Innovation in Continuity: Creativity and Tradition.
Please note lectures are in Mandarin Chinese. Admission is Free.
At the turn of the 20th century, China began a period of adaptation to tumultuous social and political changes. A series of events punctuating the last century compelled and inspired painters in China to oscillate between innovation and continuity of past styles. After a century of social turmoil and cultural agony, traditional Chinese ink painting did not vanish; recent developments in ink painting attest to the revitalization of literati art values in the late 20th century.
INTRODUCTION
In a series of five lectures, Dr. Tsao Hsingyuan explores the continuity of memory, and traces how selected art objects and paintings of China from the Neolithic period to the 20th century are records of the past. In the first talk of the series, Art for Eternity: Ritual and Mortuary Offerings, Dr. Tsao reveals how massive bronze vessels and small portable jade pieces testify to a sense of extended time. In Painting the Paragons: Figurative Painting of the Han and Tang, tomb art and scrolls from the Han to Tang dynasties show how personal and legendary tales were models for emulation. Referencing Antiquity: Values of Literati Art outlines how Literati Art theory, through promoting the use of the past, pushes painting to breathtaking compositions and styles. Innovation in Continuity: Creativity and Tradition discusses how the values of Literati Painting have endured and manifested in art of the 20th century. In the final lecture, Private Passions: Collecting and Collections, selections from prominent collections of books, paintings and calligraphy in Vancouver will be featured in a discussion on the impact of art collections on cultural landscapes.
DR. TSAO HSINGYUAN received her M.A. degrees from the Central Academy of Art in Beijing and the University of California Berkeley, and her Ph.D from Stanford University. She currently teaches Chinese art at UBC in the Department of Art History, Visual art & Theory.
