This catalogue presents a site-specific collaboration by Chinese artist couple Song Dong and Yin Xiuzhen (born 1966 and 1963), in the Wetherill Mansion in Philadelphia. While Song Dong makes use of found objects, film and video, Yin Xiuzhen is known for fiber and textile work.

Chinese Calligraphy Meets Western Performance In his paintings the Taiwanese artist Yahon Chang brings together traditional Chinese ink-wash painting and Western forms of artistic expression to produce a synthesis of East and West. Typically standing on large sheets of linen or Xuan paper and wielding a brush almost as long as he is tall, Chang creates works imbued with performative energy and characterized by large, sweeping brushstrokes. Drawing on Chinese literati and Zen (Chan) Buddhist traditions, the artist understands painting as an activity that connects body and mind. His entire body functions as an axis for these expressive paintings and is influenced by his training in calligraphy. This publication offers the first insight into the artist's extensive oeuvre and includes exhibition views as well as accompanying texts.

Huang Binhong (1865-1955), a key twentieth-century artist and art historian, produced distinctive floral works and the rare figure painting but focused intently on landscapes. Influenced by early masters, he also studied nature directly. Near the end of his life, despite seriously compromised eyesight, he used rich and dark "burnt" ink to create sublime masterpieces that bridge representation and abstraction. Modern Ink: The Art of Huang Binhong demonstrates how nature, art historical erudition, a finely tuned compositional sense, and an appreciation for rich and even tonality—derived from epigraphic rubbings—come together in this consummate painter’s late, great landscapes. It also examines his work in other genres as well as the role of his extraordinary vision as a major force behind the persistence of traditional values in contemporary Chinese ink art.

The enigmatic Chinese monk-painter Xugu (1823-1896), with his daring brush techniques and implicit expression of spiritual insight, stands out among notable innovators in the late Qing period. Despite the political upheaval and cultural decay of his day, he tapped the creative spring of Chan (Zen) Buddhism to develop a highly personal and modern visual language within the calligraphic idiom of traditional scholars' art. His portraits and landscapes, along with his depictions of flowers, fruits, and animals, convey quiet elegance, sensitivity, ethereality - and at times humor - even as they surprise with their unconventionality and tendency toward abstraction. This monograph, illustrated in full color, examines seventeen paintings and one rare work of calligraphy by this extraordinary artist in the context of his life and stylistic development. The inclusion of a portrait by two of his close associates provides perspective on the enduring impact of Xugu's vital breakthroughs on the burgeoning art center of nineteenth-century Shanghai and beyond.

This documents the Chinese avant-garde artist's first show in the United States: Ghosts Pounding the Wall, A Book from the Sky, Five Series of Repetitions. Born in China in 1955, he was later named a MacArthur Fellow and had an exhibition at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution in 2001, curated by Britta Erickson. This documents the Chinese avant-garde artist's first show in the United States: Ghosts Pounding the Wall, A Book from the Sky, Five Series of Repetitions. Born in China in 1955, he was later named a MacArthur Fellow and had an exhibition at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution in 2001, curated by Britta Erickson. Distributed for theChazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin Madison"