CONFERENCES & SYMPOSIA
Conferences and symposia on art and art history bring together academic specialists, museum professionals, students, collectors, connoisseurs, and engaged individuals for an exchange of research, expertise, and appreciation. The Mozhai Foundation values not only the advancement of scholarship and cross-pollination that such meetings generate, but also the deepening of understanding and community-building process they are bound to foster. For these reasons, we partner with institutions that organize conferences and symposia on topics of concern in Chinese art.
79 x 58 inches. Denver Art Museum
Chinese Painting Here, Then & Now: Creating Community
Asian Art Museum & San Francisco State University, March 5 – 6, 2020
In association with the exhibition, Chang Dai-chien: Painting from Heart to Hand, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco State University, and The Mozhai Foundation presented a conference that explored the past and present culture of Chinese painting within the Bay Area.
That culture was richly represented during the decades of the 1960s/1970s, when scholars including James Cahill, Michael Sullivan, and Kai-yu Hsu were teaching, lecturing, and organizing exhibitions, and when artists including Chang Dai-chien and C. C. Wang were active regionally. This conference examined that history as a backdrop for considering the contemporary status of Chinese painting locally, in terms of audience, institutional support, and collaborative opportunities. It also explored connoisseurship and methodologies of appreciation, networks of individuals, and the approaches of the artists themselves.
the Tsao Family Collection
Symposium in conjunction with the exhibition Alternative Dreams: 17th-Century Chinese Paintings from the Tsao Family Collection
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), October 15 – 16, 2016
The Foundation provided major support for a symposium presented in conjunction with LACMA’s exhibition of late Ming and early Qing dynasty paintings from the collection of the late Jung Ying Tsao. Presentations by noted academic specialists, curators, and connoisseurs examined 17th–century painting, calligraphy, and poetry, as well as the role of Buddhism and dreams in the arts of this period.
http://www.lacma.org/sites/default/files/Tsao-exhibition-advisory-6.17.16.pdf
http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/alternative-dreams
SALON SERIES
The Foundation hosts small invitational gatherings or “salons” in The Mozhai Foundation gallery for the purpose of sharing scholarship and connoisseurship on selected aspects of Chinese cultural traditions. Launched in 2019, our Salon Series will continue in the future to feature noted speakers and opportunities for guests to learn, discuss, and mingle in the context of their shared passion for China’s artistic heritage.
Art and Life in 17th-Century China: A Conversation with Stephen Little and Kathleen Ryor
August 14, 2019
Stephen Little, Florence and Harry Sloan Curator of Chinese Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and Kathleen Ryor, Tanaka Memorial Professor of International Understanding and Art History at Carleton College, offered an engaging discussion on how 17th-century artists in China embodied and recreated ancient lineages and styles of landscape painting and poetry to create images that were rooted in antiquity but re-purposed and re-presented to reflect their own time. A selection of works from the Tsao Family Collection of 17th-Century Chinese Painting was on display.
Painting and Calligraphy of 17th-Century China: A Connoisseurship Session with Stephen Little and Kathleen Ryor
August 15, 2019
As follow-up to the August 14 "Conversation," this small-group object study session with Stephen Little and Kathleen Ryor featured close viewing and in-depth discussion of original works by several 17-century artists. A selection of works from the Tsao Family Collection of 17th-Century Chinese Painting was on display.
EXHIBITIONS
The Mozhai Foundation is committed to expanding opportunities for the public to view works of Chinese art in settings that provide an instructive and enjoyable experience. We have sponsored exhibitions in partnership with museums in the past, and we plan to collaborate with a variety of organizations on similar projects in the future.
The Carved Brush: Calligraphy, Painting and Seal Carving by Qi Baishi
Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, October 29, 2013 – July 13, 2014
This exhibition showcased 24 art works by the acclaimed artist Qi Baishi (1864-1957), including paintings and works of calligraphy and seal carving.
PROJECT SUPPORT
By supporting projects that focus on the arts of China, The Mozhai Foundation advances its own mission of education and intercultural understanding.
Simple, Graceful and National – Special Exhibition Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of Huang Binhong’s Birth
National Art Museum of China (NAMOC), Beijing, April 4 – June 7, 2015
Huang Binhong (1865-1955) was a major figure of 20th-century Chinese painting. The Mozhai Foundation facilitated the loan of two albums of landscapes and calligraphy by this artist from the collection of Elna C. Tsao for inclusion in this exhibition.
Hearing Landscapes and A Thousand Mountains, a Milliion Streams, by Lei Liang
Calit2 and Filmatic Festival, UC San Diego; Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), Boston, MA
In early 2015, Pulitzer Prize finalist and UC San Diego music professor Lei Liang (b. 1972) presented a musical "sonification" which he created to accompany an exhibit of high-resolution, multispectral scans of 12 landscape paintings by Huang Binhong (1865-1955). The Mozhai Foundation facilitated the loan of these paintings, from an album in the collection of Elna C. Tsao, for digital imaging and materials analysis. Liang describes this project as a “musical tribute to Mr. Jung Ying Tsao” who “sparked my interest in finding a parallel between music composition and traditional ink painting.”
Hearing Landscapes I (Music by Lei Liang): https://youtu.be/u_lAqfPCHLo
Hearing Landscapes (project documentary): http://video-jsoe.ucsd.edu/calit2/LeiLiang
/Hearing_Landscapes_Full_Performance.mp4
Further exploring his own musical response to the Tsao album of landscapes by Huang Binhong, in 2017 Lei Liang composed an orchestral “musical landscape.” Commissioned by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), A Thousand Mountains, a Million Streams premiered on April 21, 2018 at the New England Conservatory, and a recording of the performance was released on CD in late 2018. In recognition of this composition, Prof. Liang received the prestigious 2020 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for an orchestral work that evokes the threat posed by climate change and the opportunity it offers for redemption.
A Thousand Mountains, a Million Streams (recording): https://www.eamdc.com/audio/presskit/45f634c0-f43a-11e9-9a4a-0a1edf4187b9/
2020 Grawemeyer Award: https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/lei-liang-wins-2020-grawemeyer-award-for-climate-change-inspired-piece/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/13/arts/music/lei-liang-grawemeyer.html
Note: Calit2 is UC San Diego’s California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology. Lei Liang was Composer-in-Residence at Calit2’s Qualcomm Institute from 2013 to 2016.