Demons, Ghosts, and Goblins in Chinese Art

Special Exhibition
Featured

Sunday, September 8, 2024–Monday, January 20, 2025

Location: 010 Focus Gallery
Julia and Larry Pollock Focus Gallery

Free; No Ticket Required

Featured Art

About The Exhibition

Demons, ghosts, and goblins feature in Chinese art as creatures that either bring harm or ward off evil spirits. This exhibition presents 20 paintings and sculptures of secular and religious subject matter from a private collection and the Cleveland Museum of Art. The show explores the stories in which they appear and the supernatural power that they exert.

CMA Store

China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta

By Clarissa von Spee, Curator of Chinese Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, with contributions from Yiwen Liu, Curatorial Research Assistant, The Cleveland Museum of Art. China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta is the first publication in the West that focuses on the artistic production and cultural impact of this region of China. Also called Jiangnan, it is located in the coastal area south of the Yangzi River that has throughout large parts of its history been one of China’s most wealthy, populous, and fertile regions. For millennia it has been an area of rich agriculture, extensive trade, and influential artistic production. Art from Jiangnan—home to such great cities as Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Nanjing, as well as to hilly picturesque landscapes stretched along rivers and lakes—has largely defined the image of traditional China for the world. The lavishly 432-page illustrated catalogue includes introductory essays by internationally renowned scholars covering such topics as Jiangnan in poetry, the region’s economy, silk production, southern green stoneware, landscape painting, color print production and urban culture, Buddhism, and garden culture. The book presents six thematic sections and features more than 200 objects from Neolithic times to the 18th century ranging in media from jade, silk, prints, and paintings to porcelain, lacquer, and bamboo carvings. Edited by Clarissa von Spee, the essays and object entries illustrate and discuss how this region gained a leading role in China’s artistic production and how Jiangnan succeeded in setting cultural standards. Taking this new approach, the international exhibition catalogue highlights iconic works of art as well as new, previously unpublished material, from private and public collections in the United States, Europe, China, and Japan. 432 Pages, 336 color + b-w illus.

Chao Shao-an: Chinese Master 2025 Wall Calendar

After the fall of China’s last imperial dynasty, Chao Shao-an sought to revitalize Chinese art and refresh the artistic connections with nature. Drawing inspiration from the West, he became a leader in his homeland’s Modernist art movement while continuing to honor his ancient Chinese heritage. With fluid brushwork, vibrant colors, inventive compositions, and loose, expressive style, Chao Shao-an creates exquisite flower, bird, animal, and insect paintings that are grounded in the symbolism of his culture. Twelve of these masterful paintings are featured in this calendar for your enjoyment all year round.

Chao Shao-an: Chinese Master Boxed Notecard Assortment

After experiencing the fall of China’s last imperial dynasty, Chao Shao-an sought to revitalize Chinese art and refresh the artistic connections with nature. Looking to the West for inspiration, Chao became a leader in his homeland’s modernist art movement while continuing to honor his ancient Chinese heritage. His style is loose and expressive, and his fluid brushwork, vibrant colors, and inventive compositions are grounded in the symbolism of his culture. This card set features four of Chao’s stunning depictions of birds. Contains five each of the following notecards: Perching, approx. 1930–1992 Birds in Spring, approx. 1980–1998 Bird in Strong Wind, 1984 Sparrow, 1962 • 20 blank notecards (5 each of 4 designs) with envelopes in a decorative box• Printed in full color on recycled paper with soy based inks• High-quality 250 gsm card stock• Soft white envelopes• Pomegranate’s notecard sets feature exclusive selections of art from museums and artists around the worldPublished with the Asian Art Museum, San FranciscoBox size: 7.375 x 5.375 x 1.5 in.Card size: 7 x 5 in.

Pavillion Hand Fan 9 x 16

A Pavilion, 1127–1279China, Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) ?Album leaf; ink and color on silkGift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1915.705

Sponsors

This exhibition is made possible with support from Anne T. and Donald F. Palmer.

All exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Exhibitions. Principal annual support is provided by Michael Frank and the late Pat Snyder, the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation, the John and Jeanette Walton Exhibition Fund, and Margaret and Loyal Wilson. Major annual support is provided by the late Dick Blum and Harriet Warm and the Frankino-Dodero Family Fund for Exhibitions Endowment. Generous annual support is provided by two anonymous donors, Gini and Randy Barbato, Gary and Katy Brahler, Cynthia and Dale Brogan, Dr. Ben and Julia Brouhard, Brenda and Marshall Brown, Gail and Bill Calfee, Joseph and Susan Corsaro, Richard and Dian Disantis, the Jeffery Wallace Ellis Trust in memory of Lloyd H. Ellis Jr., Leigh and Andy Fabens, Florence Kahane Goodman, Janice Hammond and Edward Hemmelgarn, Robin Heiser, the late Marta and the late Donald M. Jack Jr., Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, the William S. Lipscomb Fund, Bill and Joyce Litzler, the Roy Minoff Family Fund, Lu Anne and the late Carl Morrison, Jeffrey Mostade and Eric Nilson and Varun Shetty, Tim O’Brien and Breck Platner, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, Henry Ott-Hansen, Michael and Cindy Resch, William Roj and Mary Lynn Durham, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, Saundra K. Stemen, Paula and Eugene Stevens, the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Claudia Woods and David Osage.