioned outside the monastic system, working in guilds and secular academies affiliated with local government. Based on the careful study of hundreds of inaccessible wall paintings at Dunhuang, arguably Asia's largest and most important Buddhist site, the author shows that although critics celebrated spontaneous feats with brush and ink, artists at Dunhuang were heavily dependent on concrete tools such as sketches in the preparation of wall painting. (For this item please quote stock ID 21126) ISBN: 9780804745338

(For this item please quote stock ID 21513) ISBN: 9789627101574

Fresh Talk/Daring Gazes chronicles the blossoming of Asian American art and anticipates the growing democratisation of American art and culture. Pairing work by 24 contemporary Asian American visual artists with responses provocatively drawn from cultural critics, other artists, activists, and intellectuals, this book explores themes of geographical movement, the sexuality of Asian bodies, colonisation, miscegenation, hybrid forms of immigrant cultures, the loss of home, war, history, and memory. Elaine Kim's historical introduction charts the trajectory of Asian American art from the 19th century to the present, offering a comprehensive account of artists, major artworks, and major events. Commentaries by writers, artists, and cultural activists examine the work of visual artists such as Pacita Abad, Albert Chong, Y. David Chung, Allan deSouza, Michael Joo, Hung Liu, Yong Soon Min, Manuel Ocampo, PipoNguyen-Duy, Roger Shimomura, Carlos Villa, and Martin Wong. Prominent artists and critics such as Homi Bhabha, Luis Camnitzer, Enrique Chagoya, Gina Dent, Ellen Gallagher, Arturo Lindsay, Kobena Mercer, Griselda Pollock, Jolene Rickard, Faith Ringgold, Ella Shohat, Lowery Stokes Sims, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie offer thought-provoking reflections on each artist. Sharon Mizota's extended captions further elucidate the paintings, graphics, photography, installations, and mixed-media constructions under discussion. As a set of dialogues, simultaneously visual and textual, Fresh Talk/Daring Gazes encourages the cross-cultural conversation that is shaping the emerging art of Asian Americans and of the United States in general. Alternately personal, intellectual, aesthetic, and political, these essays and the art they consider provide unique perspectives on both the past and the future of American art. 'Godzookie Lives! Kim, Machida, and Mizota have opened up a whole new series of conversations on identity within a varied and distinguished group of artists and writers. And we get to eavesdrop. The artists are Asian American, the respondents are from all over the map, and the results are in turn scholarly, political, intimate, and provocative. This dialogue, across cultures, across generations, brings a breath of fresh air to cultural studies' - Lucy Lippard, author, Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural America. 'Fresh Talk/Daring Gazes chronicles the coming of age of a distinct category in the American art scene. This paradigm-setting book collects together major voices in Asian American art and art criticism, literally acting as a visual and textual declaration that Asian American art has finally arrived' - Shu-mei Shih, author, The Lure of the Modern. (For this item please quote stock ID 21765) ISBN: 9780520235359

[Indent] Wenda Gu is one of the leading contemporary Chinese artists of his generation. Known by some as 'the hair artist' and remembered by others as the artist whose monumental installation was violently destroyed by a Russian artist at the infamous 'Interpol' exhibition (Stockholm, 1996), he is part of the diaspora that has sent many Chinese artists to the West over the past 20 years. He has built his reputation on reinvigorating ancient Chinese symbols and practices - the seal, calligraphy, ink painting - with contemporary vision and meaning. Wenda Gu often uses genetic material - hair and blood - as his medium. His most ambitious, ongoing project, the United Nations series, consists of installations at sites around the world in which hair is used to create works of art emblematic of a future not ruled by racial or national boundaries. To mark the British handover of Hong Kong to China, for example, he created United Nations: Hong Kong Monument: The Historical Clash, which consisted of a Chinese flag made of Chinese hair, a Union Jack made of British hair, and hair cuttings from Hong Kong scattered on the floor. These 'united nations' monuments have been installed so far in Australia, Canada, China, France, Great Britain, Holland, Hong Kong, Japan, Italy, Poland, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, and the United States. Wenda Gu: Art from Middle Kingdom to Biological Millennium is the most comprehensive presentation of Wenda Gu?s work to date. Two generous sections of plates document the United Nations series and other projects, many of which are presented in the exhibition this book accompanies. The book also includes previously unpublished writings by Gu, an interview with the artist by David Cateforis, and essays by Mark Bessire, the co-curator of the exhibit, and Gao Minglu and Gan Xu, both leading authorities on the new Chinese avant-garde. (For this item please quote stock ID 21814) ISBN: 9780262025522

Sculpture is becoming known as one of China?s great arts. Neolithic figurines, rows upon rows of underground terracotta statues, exquisite bronzes, Buddhas carved in cave walls - all these are part of a vast sculptural heritage. This gorgeous book, written by a team of eminent international scholars, is the first to offer a comprehensive history of Chinese sculpture. Spanning some 7000 years, Chinese Sculpture explores a beautiful and diverse world of objects, many of which have come to light in recent decades. The authors analyse and present, mostly in colour, some 500 examples of Chinese sculpture, dividing China?s rich and complex sculptural legacy into two parts - secular (tomb and mortuary art) and religious (Buddhist, Confucianist, and Daoist art). Throughout, the authors highlight the inventiveness, purposes, and brilliant execution of Chinese sculpture and comment on how the country?s culture nurtured the practical and intellectual choices that shaped its sculptural traditions over the millennia. Angela Falco Howard is professor of Asian art at Rutgers University and special consultant in Chinese Buddhist art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. (For this item please quote stock ID 21815) ISBN: 9780300100655

(For this item please quote stock ID 22202) ISBN: 9789627723370

(For this item please quote stock ID 22203) ISBN: 9789628529018

~This book takes an innovative approach to one of the great figures of Chinese culture, the writer and painter Wen Zhengming (1470?1559). Renowned as one of the great 'scholar painters' of the Ming dynasty, Wen was enmeshed in a complex web of social obligations, his 'elegant debts' as he called them, which led to many of his most celebrated works. (For this item please quote stock ID 22498) ISBN: 9781861891839

~'A very welcome addition to the literature on Qing painting. [Chung's] translations from texts little known in the West are reason enough to read her book. But it is her effort to place these easily dismissed paintings into precisely drawn cultural contexts that makes her study especially valuable. Historians of Chinese art will find that Drawing Boundaries provides a new window on an area that has received little serious attention' - Patricia Berger, University of California, Berkeley

~Qing China (1644?1912) witnessed a resurgence in architectural painting, a traditional subject category known as jiehua, or boundary painting. Drawing Boundaries concerns itself with the symbolic implications of this impressive and little studied reflorescence. Beginning with a concise and well-illustrated history of the evolution of the tradition, this exciting new study reveals how these images were deployed in the Manchu (Qing) imperial court to define political, social, or cultural boundaries.

~Characterised by grand conception and regal splendour, the paintings served to enhance the imperial authority of rulers and, to a segment of the elite, to advertise social status. Drawing Boundaries thus speaks to both issues of painting and architectural style and the discourse of powerful cultural forms. In addition to the analysis of how the style of image construction suggests these political and social motivations, the book identifies another aspect of traditional architectural representation unique to the Qing: the use of architectural representation to render form and space. Anita Chung makes the fascinating observation that these renderings create an overwhelming sense of 'being there', a characteristic, she argues, that underscores the Qing concern for the substance of things - a sensibility toward the physical world characteristic of the period and emblematic of a new worldview.

~Anita Chung is Mellon Research Fellow in Chinese Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art. (For this item please quote stock ID 23317) ISBN: 9780824826635

The brothers Zhou - Shan Zuo, born in 1952, and Da Huang, born in 1957 - harken from the autonomous Chinese province of Guangxi. They studied art in Shanghai and Beijing and became the best-known young painters of their generation working in mainland China during the 1980s. In 1985, they were the first artists ever given the opportunity to exhibit their work - large-scale, primitivist-abstract paintings - in a travelling exhibition that stopped in the five most important art institutions in China, including the National Museum of Art in Beijing and the art museums of Shanghai and Nanjing. Although the brothers have lived and worked in the United States since 1986, they have never deviated from their original working approach. They develop all of their paintings, prints, and sculptures collaboratively, communicating without words in what they refer to as their 'dream dialogues,' responding to both Eastern and Western influences, themes, and materials. The Zhou Brothers presents a comprehensive selection of their work. (For this item please quote stock ID 24835) ISBN: 9783775791922

China was one of the first civilisations to engage in printmaking. Ink, paper, printing from cut wooden blocks and moveable type were all invented in China. This unique book provides both a helpful introduction to the history and traditions of printmaking in China and a comprehensive guide to traditional and contemporary printmaking techniques, including detailed and illustrated sections on different techniques (single colour, water-colour, poster colour, stencil, and dabbed printing). David Barker is reader in printmaking at the University of Ulster and an honorary professor in both the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts and the China Natinal Academy. (For this item please quote stock ID 24933) ISBN: 9780713664096

(For this item please quote stock ID 24946) ISBN: 9789810427184

This is a detailed introduction to the exlibris design of Ni Jianming, a well-known exlibris designer and collector in China. Exlibris designs include Beijing opera characters, Chinese door-gods, style and features of Chinese society, blue-and-white porcelain, local customs of the various regions, rivers and lakes, etc. It also includes exlibris designed for famous literati, artists, scholars and foreign exlibris collectors. (For this item please quote stock ID 25649) ISBN: 9787505412002

China: An Enchanting Journey in Waterclour evolved from a delightful twelve-day tour with family and fellow travellers through China. Serendipity, inspiration and providence, these are the three elements that helped Judith publish this wonderful book on her enchanting journey into China. China became a serendipitous place of 'found objects', as Picasso would have described them, of vignettes of light that lit the environment and of life which vibrated with the energy of its people. There, Judith captured zeitgeist or the 'spirit of the times', as photographer Max Dupain would have described that precise and fleeting moment in time when everything falls into place. The eminent French photographer Cartier-Bresson called those moments of inspiration 'decisive moments'. And it is clear from looking at the many wonderful sketches in this book that Judith had captured those inspirational decisive moments throughout her journey. Judith went to China not to paint but to attend daughter-in-law Sarah's graduation as an anaesthetist in Hongkong. Encouragement from her husband Arnold, and providence from artistic muse, guided her to Guilin, picture postcard perfect with its unusually shaped limestone mountains covered with fragrant osmanthus, and the beautiful Li River meandering past jagged cliffs and waterfalls. That magical scenic first encounter with China one misty spring morning was the catalyst. Providence made the hotel management transfer her to a room with a better view to enable her to paint from her room. Providence removed obstacles along the way and presented solutions to problems all throughout her trip and the publication process. In the beginning, Judith drew these sketches for herself. What she drew w ere things that delighted her and she wanted to share those experiences with others. In the end, this project became a journey not only of China but also a journey, and a milestone, in her life. (For this item please quote stock ID 27398) ISBN: 9780646445052

(For this item please quote stock ID 28821) ISBN: 9787508511283

A superb album that illustrates the extraordinary talent of Chinese artist Feng Dazhong. Feng excels not only in painting tigers but also in landscapes and flowers and birds. The tigers in Feng?s paintings are the tigers of nature, whether they have a natural background or not, and he is an artist who regards landscapes as the best means of showing his feelings and who loves to paint large animals. A beautiful book. (For this item please quote stock ID 6893) ISBN: 9787505201538

A collection of 300 Chinese Buddhist designs throughout the ages are included in this album. Highlighted are the images of Buddha, flying Apsaras, murals, sunk panel patterns, nimbus patterns, cave decorations, architectural monastic decorations, plates that tell stories of Buddhist scripture, Buddhist utensils, etc. A brief caption is provided for each illustration. (For this item please quote stock ID 15752) ISBN: 9787501927630

This amazing book contains stunning aerial and landscape photographs of wilderness areas throughout China. Part geography but more artistic photography, the pictures presented here depict the patterns, shades and colours of the natural environment. Each photograph/page could be easily framed or mounted. Internet special: AU$50.00 (For this item please quote stock ID 23964) ISBN: 9787505404571

Although numerous books on the Cultural Revolution have been published, they do not analyze the profound shift in aesthetic values that occurred in China after the Communists took power. This fascinating book is the first to focus on artwork produced from the 1950s to the 1970s, when Mao Zedong was in leadership, and argues that important contributions were made during this period that require fuller consideration in Chinese art history, especially with relevance to the contemporary world. Previously, historians have tended to dismiss the art of the Cultural Revolution as pure propaganda. The authors of this volume (historians, art historians, and artists) argue that while much art produced during this time was infused with politics, and individual creativity and displays of free thought were sometimes stifled and even punished, it is short sighted to overlook the aesthetic sophistication, diversity, and accessibility of much of the imagery. Bringing together more than 200 extraordinary artworks, including oil paintings, ink scroll paintings, artist sketchbooks, posters, and objects from daily life, as well as primary documentation that has not been published outside of China or seen since the mid-20th century, this invaluable volume sheds new light on one of the most controversial and critical periods in history. About the author Melissa Chiu is director of the Asia Society Museum. Zheng Shengtian is an independent curator and has organized many international exhibitions. He has served as editor for various art publications, including Yishu-Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art. (For this item please quote stock ID 29817) ISBN: 9780300140644

The Chinese often use the expression du hua, "to read a painting", in connection with their study and appreciation of such works. This volume closely "reads" thirty-six masterpieces of Chinese painting from the encyclopedic collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in order to reveal the major characteristics and themes of this rich pictorial tradition. The book examines multiple layers of meaning?style, technique, symbolism, past traditions, and the artist?s personal circumstances?through accessible texts and numerous large color details. A dynastic chronology, map, and a list of further readings supplement the text. Spanning a thousand years of Chinese art, these landscapes, flowers, birds, figures, religious subjects, and calligraphies illuminate the main goal of every Chinese artist: to capture not only the outer appearance of a subject but also its inner essence. About the author Maxwell K. Hearn is Douglas Dillon Curator, Department of Asian Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (For this item please quote stock ID 29818) ISBN: 9780300141870

Wang Hui, the most celebrated painter of late-17th-century China, played a key role both in reinvigorating past traditions of landscape painting and in establishing the stylistic foundations for the imperially sponsored art of the Qing court. An artist of protean talent and immense ambition, Wang developed an all-embracing synthesis of historical landscape styles that constituted one of the greatest artistic innovations of late imperial China. This comprehensive study of the painter?s career?the first published in English?features essays examining his life and achievement as well as his masterwork, the monumental scroll depicting the Kangxi emperor?s Southern Inspection Tour. Twenty-seven of Wang Hui?s paintings, drawn from the Metropolitan Museum and from museums in Beijing, Taipei, Shanghai, and Tokyo, are supplemented by a wealth of images ranging from ancient Chinese paintings to works by Wang?s contemporaries. Maxwell K. Hearn is Douglas Dillon Curator and Shiyee Liu is Research Associate, both in the Department of Asian Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Wen C. Fong is Professor Emeritus, Princeton University, and Curator Emeritus, Asian Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Chin-Sung Chang is Assistant Professor of Archaeology and Art History, Seoul National University. (For this item please quote stock ID 29819) ISBN: 9780300141443

For the fifth edition of his internationally renowned The Arts of China, Michael Sullivan has thoroughly revised and expanded every chapter of this classic history of Chinese art from the Neolithic period to the present day. This new edition reflects the latest archaeological discoveries, pays greater attention to the art of calligraphy, provides more information on Chan (Zen) art, and takes a close look at contemporary art. New images have been added to almost every chapter: the work now features more than four hundred photographs, maps, and illustrations, with more than two-thirds of them in full color. Written in the engaging and lucid style that is Sullivan's hallmark, The Arts of China is readily accessible to general readers as well as serious students of art history. Sullivan's approach remains true to the way the Chinese themselves view art, providing readers with a sense of the sweep of history through China's dynasties. This organizational strategy makes it easy for readers to understand the distinct characteristics of each period of art and to gain a clearer view of how Chinese art has changed in relation to its historical context. With many improvements that bring it fully up to date, The Arts of China will remain the most comprehensive and widely read introduction to the history of Chinese art. About The Author Michael Sullivan is Fellow Emeritus at St. Catherine's College, Oxford University. His many books include The Night Entertainments of Han Xizai: A Scroll by Gu Hongzhong and Modern Chinese Artists: A Biographical Dictionary (both from UC Press). From the Neolithic to the avant-garde, and through all the brilliant centuries in between, Michael Sullivan's introduction to Chinese art history is the classic in its field, unsurpassed in its clarity, balance, and sure grasp of the subject. Whether for the classroom student or the casual reader, its remarkable range and elegant style make this book a wonderful way for anyone to begin learning about Chinese art."?Jerome Silbergeld, Princeton University "I have used Sullivan's Arts of China in my class for thirty years. No other historian of Chinese art today commands such a wide range of knowledge as Michael Sullivan."?Richard Barnhart, Yale University, editor of Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting "After more than forty years since its first publication, Michael Sullivan's Arts of China, now in its fifth edition, remains the most concise yet most comprehensive introduction to the history of Chinese art to students and the public."?Wu Hung, Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago "Michael Sullivan is the acknowledged dean of modern Chinese art studies, and any work bearing his name guarantees both a high level of quality and a wide readership."?Maxwell K. Hearn, Metropolitan Museum of Art (For this item please quote stock ID 29821) ISBN: 9780520255692

The Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes were inscribed on the World Heritage List by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1987. Cultural relics found in the Dunhuang Grottoes, including beautiful murals, colorful statues, detailed silk paintings and illustrations of magnificent architecture demonstrate the originality, artistry, and wisdom of the ancient Chinese artists who created them. Examination of these valuable pieces of work can provide us with a better understanding of ancient Chinese politics, economy, culture and religion, as well as of the relationships that existed between various ethnic groups and between peoples in the East and West in ancient China The translations presented in this book comprise mainly Buddhist history, legends and stories. The 137 vivid. Beautiful mural pictures were provided by Dunhuang Cultural Center. This English version, Fascinating Mural Stories From Dunhuang Grottoes, is an exquisite picture album containing colorful images that promise to be a feast for the reader?s eyes. We dedicate this book to all those who have traveled from far and wide to see the Dunhuang Grottoes (For this item please quote stock ID 30001) ISBN: 9787802285712

Child imagery has played an important role in China's traditional art of painting. A significant number of children's portraits had been created in history. Overall, child subjects fall into three categories: playing children, shepherd boys, and peddlers. Painters in the Tang Dynasty were good at depicting children at play. Popular children's games in ancient times include playing house, fighting on "horseback", cricket fighting, and so on. The famous painter Su Hanchen of the Song Dynasty began to establish romantic associations linking childhood with naivety in his artworks, which were drawn with meticulous observation. Genre paintings featuring a peddler and the children were very popular during the Song and Yuan dynasties; during Ming and Qing dynasties, "baby imagery" derived from Spring Festival woodcuts became a great favourite of ordinary people, as it usually contains the auspicious implication of "many sons, many blessings." This book introduces representative works by the famous painters from the Warring States Period to the Qing Dynasty. (For this item please quote stock ID 30133) ISBN: 9787508514093

The painting this album presents are reproductions of a long scroll of Chinese painting - 303.6 metres long and 1.05 wide. The original painting was composed of 132 parts and hence is entitled A Panorama of Hong Kong on Scrolls. The painter, Yu Yuan-chia, makes exquisite use of traditional skills to cover all 187 scenic spots of Hong Kong in this gigantic work. Its colours represent late spring and early summer, a time full of vitality, and set the basic tone for the whole picture. Everything is carefully paid out, painted with refined strokes, to form an organic whole. (For this item please quote stock ID 19736) ISBN: 9789620412998

A remaining volume of a remarkable set (of 5) that canvassed the history of Chinese painting from its ancient origins. Text is in Chinese only but the art transcends mere words. (For this item please quote stock ID 15538)

Gao Fenglian's paper-cuts are the culmination of years of practice, understanding and experience. Her comprehensive study of the customs of North Shaanxi reflect the collective feelings, culture, ideology and life of the local people in this region. Gao's works are imbued with a strong awareness of continuing survival, and are beyond superficial imitations of nature. Her intimate observations on life have resulted in a distinctive creative language, and her works attest that paper-cuts constitute a discrete philosophy and art form. Her paper-cuts exude the rich residue of a totem culture, as seen in her vivid representations of the tiger totem as a symbol of heaven or the sun, and that of the snake (symbolising the dragon) as the symbol of earth and water. The symbols of the union of heaven and earth and ying and yang and continuous life in her work are so natural and essential that nature becomes an image of life itself. All ornamental dress details on human figures and the features of animals in Gao Fenglian's paper-cuts have their specific, implicit meaning. (For this item please quote stock ID 17511) ISBN: 9787507206975

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Li Keran (1907-1989) was a great master of modern Chinese landscape painting and a respected art educator. This large and richly illustrated volume (in a Chinese-style slipcase) contains a broad selection of works from his early cartoon-like style to the darker vision of his later years. (For this item please quote stock ID 9576) ISBN: 9787119017495

Beautiful reproductions accompanied by Chinese/English/Japanese text and captions. (For this item please quote stock ID 1566) ISBN: 9787501118120

Neither entirely Eastern nor definitively Western in its outlook, the work of Hong Kong artists oscillates between these two traditional polarities and shows how post colonial artistic production is an ongoing negotiation of differences, a tentative resolution of contradictions, and an ironic doubling of mainstream strategies that mimic and undermine the established modes. Hong Kong Now! presents the works of nine contemporary Hong Kong artists: Lucia N. Y. Cheung, Simon Go, Oscar Ho, Ho Siu-kee, Leung Chi Wo, Ellen Pau, Grechen So, Wong Shun-kit, and Yu Tsz Man. Working with the freedoms and constraints created by the opposing forces of possible totalitarian rule, now that the 153 year old British crown colony of Hong Kong has been transferred to the People's Republic of China, with the seemingly unlimited free market economies already in place, these artists have developed a spectrum of possible identities that exhibit the complex and even contradictory values that are endemic to Hong Kong. (For this item please quote stock ID 8016) ISBN: 9780295976716

Includes 76 wash paintings, oil paintings, watercolours and sketches created during the 1990s. (For this item please quote stock ID 16229) ISBN: 9787119017938

This collection of paintings by eighty acclaimed American-Chinese artists of the late 20th century is the first of its kind in English. The album falls into three categories (oil painting, Chinese painting and other media painting) and offers a profile of the artists and information on their professional accomplishments. Artists included come from Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, among whom are such highly acknowledged names as Jin Gao, Chen Yifei, Ting Shao Kuang and Chen Danqing whose works have enjoyed international fame and recognition. These artists come from different backgrounds, use different media and belong to different schools. Some of them are veterans of the fascinating world of artistic creation and enjoy national and international fame, while others are enterprising young men and women who are more impressed by novelty and singularity. With their innate Chinese temperament, their life experience, original thinking, and unique expression, each of them paints 'man' in a style that is clearly his or her own. All of their paintings reflect a facet of the splendid 5000 years of Chinese culture. ?Answering calls from the hearts' yearning, these paintings reveal a natural beauty of flow, just like days passing by. They move in such a way that resembles the impulsive unfolding of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Tide rises and falls, but each movement has a different rhythm each day. So do the paintings of our artists, each of which bears the artist's unmistakable imprint and all of which deserve our awesome appreciation.? (For this item please quote stock ID 16456) ISBN: 9780966542134

A collection of more than 200 paintings of flowers, birds, landscapes and figures by more than 100 artists. Readers can learn much and derive great enjoyment from these works along with pertinent commentaries. Contents: Displaying the Charm of the Ages; An Overview of Chinese Fine Brush Painting; Plates; Flower-and-Bird Paintings; Landscape Paintings; Figure Paintings; List of Plates (For this item please quote stock ID 19006) ISBN: 9787119019734

A companion volume to Selected Woodcuts by Yan Han. Yan Han, one of China's famous painters, was also an outstanding woodcut artist. (For this item please quote stock ID 20529) ISBN: 9787119016689

Half-Life of a Dream: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Logan Collection is a breathtaking and insightful survey of post-Tiananmen Square Chinese art and culture. As this richly illustrated work reveals, contemporary Chinese art?often discussed as a cynical reaction to emerging consumerism or as a satiric response to the academic patriotism of socialist realism?is more haunted than cynical, more a matter of a nation's suppressed psychic expression than of pop iconoclasm or ironic detachment. The paintings, sculptures, and installations of such Chinese artists as Ai Weiwei, Liu Xiaodong, Zhang Xiaogang, and Lin Tianmiao convey the shadows that trouble their nation as it undergoes a rapid process of modernization. Half-Life of a Dream, companion book to the exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, is the museum's first sustained examination of Chinese artistic practice since the acclaimed publication of Inside Out: New Chinese Art. Beautiful in its presentation and fresh in its tone, Half-Life of a Dream gathers a distinguished group of art historians and critics to assess the Logan Collection and to capture this important moment in Chinese art. (For this item please quote stock ID 29820) ISBN: 9780520257795

Guan Wei is an artist of our times. He was born in Beijing, migrated to Australia, and now lives and works in Sydney and Beijing. Other Histories was a major installation by Guan at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, in 2006?2007. The exhibition, inspired by the voyages of Ming dynasty admiral Zheng He (1371?1432) and the artist?s own journey of migration to Australia, combined large-scale mural paintings and museum objects, transforming the gallery into a floating poetic corridor in which history and memory, fact and fiction, are blurred. This beautifully designed and illustrated book documenting the exhibition includes a statement and working drawings by Guan and essays by curator Claire Roberts; Geremie R. Barmé, a leading historian and Sinologist specializing in China?s cultural and intellectual history; and award-winning novelist Alexis Wright, a member of the Waanyi nation of the southern highlands of the Gulf of Carpentaria. About the author Claire Roberts is senior curator Of Asian Decorative Arts And Design at The Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. She has curated several exhibitions and recently received a Doctorate in Chinese art. (For this item please quote stock ID 30129) ISBN: 9781876957131

Reveals the extraordinary experiences of a Chinese photographer's (Ba Huang) tours across Ngari, Tibet. It also shows her first hand investigation of the Guge Kingdom which mysteriously ceased to exist about 300 years ago. Ba Huang describes - by her words as well as pictures - charming landscapes and the cultural phenomenon of Ngari and the Guge Kingdom, all of which is permeated with her unique artistic intuition as an Oriental woman artist. The large format album offers the reader 200 photographs and 90,000 words, the fruit of Ba Huang?s 40,000 kilometre travels across Tibet. Bilingual (Chinese-English) text. (For this item please quote stock ID 4188) ISBN: 9787541009358

Boxwood carving has a long history and a high reputation worldwide. The family of Wang Fengzuo continues to develop new techniques on this form which is inherited from traditional Chinese aesthetics. This album includes some of the finest works of Wang Fengzuo and his family, most of which have won awards and several of which are now in museum collections and in art galleries in the West and the East. This is the first album on Boxwood Carving ever published anywhere, and not only that, it's bilingual (Chinese-English)! (For this item please quote stock ID 452) ISBN: 9787507208276

This book introduces to readers over 50 private collections, five trade museums and five antique markets in Shanghai.

The private collections are small in scale, established in their own homes by collectors with an enthusiasm for curios. Generally, the display rooms serve not just as display space but as living rooms too. The owners have started display rooms in their homes because they want to share collecting experiences and discuss them with other people and, in so doing, perhaps becoming friends.

These collections are not as famous as those of national museums, but they are highly specialized and the atmosphere is warm, comfortable and easy. You may sip a cup of tea while you visit and, provided you get the owner's consent, you may touch the exhibits and consult with the owner.

(For this item please quote stock ID 2672) ISBN: 9787119043937

The 50 paintings in this album by noted Chinese artists Zhang Erbin could almost be joined together to form a continuous landscape scroll. But, on closer examination, each painting is different in terms of its conception. The great rivers and mountains of Nanjing have attracted painters since ancient times, and Zhang Erbin, with his mastery of culture and aesthetics, has inherited the fine tradition and continues to eulogise the beautiful land of Nanjing with his brush. [Bilingual introduction and forward, English captions, with explanatory notes in Chinese] (For this item please quote stock ID 4030) ISBN: 9787507208498

This - dare we say - gorgeously produced book, presents a collection of 100 of Xu Xingzhi?s artistic works (oil paintings, pastels, water colours & Chinese ink & colour). Xu Xingzhi (1904-1991) is a well-known artistic figure in China who used his talents in a number of ways, including film directing, stage and play writing, and prose. He was also a social activist, historian, and educator, but it is probably in fine art that Xu is most well-known. Also included is biographical information, a complete catalogue of Xu?s works, etc. (For this item please quote stock ID 4853) ISBN: 9787505925465

(For this item please quote stock ID 5329) ISBN: 9787119008073

Chinese Woodcuts provides a full and accurate history of the development of Chinese woodcuts from ancient to modern times. Representative works from all eras have been collected for this book written by Professor Li Hua, chairman of the Chinese Woodcutter? Union and one of the founders of the modern Chinese woodcut movement. Chinese Woodcuts is a 'profound study of both the theory and practice of the art of the woodcut'. It is presented in the same format and is part of a series of recent art titles from China which includes Chinese Folk Painting on Porcelain, A History of Chinese Painting, China?s Imperial Tombs & Mausoleums and Ancient Pagodas in China. (For this item please quote stock ID 9569) ISBN: 9787119003887

A beautifully presented album that includes 175 paintings and calligraphy which span half a century. Influential and innovative, Chinese artist Lu Yanshuo has successfully combined traditional painting with modern innovation and abstraction, to produce an individual style that includes the old and the new without eliminating or devaluing either. Bilingual text and captions. (Chinese Artistic Paintings Series) (For this item please quote stock ID 10249) ISBN: 9787507207989

Lan Guosheng is a professor at the Research Academy of Ink and Water Painting and a specialist painter at the Qingyun Painting and Calligraphy Academy of China's Ministry of Culture. He was born in Beijing in 1957 and studied under noted painters Dong Shouping, Liang Shunian and Jin Yi. There have been many exhibitions of his art, both at home and abroad, winning him aclaim and awards. He has published several albums his work of and a large number of his paintings are in art gallery and museum collections. (For this item please quote stock ID 25341) ISBN: 9787119038605

Watercolour by Qi Deyan is a collection of the representative works by Professor Qi Deyan. Professor Qi, a professor of Fine Arts and Environmental Design at Chongqing University, Council Member of the National Chinese Watercolourists Association and the President of the Chongqing Watercolourists Association, is an eminent Chinese artist whose works have received critical acclaim throughout the world. The book contains over ninety watercolour works representing Professor Qi?s personal selection of his most prized works throughout his career. The works range from portraiture to landscapes to the later abstract works of Professor Qi and also feature works from his travels throughout China, Japan, North America and Australia. Professor Qi?s unique style represents the quintessence of the intricate fusion of the ideas and techniques of traditional Chinese ink-brush painting and Western watercolour. Professor Qi?s works display a deep admiration, awe and passion for the grandeur hidden in the simplicity of nature. His talent of transforming the mundane into beauty has attracted great respect for his works. (For this item please quote stock ID 27397) ISBN: 9789624508253

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The Long Corridor in the Summer Palace was first built in 1750 but subsequently destroyed and then rebuilt. This 728 metre long art gallery starts from Greeting the Moon Gate in the east and ends at Stone Man Pavilion in the west. It has 273 sections in all. The beams of each section of the Long Corridor contain over forty colour paintings, each one with a unique story and painted in various styles and sizes. These paintings can be divided into four categories: human figures and stories; landscapes; flowers and birds; and architecture. Among these, the most fascinating is certainly the 200-plus paintings depicting historic figures, folk and fairy stories, and scenes from traditional operas. The works cover thousands of years of history, from the first emperor of China (c. 2100-2000 BC) to the last feudal dynasty which ended quite recently. The editors have selected the best and most representative works for inclusion in this album. (For this item please quote stock ID 14173) ISBN: 9787119018591

The Baisha Frescoes of Yunnan province cover 172 square metres and originate from the Ming dynasty (AD 1368-1644), with the exception of a few from the Qing dynasty (AD 1616-1911). The Frescoes are an integration of Tibetan Buddhism, Han-region Buddhism and Taoism and a combination of Tibetan, Han and Naxi painting styles. Over 100 murals are presented in this album. (For this item please quote stock ID 15750) ISBN: 9787220043727

Creating paintings with poetic resonances, sometimes with ties to specific lines of poetry, is a practice that began in China in the eleventh century, the Northern Sung period. Cahill vividly surveys its first great flowering among artists working in the Southern Sung capital of Hangchou, probably the largest and certainly the richest city on earth in this era. He shows us the revival of poetic painting by late Ming artists working in the prosperous city of Suchou. And we learn how artists in Edo-period Japan, notably the eighteenth-century Nanga masters and the painter and haiku poet Yosa Buson, transformed the style into a uniquely Japanese vehicle of expression. In all cases, Cahill shows, poetic painting flourished in crowded urban environments; it accompanied an outpouring of poetry celebrating the pastoral, escape from the city, immersion in nature. An ideal of the return to a life close to nature - the 'lyric journey' - underlies many of the finest, most moving paintings of China and Japan, and offers a key for understanding them. (For this item please quote stock ID 19177) ISBN: 9780674009677

The cover design is from a Suzhou embroidery screen of the Qing Dynasty used specially for birthday celebrations. The screen contains a number of traditional Chinese auspicious symbols: The Chinese words for the deer on which the God of Longevity is riding and the bat on the right are homophones for "official position" and "happiness." The Taiji ("great ultimate") symbol on the scroll held by the God is a talisman for warding off disasters and evil spirits, and this symbol, resembling two fish frolicking in water, also stands for annual abundance, as fish and "surplus" are homophones. The pine tree, bamboo and plum blossoms, called the "the three winter companions" by the ancients, convey connotations of being perpetually young and full of vitality. The peaches, glossy ganoderma and gourd carded by the boys as well as decorative patterns of ruyi and shoucharacter at the bottom of the picture alt symbolize longevity, happiness, position and contentment. Replete with these symbols, the whole picture is overflowing with a festive atmosphere, perfect for a birthday celebration. (For this item please quote stock ID 27939) ISBN: 9787119039077

Text in Chinese and English. Illustrated. Teach beginners skills to paint Chinese brush paintings. (For this item please quote stock ID 31090) ISBN: 9787807402633

Zhou Wenyong, a Suzhou painter, calls himself 'an ordinary person'. If Zhou Wenyong?s pictures of traditional life in Suzhou (totaling about 80 in all) were patched together, they would form a scroll painting depicting life and customs in Suzhou in the 20th century. His pictures describe the daily life of Suzhou people and depict their activities in true and lively images. (For this item please quote stock ID 27201) ISBN: 9787119043890

In premodern China, elite painters used imagery not to mirror the world around them, but to evoke unfathomable experience. Considering their art alongside the philosophical traditions that inform it, The Great Image Has No Form explores the "nonobject"-a notion exemplified by paintings that do not seek to represent observable surroundings.

François Jullien argues that this nonobjectifying approach stems from the painters? deeply held belief in a continuum of existence, in which art is not distinct from reality. Contrasting this perspective with the Western notion of art as separate from the world it represents, Jullien investigates the theoretical conditions that allow us to apprehend, isolate, and abstract objects. His comparative method lays bare the assumptions of Chinese and European thought, revitalizing the questions of what painting is, where it comes from, and what it does. Provocative and intellectually vigorous, this sweeping inquiry introduces new ways of thinking about the relationship of art to the ideas in which it is rooted.

(For this item please quote stock ID 31798) ISBN: 9780226415307

This book offers a collection of carefully selected Chinese-style decorative patterns and provides in both print format and as JPEG and PSD files on a companion CD-ROM. There are 250 images are included and organized into 10 useful categories, making this a highly inspirational and practical reference for professional and amateur designers and artists. About the author Shigeru Nakamura has started his carrier as an art director from 1964 in Japan. Established his office, cobble collaboration in 1987 and has produced design pattern books under its own brand. A member of JAGDA (Japan Graphic Designers Association). (For this item please quote stock ID 30091) ISBN: 9781592534975