A Summer of Art at the National Palace Museum

In July, Taipei's National Palace Museum unveiled a unique program of exhibitions for the summer season: "A Special Exhibition in Commemoration of Su Shi," "Painting and Calligraphy from the Museum Collection Featured in ROC Stamps," "Figure Painting of the Middle Ming Dynasty," and "The Paintings of Dai Jin." This is the museum's first new program of exhibitions since the appointment of current director Tu Cheng-sheng. The exhibitions, which run for three months, guide visitors through the extraordinary life of Su Dongpo (pen name of the artist and writer Su Shi), introduce them to classic works of art that have been reproduced on postage stamps, and present a range of paintings by prominent scholar-artists of the Ming dynasty-four leading exponents of the art of figure painting, along with landscape painter Dai Jin, influential father of the Zhe School.

Su Dongpo, sometime public official and political philosopher, was also a remarkable artist, calligrapher and man of medicine. His prolific output of poetry, ci verse and prose marked him out as a writer of the highest caliber, and he was also a gifted calligrapher. He served for several years in the capital at the Han Imperial Academy but otherwise spent much of his life exiled to the provinces. Ironically, the frustration of his professional ambitions was what enabled Su to preserve his freewheeling creative artistry. After he died, in 1101, many of his works were either banned or destroyed. Nevertheless, numerous editions of Su's work, along with commentaries and annotations, have been released in the centuries since then. To commemorate the 900th anniversary of Su's death and encourage the public to learn more about the life of this great man, the National Palace Museum is mounting "A Special Exhibition in Commemoration of Su Shi." The exhibition features examples of Su's literary output along with related works of painting and calligraphy, and includes a selection of writings by Su's friends and family.

Another of the summer exhibitions at the museum focuses on the work of four noted figure painters of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). During the middle period of the Ming dynasty, unprecedented economic prosperity in the Jiangnan region (around the lower reaches of the Yangtze River) boosted patronage of the arts by the wealthy merchants and gentry and prompted new developments in artistic form. "Figure Painting of the Middle Ming Dynasty" compares and contrasts the work of four leading professional artists from the Jiangnan region during that period: Du Jin, Zhou Chen, Tang Yin and QiuYing.

Du Jin, a Nanjing-based professional painter who was also known for his literary cultivation, was a member of the "Capital" (Nanjing) School. The other three all hailed from the Suzhou area, where they knew and worked alongside one another. Tang Yin and Qiu Ying were considered the most prominent students of the painter Zhou Chen, and the three are sometimes grouped together as the "Academy School."

The exhibition includes a gallery in which paintings of these artists are displayed alongside enlarged transparencies of particular details, revealing the affinities among the four and illustrating how the southern Song academy style was handed down to and transformed in the Ming dynasty. An examination of Du Jin's Enjoying Antiquities and Tang Yin's Tao Gu Presenting a Poem reveals that the plantains and bamboo in the background of each are almost identical. In Zhou Chen's Ning Qi Feeding an Ox, the brushwork of the trees and rocks is fluid and uninhibited, employing vigorous lines similar to those used in the work of Tang Yin, Qiu Ying, and even their predecessor Du Jin. The techniques in which these painters were so adept fused the artistic heritage of earlier generations, from the Tang dynasty onwards, creating a distinctive style that captured the mood of the middle Ming period.

The Zhe School, which developed from the southern Song academic style but was characterized by a rough, energetic style of brushwork, was one of the main movements in Ming dynasty painting. Dai Jin, revered as the father of the Zhe School, was one of the leading artists of the early Ming. "The Paintings of Dai Jin" features a selection of Dai's best work, enabling visitors to appreciate the clarity of his brushwork and the precision with which he rendered human figures. It has been said that Dai "learned from all the masters of landscape painting," and it is true that he drew on a wide range of sources, employing the landscape style of southern Song court painters such as Ma Yuan and Xia Gui while also borrowing from the Yuan dynasty masters Li Cheng and Guo Xi. With his bold brushwork and generous use of ink, Dai, who was a master in his own time, combined lyrical vigor with a strict sense of degree.

Among the summer exhibitions at the museum, the one that touches most closely on daily life is the display of "Painting and Calligraphy from the Museum Collection Featured in ROC Stamps," organized in conjunction with the Directorate General of Posts (DGP). The exhibition includes a number of classic works from the museum collection, displayed alongside their partial reproductions in the form of postage stamps, enabling stamp collectors to appreciate the original works in their entirety. The museum has collaborated with the DGP in producing stamp designs since 1960. For artistic conception and technical precision, the most outstanding among the works on display is a Song dynasty album of painting and calligraphy.

To coincide with its program of summer exhibitions the National Palace Museum is also holding a cultural artifacts study camp, from August 1-5, during which experts will teach introductory courses in painting, calligraphy, bronze ware, porcelain, jade and carving. This will help those who are interested to learn more about the appreciation of these arts, while furthering the museum's goal of attracting a younger audience and drawing itself closer to the general public.

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Tao Gu Presenting a Poem by Tang Yin. The Ming dynasty painter Tang Yin was said to have been a ladies man. This painting depicts the romantic encounter between Five Dynasties (907-960) government minister Tao Gu and the beautiful Qin Ruolan, to whom Tao presented a poem. (courtesy of the National Palace Museum)