Product Description

This sumptuously illustrated book, written by a team of eminent international scholars, is the first to recount the history of Chinese painting over a span of some three thousand years.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #116638 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Amazon.com Review
This book is a rare feat: seldom is an art history--much less an ambitious, 400-page chronicle of one of the great cultural achievements of the last three millennia--as much a delight for the amateur lover of art as it is indispensable for the student of the field. Written by three eminent specialists in the United States and three in China, Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting combines the best of both countries' scholarly approaches with new discoveries and illustrations of numerous paintings located in China and previously little known abroad.

Insightful, often lively discussions tell the story in six chapters, mostly dynastic, after briefly giving two "approaches" to Chinese painting. History, politics, biography, and training get their proper due and are complemented by often-detailed analyses of individual artworks. Close attention to the text and the 300 color and 25 black-and-white illustrations enable the reader to "see" these paintings--which are often constructed on different perceptual and cultural premises than the post-Renaissance and photographic images by which most Westerners structure their visual vocabulary. The glossary and other tools are welcome aids; the list of artists is organized by period and offers their names in the two most common romanization systems as well as in Chinese characters. And to read James Cahill on the Ni Zan paintings that may at first appear uninviting, or Lang Shaojun on the proportionally numerous 20th-century painters, is a real adventure for both the eye and the mind.

Anyone with more than a passing interest in one of the world's most esteemed art traditions--be they a Sunday museumgoer or a confirmed lover of the gnarly pines set amidst the towering mountains of the Song-period masters--will want this book in their library. --Joseph N. Newland

From Library Journal
In this major work of scholarship, six top China scholars from the United States and China present their varied assessments as well as a panoramic view on the development of Chinese pictorial arts grounded in Chinese cultural tradition and artistic practice. Through analyzing masterpieces from Neolithic painted petroglyphs, early paintings on silk, and landscapes by 12th-century literati to traditional handscrolls created in modern times, the authors showcase the riches of Chinese pictorial heritage. Comprehensively covering mainstream traditional Chinese paintings, they also touch upon often neglected areas such as women artists and works featuring common people, though folk paintings are not mentioned. The inclusion of more than 250 stunningly beautiful color plates and 75 black-and-white reproductions make this one of the most complete and best-illustrated works on the topic of Chinese pictorial art available to both general readers and scholars. The inaugural volume of a projected 75-volume series on Chinese culture, this is highly recommended for all academic and larger public libraries.?Lucia S. Chen, NYPL
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
``One should learn from nature and paint the image in one's mind.'' No, this is not the credo of a Western impressionist but of Zhang Zao, an eighth-century Chinese painter. Anyone familiar with the ethereal nature of the landscape painting, the delicacy of bird, branch, and flower in pen-and-ink drawings, will recognize the influence of Zhang Zao's notion in Chinese painting. As Barnhart, an art historian at Yale, and his collaborators (several of them on the staff of the Palace Museum in Beijing) show, this artistic tradition has its origins in the Asian equivalent of the Lascaux cave paintings, dating back to the Neolithic era. The history of this exceptional art, its practitioners and their technique, and the metaphorical significance attributed to the artworks are all discussed in illuminating detail, ending with the contemporary neoclassical works that draw on tradition but add a modern flavor. The text is accompanied by 300 fine color and 25 black-and-white reproductions of extraordinary works, many never before available in the West. Consider this the Janson's of Chinese painting. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

A Promising Introduction
I was looking for a book on Chinese painting with plenty of illustrations. In the Amazon reviews this book was praised for it's ample examples of paintings. I ordered this book and the pictures did not let me down.
But the essays written by five experts were a surprising bonus of enjoyable informative commentaries providing concise but comprehensive introductions to painters and their works. This is just the book for a new comer to Chinese painting.
One book hasn't made me an authority, but I now know about the southern and northern schools, recognize some Daoist and Buddhist influences on painting, and I've seen an example of Guanxiu's distorted visages, have wondered at Gou Xi's 'Early Spring', have seen Fan Kuan's massive mountain reduce humans to paltry piddling beings verging on non-entities, have appreciated bird, animal, and delicate plant portraits and Liang Kai's distinct images as well as many other worthies.
Some of the most fascinating and aestheticly moving paintings to me are Wang Shen's 'Serried Hills Over a Misty River', Ma Lin's 'Sunset Landscape' and Xia Gui's 'Twelve Landscapes'; all paintings that elevate emptiness to an integral part of the scene giving outlined forms a vulnerable lonliness. These paintings take Miles Davis's advice a thousand years before he spoke it "Don't play[paint] what's there, play[paint] what's not there.
After being introduced to some of the artists and their works, I wish more of their art had been included, but then what better accolade can an introductory book receive than it leaves you wanting more.

Mixed Review
This book cannot be avoided if you are studying Chinese art history, however, since each section is written by a different author, the result is not homogeneous in quality, readability, or helpfulness. It's a nice resource for images of Chinese painting you might not otherwise find elsewhere. Which chapter you prefer will vary according to which author's style you prefer. The book does provide a sort of timeline of Chinese painting from its origins until the Qing dynasty, however since each chapter is whole unto itself, there is a gap in continuity from one section to the next.

uneven writing, great reproductions of Chinese Paintings
With one exception, the essays in this compilation suffer from a problem that seems to crop up in many books on art history, namely the essays move from fact to fact saying little in between about the ideas behind the art. The exception is the last chapter which is on Chinese painting in the 20th century. I greatly enjoyed this essay as its author talked about the ideas and techniques behind the art as well as giving a fact based history of Chinese painting in the 20th century. I recommend this book for the last essay and also for the stunning full color reproductions of the Chinese painting that populate the book.