Chinese Garden's new art gallery makes its debut with an inaugural exhibition featuring contemporary calligraphy

The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Friday, March 29, 2024


Chinese Garden's new art gallery makes its debut with an inaugural exhibition featuring contemporary calligraphy
View of the Chinese Garden, where the new art gallery will showcase an exhibition of Chinese calligraphy. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Photo by Martha Benedict.



SAN MARINO, CA.- Postponed for more than a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the highly anticipated opening of the Chinese Garden’s new art gallery is now taking place this summer at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, with an exhibition of Chinese calligraphy as its inaugural installation. “A Garden of Words: The Calligraphy of Liu Fang Yuan” 書苑——流芳園典藏書法作品 opened Aug. 28, 2021, in the Studio for Lodging the Mind 寓意齋. The exhibition will be presented in two rotations of 20 works each; the first installation continues through Dec. 13, 2021, and the second runs from Jan. 29 through May 16, 2022.

Words are everywhere in the Chinese Garden—known as Liu Fang Yuan, the Garden of Flowing Fragrance. Names for the garden’s various features adorn rocks and buildings; poetic couplets frame entryways and vistas. Their purpose is to enhance the visitor’s experience of the garden through the lenses of literature and art. Since 2007, The Huntington has commissioned contemporary artists to create the original works of calligraphy—artful brush writings in ink on paper—that served as the models for these inscriptions. It is a selection of these that is being exhibited.

The work of 21 contemporary ink artists is being featured, including Bai Qianshen, Michael Cherney, Grace Chu, Fu Shen, Lo Ch’ing, Tang Qingnian, Wang Mansheng, Wan-go Weng, Zhu Chengjun, and Terry Yuan, among others.

“Calligraphy is fundamental to a Chinese garden, but it is a feature that often goes overlooked by visitors, especially those who do not read Chinese,” said Phillip E. Bloom, the June and Simon K.C. Li Curator of the Chinese Garden and Director of the Center for East Asian Garden Studies. “This exhibition fosters deeper appreciation for the artistry behind these inscriptions by introducing the content, materials, forms, and futures of calligraphy.”

The new Studio for Lodging the Mind, located at the north end of the garden, is a 1,720-sq.-ft., light- and climate-controlled gallery space suitable for the display of works of art on paper or silk. An adjacent pavilion, known as the Flowery Brush Library 筆花書房, is designed in the style of a 17th-century Chinese scholar’s studio—a garden retreat traditionally used for painting, poetry, and calligraphy. Its name is inspired by the tale of a scholar who dreamed that a flower grew from the tip of his writing brush, a metaphor for literary and artistic talent. Calligraphy demonstrations are planned for this latter space; including a presentation by Terry Yuan on Saturday, Oct. 16, 2021, at 2:30 p.m., and a demonstration by Tang Qingnian on Saturday, April 9, 2022, at 2:30 p.m. Both programs are free with Huntington admission.




“Chinese calligraphy is an art of seeming contradictions,” explained Bloom. “Though crafted with simple materials—brush, ink, and paper—its visual forms are myriad. Though written according to rigid rules, it also encourages sophisticated forms of personal expression. And while it is ubiquitous in the Chinese-reading world, calligraphy nevertheless can remain difficult even for the erudite to appreciate. Through this exhibition, we hope to help make it more accessible and to make a significant contribution to public engagement with the art form.”

“A Garden of Words” will offer four perspectives through which to consider calligraphy: its content, materials, forms, and futures. Visitors will first investigate the ways in which the content of calligraphy—its written characters—conveys meaning and sound by following specific structural rules.

The second section of the exhibition will focus on calligraphy as a material object, with an inscription introducing the format of a calligraphic work—its mounting, main text, and framing inscriptions. A selection of the tools of calligraphy will be displayed, and a pair of calligraphic works will illustrate the different effects that can be achieved by varying materials.

Next, visitors will explore the diverse visual forms of calligraphy through the five conventional script types: seal, clerical, regular, running, and cursive. Each has its own visual features, cultural connotations, and appropriate contexts of use. For instance, regular script would traditionally be used for formal inscriptions on imposing buildings, such as governmental or religious sites, while cursive is often associated with freer forms of expression. Two or three works of each type will demonstrate the range of visual effects that can be achieved within a single script. An accompanying video in the gallery will show a calligrapher at work, capturing the subtle movements of both body and brush.

The exhibition will conclude with a look at the innovations contemporary calligraphers are bringing to the medium. Some artists take a pictographic approach, returning writing to its mythic origins; others excavate forgotten scripts to imbue their work with eccentricity. A short video of interviews with artists discussing their work will shed light on their creative processes.

A gallery guide, in English and in Chinese, will be available, and an exhibition webpage will provide additional resources, including an interactive map of calligraphy locations within the garden, with translations of the inscriptions and information on the artists.










Today's News

August 29, 2021

Amsterdam's mayor announces talks with Jewish heirs on Kandinsky claim

Judy Chicago celebrated in Nevada Museum of Art exhibition

Egypt dig uncovers 2,300-year-old settlement in Alexandria

'Cancel culture' show in Warsaw stirs controversy

Chinese Garden's new art gallery makes its debut with an inaugural exhibition featuring contemporary calligraphy

Nils Stærk opens the exhibition 'Like a Force of Nature' by SUPERFLEX

Exhibition investigates how European Gothic architecture influenced skyscrapers in the US

Columbus Museum of Art reopens Pizzuti Collection of CMA

Asian Art Museum presents first major exhibition of Korean portraiture in U.S.

Egyptians discover fossil of new amphibious whale

Exhibition explores the myriad ways to document important and complex aspects of contemporary life

End of the line looms for hawkers, rough sleepers at Bangkok station

From the shadows: the secret, threatened lives of bats

Exhibition offers a critical look at the history of the Korean War

An artist night train travels from Norway to Whitechapel Gallery

Installation presents works created by 26 artists and cooperatives based in Ukraine

Exhibition reveals the variety of fascinating roles women played on land and at sea

Exhibition raises awareness of climate crisis and endangered ecosystems

Exhibition of new works by the artist Wes Lang opens at Almine Rech Aspen

The Halsey Institute's new exhibition explores the fluid visual identity of the African diaspora

Venice film fest returns with another blockbuster lineup

Xie Qi's first solo exhibition at Galerie Urs Meile presents powerful works on canvas

The guerrilla street artist stumping for Larry Elder

Magic Johnson's jersey worn during Lakers' legendary 1980 NBA finals win scores $1.5 million

Study at colleges in Canada (IT, computer science, and technology)




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez

sa gaming free credit
Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful