Kaikodo Journal III
Visions of Man in Chinese Art
Corresponding to the exhibition held between March 17 to April 19, 1997. 35 early Chinese and Japanese paintings; 33 early Chinese objects (68 color plates). Preface by Howard Rogers. 275 pages.
Includes the essays:
Arnold Chang:
“C.C. Wang at Ninety, A Kaikodo Celebration”
Helmut Brinker:
“On the Origin of the Human Image in Chinese Art”
Howard Rogers:
“On Figure Painting of the Early Dynasties”
Steven Addiss:
“Hosokawa Rinkoku, Seal-carver, Poet and Literati Painter”
The contents of this third volume of the Kaikodo Journal differ from those of its predecessors in several ways. The earlier volumes function as visual records of sales exhibitions held at those times; the present volume too is issued in connection with a sales exhibition, from March 17 to April 12, 1997, but records as well a retrospective exhibition that was held at Kaikodo from February 15 to March 1 in honor of the ninetieth birthday of C.C. Wang, an acknowledged master of twentieth-century Chinese painting. An essay by Arnold Chang surveys the life and professional career of his teacher, illustrating major achievements and shifts in style with paintings that were included in the February exhibition. An especially noteworthy feature of that display was the inclusion of some of the old master paintings owned by Mr. Wang that had influenced him over the years, a juxtaposition of the old and new that allowed viewers to see how the past can truly be made to serve the present.
Das Alte China: Menschen und Gotter im Reich der Mitte (“Ancient China: Men and Gods in the Middle Kingdom”), the important archaeological exhibition organized by Professor Roger Goepper, opened in Essen in June of 1995 and subsequently traveled to Munich, to Zurich, and, under the title Mysteries of Ancient China, to the British Museum in London. The German and English catalogues together presented a wealth of new information and stimulating ideas about the nature and evolution of early Chinese art. Kaikodo was privileged to present an essay on the origin of the human image in Chinese art by Helmut Brinker, Professor of East Asian Art History at Zurich University and Consultant to the Museum Rietberg Zurich, that was an important contribution to the German catalogue. Andreas Leisinger, a long-time resident of Japan, provide the a translation of the Dr. Brinker’s German text, the translation published in this issue of the journal.
An exhibition of the works of Rinkoku, a Japanese painter/poet/calligrapher of numerous talents and many interests was organized for Kaikodo by Prof. Steven Addis, whose own manifold talents and intellectual curiosity mirror those of his subject and make him the ideal interpreter of Edo-period literati culture, this made abundantly clear in the essay on Rinkoku that we were honored to publish in this issue of the journal. It was in fact Dr. Addiss who suggested this presentation of Rinkoku’s art and who also conceived the plan for a day of literati art at Kaikodo.
The journal also contains an article by Howard Rogers on early Chinese figure painting, in conjunction with the highlights of early Chinese art in the exhibition.