Viewing Chinese Paintings

Earlier this year, a Mellon-funded Chinese object workshop to study the CMA’s renowned collection of classical Chinese paintings brought 10 PhD candidates from universities throughout the US and Europe to Cleveland. The CMA’s holdings of Asian art, particularly its Chinese painting collection, consistently attract the highest numbers of  Collection Online visitors. It is therefore a vitally important goal and part of the museum’s strategic plan to draw focused attention to the museum’s international standing in this field by engaging a new generation of young scholars and sharing the museum’s outstanding collection on local and international levels, as well as generating excitement, new scholarship, and better understanding of Asian cultures for the benefit of all. 

The workshop this past summer, administered by the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, DC, aimed to provide graduate students with an immersive experience in the study of an object, introduce them to conservation issues not readily encountered in typical graduate art history curricula, and familiarize them with important North American museum collections. Participants spent the week engaged in intensive object study, discussion, and research with other students under the guidance of workshop leaders Professor Chen Yunru from National Taiwan University and Professor Michele Matteini from the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, accompanied by the CMA’s curator of Chinese art and Asian painting conservator Ika Yi-Hsia Hsiao.

The workshop, Deciphering Painting: Descriptive Explorations, addressed more than 40 of the CMA’s classical Chinese paintings that were explored through close-up examination and described through analysis of material and techniques by students working in groups or in individual sessions. 

Other highlights of the workshop were an introduction to painting and mounting materials in the CMA’s June and Simon K. C. Li Center for Chinese Paintings Conservation and lunchtime conversations with Jane Alexander, chief digital information officer, and other museum staff members related to the students’ interest in how the museum maintains its leadership in digital performance and in presenting its collection online and in 3-D. On the last workshop day, each student spent dedicated time with a single work of art in preparation for a final assignment of writing a research paper upon returning to their home institution. After the workshop leaders review the papers, the best ones will be presented at a reunion in Washington, DC, with the prospect for later publication.