Chinese art at the Lentz Center for Asian Culture
From Nov. 11 through Nov. 16, the Lentz Center for Asian Culture and the Confucius Institute at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will be honored to present Professor Xu Yinsen as their new artist-in-residence. Professor Xu will also give a public lecture and demonstration at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 12 in Room 15, Richards Hall at the corner of Stadium Drive and T Street.
Professor Xu is well known in China as a seal carver, a calligrapher and a painter, and has exhibited throughout Europe and Asia. He is an authority on Chinese art and often appears on the Chinese version of “Antiques Road Show.” He has been a professor for 30 years at National Academy of Fine Arts in China and has authored and edited books on seal cutting and Chinese painting. Having such a distinguished artist at the Lentz Center is a great opportunity for the students, faculty and the public.
Since Chinese painting is a connoisseur’s delight but can appear mysterious or even bland to the untutored eye, I thought that a brief explanation might be helpful. Traditional Chinese painting is executed in three formats: horizontal scroll, hanging scroll and album leaves. In contemporary China, artists use many different materials and surfaces, but they usually create the painting in ink and sometimes add color.
The ink is produced in cakes of varying styles and shapes. It is made of a mixture of dried lampblack and glue and sometimes has a fragrance added. The ink stick or ink cake is rubbed on the ink stone, and water from a special container is added. The ink, the ink stone and the water dropper are special accoutrements of the scholar artist. The artist must control the ink so just the right tones will be left on the paper or the silk.
Chinese painting has traditionally been created in several categories, including figure painting, landscape painting, and bird and flower painting. Currently subject matter is much broader. Professor Xu practices the famous category of hua-niao or bird and flower painting. This is an important category of subject matter and is not given to sentimentality. It became an important type of painting in the 10th century when birds were often depicted on small bushes, executed with a rare lifelike quality and placed in experiential space. During the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127 CE), the famous art-loving Emperor Huizong encouraged artists to paint smaller-scale bird and flower paintings, often close-ups of a bird on a branch. These paintings were often made as a result of a challenge, such as illustrating a poem, homonym or symbolic relationship. They were frequently colored.
With the growth in importance of ink painting, bird and flower paintings were often done solely in ink. Calligraphers especially liked to paint orchids for their symbolism and their long, leathery leaves. Orchids symbolized the true Chinese gentleman, fragrant even in a ditch. This and the hardiness of orchids made them apt symbols for maintaining one’s integrity even amid the corruptions of the world.
Professor Xu studied painting under the famous masters Tianshou Pan and Lesan Zhu. He paints orchids using ink and color. He also paints plum blossoms, which are also a sign of hardiness as they are the first to bloom in the late winter. Pine, bamboo and plum are often known as the Three Friends of Winter for their hardiness in the cold.
Professor Xu is also a calligrapher. It is hard for westerners to grasp the importance of calligraphy and the written word in Asia.
In China calligraphy has held a high position of honor, above painting and poetry. The Chinese believe that calligraphy reveals one’s true character. Calligraphy is even carved and preserved on stones, called steles. In Xian, China, there is a museum of steles. All the Confucian classics and many other writings, maps and landscape paintings are executed on stone and are kept in a special building called Bei Lin or the Forest of Steles. Professor Xu is proficient in five categories of calligraphy: the seal script (zhuan), official script (li), regular script (kai), cursive (cao) and running script (xing). The language skill and subtlety required for this kind of mastery is vast.
Professor Xu is also a seal carver. Seals are used on paintings as an additional signature, the red of the seal often contrasting dramatically with the black-and-white painting. One artist may have many different seals. Often contemporary and later collectors added their seals to a painting. This is not considered to be defiling the picture. The art-loving Qianlong Emperor (1736–1795 CE) often added a large seal on paintings in his own collection. This seal has become very familiar to students of Chinese painting. Seals can be small or large, square, rectangular, round or oval. They are carved, usually in seal script, starting at the top right of the seal and ending at the bottom left-hand corner. There are many styles of carving. The stone most frequently used to make seals is soapstone, although marble, jade and many others were used as well. The vermilion ink used on the seals was composed of cinnabar, oil and a pinch of mugwort.
In addition, Professor Xu is a member of several prestigious art organizations, such as the Chinese Calligrapher Association, the Chinese Xi-ling Seal Cutting Society and the Chinese Association of Flower and Bird Painters. He is an emeritus professor at the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts and an honorary president of Zhejiang Yet-Sen Painting and Calligraphy Institute. In addition, he is skillful at drama and opera and writes poetry and music.
Please join the Confucius Institute and the Lentz Center for Asian Culture in welcoming Professor Xu at the Lentz Center from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Nov. 11–15, and 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Nov. 16.
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