The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens recently announced the upcoming exhibition of a large collection of rare Chinese woodblock prints.
To coincide with this international loan exhibition, The Huntington will display its unique “Ten Bamboo Studio Manual of Calligraphy and Painting” for the first time to the public.
“Gardens, Art, and Commerce in Chinese Woodblock Prints” will be on view from Sept. 17 until Jan. 9, 2017 in the MaryLou and George Boone Gallery.
It will feature works made between the late 16th century to the 19th century, examining their cultural and artistic importance. The collection is made up of 48 objects from international institutions, such as the National Library of China, Beijing; Shanghai Museum; and Nanjing Library, as well as private and museum collections in the United States.
Curators of the exhibition are June Li, who is the founding curator of The Huntington’s Chinese Garden, and Chinese woodblock print specialist Suzanne Wright, associate professor of art history at the University of Tennessee.
“This exhibition is utterly evocative of The Huntington’s transdisciplinary nature,” The Huntington’s President Laura Skandera Trombley said. “Woodblock prints were formative communication and aesthetic tools that served a number of purposes over time, from disseminating Buddhist teachings to depicting ideals of beauty. This perfect fusion of art and language, an integration of emotion and intellectual pursuit, is evidenced in The Huntington’s art and library collections, and is embodied in our stunning Suzhou-style Chinese Garden. We are enormously grateful for June Li’s commitment and guiding vision for this extraordinary exhibition.”
A notable piece includes a 9 ½-foot long hand scroll with Buddhist art portraying a landscape, comprised of mountains, trees and streams. Song Emperor Taizong commissioned this religious piece.
A 6-foot portion of more than 25-foot long scroll depicting daily life in 18th century Beijing is an example of another lengthy scroll on view.
Anotherexhibitionartwork,“IllustrationsoftheGardenSceneryoftheHallofEncirclingJade,”ismadeupof45printsfrombetween1602and1605thatcomprisealargegardenestateofthe17thcenturymerchantandpublisherWangTingna.TherewillbefouriPadsavailableattheexhibitiongalleriesforfurtherinvestigationofthispiece.
TheiPadsalsowillenablevisitorstoseealltheleavesof“TenBambooStudioManualofCalligraphyandPainting,”whichwasacquiredbyTheHuntingtonin2014.AccordingtoTheHuntington,theartworkcanonlybeviewedafewleavesatatimeinthegalleriesbecauseofitsdelicacy.
The exhibition will be displayed in thematic sections with information panels in both English and Chinese. The Huntington’s Education Gallery will showcase woodblock-printing techniques with a printing table replica, carver tools, inks, brushes and paper.
A 176-page illustrated exhibition catalog for “Gardens, Art, and Commerce in Chinese Woodblock Prints” is available to purchase. Related free lectures planned are “Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words? Chinese Woodblock Prints of the Late Ming and Qing Periods” on Oct. 3; “How Can I Disdain…this Carving of Insects? Painters, Carvers, and Style in Chinese Woodblock Printed Images” on Oct. 25; and “The Huang Family of Block Cutters: The Thread that Binds Late Ming Pictorial Woodblock Printmaking” on Nov. 22. All lectures are at 7:30 p.m. in The Huntington’s Rothenberg Hall. A symposium, “Word and Image: Chinese Woodblock Prints,” is scheduled for Nov. 12 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Rothenberg Hall. Lastly, there will be a Chinese Color Woodblock Printing Workshop on Nov. 20. Further details will be announced later on huntington.org.
