EASTERN ART REPORT ISSUE 65 | Treasures of Ancient China, Bronzes and Jades from the Shanghai Museum

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contemporary art fair / 24 - 27 april 2009 preview & vernissage / 23 april / invitation only austria / charim / krinzinger / kugler / mauroner / ruzicska / steinek / thoman / winter / belgium / aeroplastics / aliceday / baronian_francey / bastide / cerami / crown / d&a lab / de brock / dependance / desimpel / deweer / fifty one / filles du calvaire / gentils / geukens & de vil / gladstone / grusenmeyer / hécey / hoet bekaert / hufkens / in situ / jamar / janssen / jozsa / koraalberg / elaine levy / maes & matthys / maruani & noirhomme / meert / meessen de clercq / moba-nomad / mulier mulier / obadia / office baroque / olivari-veys / pieters / elisa platteau / rech / salvador / sorry we’re closed / stand projects / andré simoens / stephane simoens / szwajcer / tache-levy / think21 / transit / triangle bleu / van der mieden / vilenne / zwart huis / zwarte panter / china / continua / cuba / habana / denmark / asbaek / bjerggaard / larm / v1 / nicolai wallner / wilson / finland / anhava / france / aboucaya / brolly / de villepoix / filles du calvaire / fournier / galerie 1900-2000 / GDM / giroux / gutharc / in situ / jgm / la b.a.n.k. / mennour / nelson-freeman / obadia / papillon / paviot / rech / rein / salvador / schleicher+lange / sparta / tarasieve / templon / triple v / vallois / germany / art agents / bourouina / conrads / duve / feinkost / figge von rosen / fruit and flower deli / galerie 5213 / grimm / kewenig / parisa kind / kleindienst / klemm’s / kudlek van der grinten / kuttner siebert / mertens / neu / ostermeier / pfab / scharmann / schlechtriem / schmidt maczollek / sels / stüber / tanit / traversee / wentrup / zander / zink / greece / apartment / bernier-eliades / the breeder / italy / continua / la citta / photo & contemporary / tucci russo / luxembourg / beaumontpublic / nosbaum & reding / norway / galleri k / portugal / filomena soares / republic of ireland / rubicon / slovenia / skuc / south africa / stevenson / spain / estrella / horrach moya / senda - espai 292 / soskine / switzerland / annex 14 / bärtschi / blancpain / groeflin maag / patricia low / mitterrand + sanz / moser / rotwand / the czech republic / svestka / the netherlands / aschenbach & hofland / hof & huyser / lentz / motive / ronmandos / rumpff / stand projects / upstream / welters / the russian federation / triumph / united kingdom / alison jacques / bischoff/weiss / brown / chinese contemporary / corrias / faggionato / fred / ibid / simon lee / modern art / museum 52 / stand projects / vilma gold / united states of america / bitforms / boesky / chinese contemporary / conner / crg / de voldere / edlin / fruit and flower deli / gladstone / grimm / luxe / rubenstein / salon 94 / schlechtriem

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Cover Story

Treasures of Ancient China, Bronzes and Jades from the Shanghai Museum Jessica Rawson

1 Jade cong. Liangzhu culture, c3300-2200 BCE. Height 5 cm. Excavated at Fuquanshan, Qingpu county, Shanghai.

Shanghai Museum

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hanghai Museum has an outstanding and worldrenowned collection of ancient Chinese ritual bronze vessels, bells, weapons and mirrors. Some of these have been exhibited at many centres around the world. The exhibition at the British Museum, Treasures from Shanghai: Ancient Chinese Bronzes and Jades (30 January - 27 March 2009) was proposed by Shanghai Municipality as a taster for the celebrations of the World Expo to be held in Shanghai in 2010.

As the curator of the exhibition I wanted to give the showing its own character, to mark it out from other exhibitions held in other countries. I and the curators in the Asian Department at the British Museum, therefore, decided against an exhibition that concentrated solely on bronzes and also against one that was simply a showing of masterpieces in many different materials â&#x20AC;&#x201D; jades and ceramics as well as bronzes.

The exhibition concentrates on the achievements in bronze of the Shang and the Zhou, with, however, some predecessors in Neolithic ceramics and jades. I selected three themes: the role of the area around Shanghai in the Neolithic period, as providing one of the forerunners of Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bronze age society; the interaction of the great 16

dynasties of the Shang and the Zhou with the peoples around them, especially in the north, and the collection of ancient bronzes and the use of the ancient shapes for ceramics and jades of a later period.

Shanghai is situated at the centre of the area of one of Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s great Neolithic cultures, that of the Liangzhu.

Over the last twenty years or so, excavations at sites in Jiangsu. Zhejiang and the Shanghai municipal area have produced a multitude of outstanding jades. A few examples of the several major categories, cong (Figure 1), bi, axes and ornaments, have been included to illustrate the extraordinary craftsmanship of the peoples of the area at times long before use of bronze was invented and developed. Some cong and a few rare axes also carry very fine incised motifs of a human-like figure, with a headdress, grasping a monster in his hands.

Taotie motif These motifs may have been one of the many early face designs that contributed the visual framework of the well-known bronze design, the taotie. A few scholars have argued that on account of this possible formal contribution of the jade design to the later monster faces on bronzes, the www.eapgroup.com

2 Bronze wine vessel, you. 11th century BCE. Height 27.6 cm. Shanghai Museum

Shang shared some concepts with the Neolithic peoples of the east coats. This suggested continuity of ideas and ideologies seems highly unlikely.

The taotie monster faces appear abundantly on the Shang bronzes included in the exhibition. But while some excellent examples are shown at the British Museum, attention should be given to other less usual bronzes. A wine vessel, you (Figure 2), with large beams is an example of a new taste that emerged in the late Shang, c1100 BCE. Casting moulds found at Anyang indicate that such pieces were made there and should not be attributed exclusively to Eastern Art Report â&#x20AC;˘ No 65 [2009 / 1]

the Zhou, who clearly also appreciated such exuberant castings. The handle ornament, consisting of an animal head with pronged horns, indicates a connection with the peoples of the borders, for it seems to refer to an antlered deer, a creature much favoured in the repertoire of peoples on the borders. Several related jade pieces are known. It is possible that interaction with peoples of the border led to the creation of such innovative pieces.

One of the major contributions of the border peoples to the Shang and the Zhou was the chariot and its uses.

Chariots appear rather suddenly at Anyang and in a fully 17

3 Bronze chariot pole fitting. 11th-10th century BCE. Height 16.9 cm. Shanghai Museum

developed form. Both conditions suggest that they were brought in from outside the Shang borders. The earliest chariots are now thought to be those of which traces have been found on the eastern slopes of the Urals, dating to before 2000 BCE. It is likely that the chariots employed by the Shang were related to these examples. The Shang may also have acquired horses and people to break and drive them from these border peoples. An unusual Zhou chariot fitting portrays perhaps one of the servants as one of the four heads that decorate this pole top (Figure 3).

This important contact with the borders continued throughout the Zhou, although manifested in many different forms. Interaction between the Zhou-dominated states and their neighbours was especially strong in the area of present day Shanxi, under the rulers of the Jin and their neighbours. At first sight the tombs of the Jin rulers, discovered at Tianma-Qucun near Houma, seem to present the standard paraphernalia of Zhou period nobility.

4 Detail of the foot of a foot vessel, xu. Probably from the Jin state. ninth-eighth century BCE. Shanghai Museum

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5 Section from a hand scroll, showing the collector Wu Dacheng talking with his friend Pan Zuyin, surrounded by his bronzes. The portrait is by Hu Qinhan. Ink and colours on silk. Postscript dated 1895. Shanghai Museum

But a closer look reveals many extraordinary pieces. Not least of these is burial dress of beads and small jades.

But additionally many unusual bronzes supplement the standard ritual repertory. Among these are quite a number that are supported by small figures of humans and animals.

The human figures, may, like the man on the chariot fitting, represent foreigners in the service of the Zhou court and its subordinate states. On of the middle to late Western Zhou vessels in the show is supported by such figures (Figure 4).

Wu Dacheng’s collection Such unusual bronzes have been little regarded before the last twenty years. They do not appear frequently, if at all, in the major collections gathered together in the late nineteenth century, such as the collection of Wu Dacheng (1835-192). Wu was an important official in the Qing court and when he retired from official service he became a director of the Longmen Academy at Shanghai. He not only

made an astonishing bronze collection, he also studied other materials, especially jade, and published extensively.

The Shanghai Museum is exceptionally fortunate in possessing a pair of hand scrolls that record Wu Dacheng’s collection. Both are displayed for the first time at the British Museum. The scrolls open with fine calligraphy titles and then offer, most unusually, portraits of the collector with some pieces of his collection. The illustration in Figure 5 is the frontispiece for the first scroll. It shows Wu Dacheng relaxing in discussion with his friend Pan Zuyin (1830-1890). Pan Zuyin was also a major bronze collector, and some of his most important pieces are now in the Shanghai Museum. These include such treasures as the Da Ke ding and the Xiao Ke ding, major inscribed bronzes. The Xiao Ke ding is on display in the exhibition.

The majority of the immense length of the two scrolls is taken up with rubbings of Wu’s bronzes. Traditionally, rubbings have been made of inscriptions in bronzes. While

6 Detail from the second scroll, illustrating rubbings of vessels and their inscriptions in the collection of Wu Dacheng. Dated 1892.

Shanghai Museum Eastern Art Report • No 65 [2009 / 1]

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Cover Story

the surface on which the inscription is located may be curved, it is rarely a complex three-dimensional one, such as those presented by the actual vessels. These scrolls, however, succeed in reproducing the vessel profiles, as if by a use of multiple rubbings to achieve the full frontal views of the pieces. Here was almost certainly the high point of the skills in rubbings (Figure 6). Very soon afterwards the new technique of photography was to supersede all previous methods of reproducing vessel shapes. Rubbings of inscriptions, however, continue to be widely employed.

Wu’s collection belonged to a long history of retrieving ancient bronzes. Even in the first centuries of bronze use, early Shang bronzes occur in later Shang tombs. In addition copies of early bronzes were also made from the Shang period. Thus the use and reuse of decorative styles was a persistent feature of bronze casting of all periods. The ritual vessels declined and went out of use in the Qin-Han period.

However, ancient bronzes were continually rediscovered during farming and construction work. From the Song period (AD 960-1279), or perhaps even earlier, these ancient pieces inspired the making of new categories of vessel for flower vases and incenses burners on altars. These too are represented in the exhibition at the British Museum. The Shanghai Museum has been exceedingly generous with its loans and the jades, bronzes and ceramics on display are of an exceptional quality.

Jessica Rawson is Warden of Merton College, Oxford University, Professor of Chinese Art and Archaeology, nnd Pro-Vice Chancellor of Oxford University. She was Keeper of Oriental Antiquities (now the Department of Asia) at the British Museum from 1987 to 1994. Her publications include Chinese Jade: From the Neolithic to the Qing, The British Museum Book of Chinese Art, Chinese Bronzes: Art and Ritual, Chinese Ornament: The Lotus and the Dragon and Ancient China: Art and Archaeology.

Exhibition catalogue

TREASURES FROM SHANGHAI: Ancient Chinese Bronzes and Jades.

Edited by Jessica Rawson The British Museum Press and the Shanghai Museum 978 0 7141 2457 5

Includes forewords by Chen Xiejun, Director, The Shanghai Museum and Neil MacGregor, Director, The British Museum, and essays by Jane Portal, Rawson, Clarissa von Spee, Zhou Ya, plus Appendix, Glossary and Notes

Chinese Art in the 1990s Subtitled ‘Cross-influences and Cross-currents,’ this special issue of Eastern Art Report (ISSN 0269-8404, ISBN 9781872843100 [Volume IV No 4, Issue 46]) surveys the British art scene with a special reference to the Chinese artists based in the country.

There are also articles on Yunnan art, Chinese maritime paintings, interviews with four major artists, Wu Guangzhong, Yang Yanping, Zeng Shanqing and Hai Shuet Yeung and a leading article on the styles and future direction of twentieth century Chinese art.

Order from Safnet www.saffronbooksandart.net Or write to Saffron Books P O Box 13666 London SW14 8WF, United Kingdom

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El Anatsui A Sculpted History of Africa

1998 John Picton, ed, with Gerard Houghton, Yukiya Kawaguchi, Elisabeth Lalouschek, Simon Njami and Elizabeth Péri-Willis ISBN-13 9781872843148 • ISBN-10 187284314X • 96pp, 33 images Published by Saffron Books as part of Saffron African Art and Society Series ISSN 1740 3111 | Series Editor Sajid Rizvi

Highly regarded in Africa, where he is considered to be one of the leading sculptors of his generation, Ghanaian-born El Anatsui is now rapidly establishing a wide international reputation. Chosen to represent the African continent during the 44th Venice Biennale in 1990, he has participated in many important exhibitions abroad —in England, Germany, the United States, Japan and Brazil—and has been a leading contributor to a number of international workshops for artists.

While there have been numerous articles written that deal with his impressive body of work, this book represents the first attempt to draw together under a single cover the many aspects of El Anatsui’s singular career. The book gives both the general reader interested in the visual arts and the reader more particularly interested in contemporary African art, an overview of El Anatsui’s career and an analysis of his work to date. The various texts, in English, French, German and Japanese, are complemented by a series of beautiful colour and black & white reproductions.

Just as El Anatsui’s work is concerned with the hidden histories of many different African cultures, so too this book is a composite tissue woven from different sources and written in different languages.

The contributors are: John Picton, Reader in African Art at SOAS, University of London; Gerard Houghton, writer and linguist at the October Gallery; Yukiya Kawaguchi, Curator at the Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo; Elisabeth Lalouschek, Artistic Director of the October Gallery; Simon Njami, Editor of Revue Noire, Paris, France; and Elizabeth Péri-Willis, a specialist on West African visual artistic practices.

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