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Kaikodo Journal XXXI

Elegant Solutions

Corresponding to the exhibition held between March 13 and April 30, 2015. 47 Chinese and Japanese paintings; 31 Chinese and Japanese objects (85 color plates). Preface by Howard Rogers. 255 pages.

Includes the essays:
John Vollmer:
“Once Lost, Now Found at the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto: A Ninth-century
Dhow Cargo of Tang Wares”
Richard Barnhart:
“A Chinese Painter’s Reaction to the Manchu Invasion of China: Zhang Gu
and his Ancient Masterpieces”
Ellen Johnston Laing:
“The Depiction of Mulan Testing her Bow in the Chinese Print Medium”
Kazuko Kameda-Madar:
“Shokunin Zukushi-e, “Pictures of People of Various Occupations in Their
Workshops” in Early Modern Japan”
Carol Conover:
“Robert Hatfield Ellsworth (July 13, 1929-August 3, 2014)“
Claudia Brown:
“Chu-tsing Li: In Memoriam”
Howard Rogers:
“James Cahill (1926-2014)”
Mary Ann Rogers:
“Jim Cahill”

The term “elegant solution” is normally used in scientific contexts where it refers to a solution in which the maximum desired effect is achieved with the smallest or simplest endeavor. An elegant solution solves a given problem with the least possible waste of material and accomplished with appropriate methods and materials. We have here extended those concepts to art, to the objects and paintings which range in the present exhibition from a miraculously crafted light-as-a-feather Neolithic black pottery stemcup to a white porcelain liquor bottle with cobalt blue bubbles floating beneath the silky glaze of its surface to an album of landscapes where ink was brushed delicately on paper to produce images of great refinement and serenity to a pair of six-fold screens depicting artists and craftsmen at their work, some arriving at, within the confines of the painting, elegant solutions of their own. Our understanding and appreciation of such creative processes and their results are enhanced in enlightening essays by Richard Barnhart, Ellen Laing, and Kazuko Kameda-Madar and John Vollmer, and our deep gratitude to those teachers and mentors, friends and colleagues who have sadly passed on since the publication of our last journal and who are remembered in a number of tributes by members of Kaikodo’s immediate family and by their friend, Claudia Brown.

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Kaikodo Journal XXXVII - Spring 2021 (web)Online only
Kaikodo Journal XXXVI - Spring 2020 (web)Online only
Kaikodo Journal XXXV - Spring 2019 (web)Online only
Kaikodo Journal XXXIV - Spring 2018 (web)Online only
Kaikodo Journal XXXIII - Spring 2017 (web)Online only
Kaikodo Journal XXXII - Spring 2016 (web)Online only
Kaikodo Journal XXXI - Spring 2015Available
Kaikodo Journal XXX - Spring 2014Available
Kaikodo Journal XXIX - Spring 2013Available
Kaikodo Journal XXVIII - Spring 2012Available
Kaikodo Journal XXVII - Spring 2011Available
Kaikodo Journal XXVI - Spring 2010available
Kaikodo Journal XXV - Spring 2009Available
Kaikodo Journal XXIV - Spring 2008Available
Kaikodo Journal XXIII - Spring 2007
Spring in Jinling - Spring 2004
Kaikodo Journal XXII - Spring 2002
Kaikodo Journal XXI - Autumn 2001
Kaikodo Journal XX - Autumn 2001Available
Kaikodo Journal XIX - Spring 2001Available
Kaikodo Journal XVIII - November 2000
Kaikodo Journal XVII - Autumn 2000
Kaikodo Journal XVI - May 2000Available
Kaikodo Journal XV - Spring 2000Available
Kaikodo Journal XIV - November 1999Available
Kaikodo Journal XIII - Autumn 1999Available
Kaikodo Journal XII - Autumn 1999
In Two Dimensions - Spring 1999
Kaikodo Journal XI - Spring 1999
Kaikodo Journal X - November 1998Out of Print
Kaikodo Journal IX - Autumn 1998Available
Kaikodo Journal VIII - May 1998Available
Kaikodo Journal VII - Spring 1998Available
Kaikodo Journal VI - October 1997Not Available
Kaikodo Journal V - Autumn 1997
Kaikodo Journal IV - May 1997OUT OF PRINT
Kaikodo Journal III - Spring 1997OUT OF PRINT
Kaikodo Journal II - Autumn 1996OUT OF PRINT
Kaikodo Journal I - Spring 1996OUT OF PRINT
Backward Glances - February 1996
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