Transforming Traditions in Modern Chinese Painting

Modern Chinese painting embodies the constant renewal and reinvigorations of Chinese civilization amidst rebellions, reforms, and revolutions, even if the process may appear confusing and bewildering. It also demonstrates the persistence of tradition and limits of continuities and changes in modern Chinese cluture. Most significantly, it compels us to ask several important questions in the study of modern Chinese culture: How extensively can cultural tradition be re-interpreted before it is subverted? At what point is creative re-invention an act of betrayal of tradition? How has selective borrowing from Chinese tradition and foreign cultrue enabled modern Chinese artists to sustain themselves in the modern world? By focusing on the art of Huang Pin-hung (1865-1955), particularly his late work, this book attempts to provide some answers to these questions.

Auteur

The Author: Jason C. Kuo teaches Chinese art at the University of Marlyland. He has held appointments at the National Taiwan University, Willliams College, and Yale University. Among his publications are The Austere Landscape: The Paintings of Hung-jen; Chen Chikwan; Word as Image: The Art of Chinese Seal Engraving; and Art and Cultural Politics in Postwar Taiwan.

Résumé
«Kuo's study is an admirable survey bringing together a formidable array of sources to elucidate the cultural agenda of one of the most pivotal painters in twentieth-century China. This careful and thoughtful analysis of the flux of ideas stimulating Huang's art and art theory is an outstanding contribution to our understanding of this era.» (Ellen Johnston Laing, Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and author of 'The Winking Owl: Art in the People's Republic of China' and 'An Index to Reproductions of Paintings by Twentieth-Century Chinese Artists')
«Huang Pin-hung was a key figure in the modern revival of traditional Chinese painting in response to the challenge of Western art. In this carefully researched and thoroughly documented study, Professor Kuo shows through a penetrating analysis both of the artist's writings and of his brush technique, how he developed the highly individual style that is the mark of his later years. This is a valuable contribution to the literature on modern Chinese art.» (Michael Sullivan, Fellow Emeritus of St. Catherine's College, Oxford University and Christensen Professor Emeritus of Oriental Art, Stanford University, and author of 'The Arts of China', 'The Meeting of Eastern and Western Art', and 'Art and Artists of Twentieth-Century China')
«The first major study in English of Huang Pin-hung, one of the most significant and yet little understood Chinese artists of the twentieth century.» (Claire Roberts, Senior Curator, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, and editor of 'Evolution & Revolution: Chinese Dress, 1700s-1900s')
«As a painter, art historian, art theorist, and editor, Huang Pin-hung forged new ground in the practice and understanding of Chinese painting in the twentieth century. Professor Kuo, whose own scholarly interests in many ways parallel those of his subject, is particularly well-qualified to write on this complex and fascinating artist, and has produced an extremely illuminating book.» (Julia F. Andrews, Bliss M. & Mildred A. Wiant Designated Professor of Chinese Literature and Culture, Professor of the History of Art, and Director of the East Asian Studies Center, The Ohio State University, and author of 'Painters and Politics in the People's Republic of China, 1949-1979')