Kaikodo Journal VII Spring 1998

The Power of Form

Corresponding to the exhibition held between February 5 and March 28, 1998. 35 early Chinese and Japanese paintings; 37 early Chinese and Vietnamese objects (72 color plates). Preface by Howard Rogers. 283 pages.

Includes the essays:
James Cahill:
    “Where did the Nymph Hang?” (Ching Yuan Chai so-shih I)
Arnold Chang:
    “Returning to Brushwork: A Personal Exploration”
Jay A. Levenson:
    “Reflections in a Western Eye”
Elizabeth Childs-Johnson:
    “Metamorphic Imagery in Early Chinese Art: Long-Dragons, Feng-Phoenixes,
    Gui-Spirit Masks, and the Spirit Journey”
Howard Rogers:
    “Notes on the Meaning and Function of Ming-ch’i”

The problem of multiple recensions of a 
single painting composition, subject of an essay 
in Kaikodo Journal V, receives additional attention in the 
present volume in an essay by James 
Cahill on how such paintings were used and 
what they signified in contemporaneous society. 
Writing at the top of his form, Professor Cahill 
focuses on artists and types of paintings usually 
ignored by art-historians to illumine significant 
aspects of early Qing dynasty painting. Further 
installments of his Ching Yuan Chai 
So-shih, “Jottings from the Hall of Gazing into the 
Abstruse,” are eagerly anticipated. Howard Rogers’ entries on Shen Tsung-chi’en) and K’un-tsan, both subjects of multiple recensions, receive further attention.

As Arnold Chang points out in his article on 
brushwork, almost every discussion of Chinese 
painters and painting mentions brushwork in 
some context without seeking to define what is 
meant, despite vast disagreement within the 
community of connoisseurs and scholars about 
whether and how brushwork can be used in 
judging quality and authenticity. successfully mediates between these opposing 
positions in his essay in this volume of the journal.

Jay Levenson, Director of the International 
Program, Museum of Modern Art, is also 
uniquely qualified to comment on Chinese 
painting. A specialist in the works of Albrecht 
Durer (1471-1528), Dr. Levenson was chief 
curator for the Circa 1492 exhibition held at the National Gallery of Art in 1991. In the course of 
choosing the pieces and arranging for their loan 
to that exhibition of global art during the 
15th-16th centuries, he developed very 
interesting ideas on the differences and 
similarities between Western drawing and Asian 
painting of that period, which is the subject of his essay in the present journal.


In her essay “Metamorphic Imagery 
in Early Chinese Art,” Dr. Elizabeth Childs-Johnson postulates specific 
meanings for certain early forms and designs and 
discusses the evolution of these from the 
Neolithic through the Shang dynasty.

The 
essays conclude with brief notes by Howard Rogers on the 
function of mingqi burial objects, comments 
intended to stimulate further discussion on the 
varying contents of early Chinese burials and 
what this signifies for the evolution of early 
religious beliefs.