Programs

Chinese Painting Here, Then & Now: Creating Community

March 5 and 6, 2020
Asian Art Museum & San Francisco State University

In association with the current exhibition, Chang Dai-chien: Painting from Heart to Hand, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco State University, and the Mozhai Foundation present a conference that will explore 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 will examine that history as a backdrop for considering the contemporary status of Chinese painting locally, in terms of audience, institutional support, and collaborative opportunities. The conference will also explore connoisseurship and methodologies of appreciation, networks of individuals, and the approaches of the artists themselves.

NOTE: Each day of this conference - Thursday and Friday - requires a separate RSVP. To attend both days' events, please click and respond to each RSVP link provided below.

Thursday, March 5, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., at the Asian Art Museum's Samsung Hall:

Premier of an excerpt of The Shape and Color of Ink: Chang Dai-chien after 1949 by award-winning SFSU Cinema Professor Weimin Zhang, followed by a discussion between internationally renowned artists Arnold Chang and Li Huayi.

RSVP for Thursday evening event at the Asian Art Museum

Friday, March 6, 9:30 to 4:00 p.m., at San Francisco State University’s Seven Hills Conference Center:

Morning session: “Gold Mountain Golden Age” – panel discussion on the 1960s/1970s scene in the Bay Area with speakers Therese Tse Bartholomew, former Asian Art Museum curator; Roland Hsu, son of Kaiyu Hsu; Mia Liu, Assistant Professor at California College and scholar of Long Chingsan; and Stanford University Professor Rick Vinograd, moderated by SFSU Art Professor Mark Dean Johnson.

Afternoon session: SFSU Professor of Chinese Charles Egan will moderate a panel focusing on contemporary connoisseurship, featuring specialists Arnold Chang, UCLA Professor Hui-Shu Lee, LACMA curator Stephen Little, and Bonhams Chinese painting specialist Bruce MacLaren. In addition, two workshops on connoisseurship will offer attendees the opportunity to look closely at works of art.

RSVP for Friday event at San Francisco State University

Symposium attendance is free of charge. Morning coffee, snacks, and lunch provided, with a $20 contribution requested.

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In pursuit of our mission goal of advancing scholarship in the study of Chinese artistic heritage, the Mozhai Foundation seeks to support institutions with Chinese art programs while providing enrichment opportunities for the next generation of Chinese art specialists. One way we do this is in the area of museum curatorial support.

Tsao Fellow, Department of Chinese Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

The Tsao Fellow in the Department of Chinese Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art conducts research on art objects and artists, assists with the organization of exhibitions, and engages in special projects as assigned. The Mozhai Foundation has sponsored LACMA’s Tsao Fellow position since July 2017.

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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. View exhibition images →

 

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By supporting projects that focus on the arts of China, the Mozhai Foundation advances its own mission of education and intercultural understanding.

Symposium on Chinese art and culture of the 17th century, in conjunction with
Alternative Dreams: 17th-Century Chinese Paintings from the Tsao Family Collection

October 15 – 16, 2016, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

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

 

Simple, Graceful and National – Special Exhibition Commemorating the 150^th Anniversary of Huang Binhong’s Birth
April 4 – June 7, 2015 at the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC), Beijing

Huang Binhong (1865-1955) was a major figure of 20^th 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.

View exhibition images →

 

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.

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