The view of poetry and painting as “sister arts” has survived and flourished in China even as Western scholars divorce the arts from literary content. The emergence of literati, or scholar-poets and scholar-artists, created an integration of the arts of poetry, painting, and calligraphy in the Song dynasty (960–1279). This exhibition presented thirty-six works from the Song dynasty to the twentieth century, demonstrating artworks with poems inscribed on the painted surface or works that were inspired by poems. The exhibition included paintings inspired by famous poets of the past; poem-painting combinations evoking the beauty and symbolism of various flowers and other plants; and poem-painting combinations commenting on art, literature, or history.
The Chinese Painter as Poet
中国画家亦诗人
Exhibition Catalogue
Authors: Dr. Jonathan Chaves
The harmonious integration of painting, poetry, and calligraphy has been an accomplishment of Chinese art since the literati painters of the Song dynasty. This idea of painting and poetry as "sister arts" is explored in works by various artists from Wang Wei of the Tang dynasty, considered China's first poet-painter, to a Portuguese poet living in Macao. This study encompasses theory, imagery, music, and comparative modern expressions.
Exhibition catalog, 2000. Paperback, 159 pages: ill.
ISBN: 0-965-4270-4-8
Media Coverage
- Holland Cotter, “Art Review: Calligraphy in Harmony with Poetry and Painting,” The New York Times, September 22, 2000.
“Viewers shy of, or put off by, the complexities of Chinese art, might do well to get their feet wet at the China Institute, with its recognizable images and sorted-out media, not to mention its heart-stopping poems…”
“These shows together [with ‘The Embodied Image’ exhibition in the Metropolitan Museum of Art] offer the best opportunity this city has seen in years to plunge straight into the center of a major, underknown art form, one in which image and language, spirit and intellect, forge an indissoluble, perception-altering partnership.”
- Mila Andre, “Writing’s on the wall in 2 China shows,” The Daily News, September 15, 2000.
Media Coverage
- Asian Art
- Oriental Art
- The New York Times
- World Journal 世界日报
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