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.

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.

Born into a poor farming family and coming of age during China's century of civil strife, Qi Baishi transformed the elite brush art of China's literati scholars into a universal art form appreciated by people of all social backgrounds. His distinctly modern art language breaks through class and cultural barriers through use of expressive "carved" brushwork, juxtaposition of vibrant colours against deep and rich ink tones, poetic economy in form and composition, and choice of emotionally resonant subject matter. For these reasons, Qi Baishi's art is the ideal gateway through which art lovers of any class or culture can learn about the millenia-old tradition of Chinese brush painting. A selection of Qi Baishi's seal carving-the art of the "iron brush"-links his origins as an artisan carver to his life as China's most celebrated calligrapher, poet and painter. The scholarly discipline calligraphy then forms the basis for our understanding Qi Baishi's distinctive carved brushwork. In painting, landscapes and figures are two subjects that appear early in Qi Baishi's career and provide us with an opportunity to appreciate the poetic economy of his brushwork and the universal appeal of his humanist themes. Finally, birds and flowers form the bulk of Qi Baishi's oeuvre and a chronological selection allows us to explore the development of his unique brush, ink and colour language over the span of his productive career. Published in association with Marquand Books and the Mozhai Foundation.

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.

Wrenched by warfare and famine from the quiet life of a small-town scholar to the fast-growing treaty port of Shanghai, Wu Changshi (1844-1927) rose to the forefront of the jinshi, or "epigraphic," movement in calligraphy and painting. His inventive method of adapting the rugged strength of ancient engraved texts to his own brushwork reinvigorated Chinese art through a reconnection with its earliest roots. In bold xieyi or free-style flower-and-bird scenes and landscapes, he fully integrated the four disciplines of painting, calligraphy, poetry, and seal carving. This volume presents outstanding examples of this master's calligraphy and paintings, illustrated in full color, along with scholarly discussions of his important contribution to the development of ink painting in the modern world.

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"