China
Paint & Paper
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 1 The perennial question of what to pack for a month-long artist residency: how much paint and paper is enough, too much, or not enough. It is especially difficult with air travel and customs. Artist George Nick said, “Pack like Liz Taylor — bring everything.” Travel guru Rick Steves said, “Pack light — no one ever wishes their bags were heavier.” Seven days till departure, many choices. Don’t touch…
Arrival Beijing
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 2 Today is my first day at the Inside Out Art Museum in Beijing, China. Travel and settling in was easy and identical to any international city. Everyone is patient with my lack of language skills. Written directions in Chinese, that I prepared in advance, are mandatory for taxis. At the end of a long process of arriving, it was a pleasure to encounter friends in the museum. ABOVE:…
Haidian
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 3 The artist residency I am attending is located in the Haidian district of Beijing. The museum is across from a corporate office park on a short road that leads to a small village. People walk up and down the road to and from the village all day. — to the village — from the village — village poultry shop — catching a nap while reading and waiting for…
Art Districts
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 4 On Saturday the Inside Out Art Museum academic director Liang Shuang and I attended openings in two art districts in northeast Beijing. We saw a wide spectrum of work in museums and galleries. I felt unbelievably lucky to meet so many people working in contemporary art. And it was inspiring to see the range of work and exhibition venues. ABOVE: Today Art Museum, Building no. 1 — towers…
Catastrophe
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 5 Imagine tours of Buckingham Palace and Versailles leading to graveyards of empty space, vestiges of devastation caused by invading foreign armies. In China, that place is Yuanmingyuan, the Old Summer Palace in Beijing. Its annihilation in 1860 by the Anglo-French and American belligerents against the Qing dynasty feels recent. Instead of reveling in 18th & early 19th century architecture, design, furniture, gardens, and vast ornamentation of human imagination,…
Yiheyuan—New Summer Palace, 1
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 6 All that is absent at Yuanmingyuan, the Old Summer Palace, is present a little further west at Yiheyuan, the New Summer Palace, in Haidian, Beijing. The inadequacy of photography to convey atmosphere and grandeur is demonstrated in nearly every picture of my visit. Photographic flattening and miniaturization obliterates dizzying heights and magisterial transformations of space. Each set of interior and outdoor rooms spills into the next with unbelievable…
Yiheyuan—New Summer Palace, 2
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 7 The commanding center piece of the symmetrically designed Yiheyuan — New Summer Palace — in Haidian, Beijing, is the Buddhist Temple on top of the precipitously steep Longevity Hill overlooking Kunming Lake. The hill was augmented with excavation of the entirely man-made lake. Photography only serves to mislead regarding the actual contrast of scale, compression and expansion of space, and extremely large quantities of color and ornamentation. central…
Yiheyuan—New Summer Palace, 3
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 8 The view from the top of Longevity Hill of the roof peak of the Guanyin Buddha Temple would seem to be the natural end of a tour of Yiheyan — New Summer Palace — in Haidian, Beijing. But wait, there’s more. Much more. A series of Indian-style temples stack up and over the ridge descending to the North Gate. At the bottom is Suzhou Market Street, originally built…
Tsinghua University
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 9 Haidian District, Beijing, location of the artist residency program at Inside Out Museum, is home to at least eleven major universities. Founded in 1911, Tsinghua University is a public research institute with a wide range of academic programs. Within it, the Academy of Arts & Design has a museum-quality gallery, 25 departments including architecture, graphic design, drawing, painting and other fine arts, a compact art supply store, and…
Yonghegong
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 10 Yonghegong is an active and well-attended Tibetan Buddhist Temple in Beijing. Built in 1694 as an imperial residence, it was converted to a lamasery in 1744. Worshipers offer gifts of money, food, large paper flowers, and complementary incense provided at the entrance. As with other sites in Beijing, it is meticulously restored and enormous, with five central halls containing countless carved, painted, and bronze aspects of Buddha. The…
Confucius Temple & Guozijian
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 11 Confucius, first teacher and moralist, lived 551–479 BC without power or status. The temple compound built to venerate him in Beijing and its neighbor the Guozijian, Imperial Academy are a short walk from the Yonghegong, Tibetan Buddhist Lamasery. Begun in 1287, the Confucius Temple functioned officially until the end of feudal rule in 1911. The grueling civil service examination system at the Guozijian, gatekeeper of upward mobility, ended…
Tiāntán
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 12 Emperors and retinue of the Ming and Qing dynasties used Tiāntán — Temple of Heaven — annually to perform complex and lengthy ritual ceremonies for the worship of heaven to insure a year of good harvest. The circular wooden altar has been rebuilt many times. It was occupied, damaged, and looted by the Anglo-French Alliance in the 1850s, again by the Eight-Nation Alliance in 1900, and burnt to…
Temple of Heaven Park
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 13 Tiāntán — Temple of Heaven — is a historic religious site within a 660 acre urban park. Especially in the early hours of the day people gather there to play games, dance, practice tai chi, and perform music. There are two large, well-tended flower gardens, one of roses, the other of peonies. Long wide walkways through manicured forests lead to scruffier cedar forests near the south gate. singing…
Ming Dynasty City Wall
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 14 At first I regretted choosing to visit the longest remaining section of Ming Dynasty city wall in Beijing. My first view of the wall was squeezed between new hotels, apartment buildings, and a major rail station. But after passing the Marriott in the northeast corner and a ten minute walk through a recently improved wooded park next to the mostly hidden east wall, the true relic emerged. Built…
Palace Museum
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 15 So far in photographs of Beijing I have minimized the presence of people at popular sites. That is not possible at the Palace Museum, commonly called Forbidden City. It is the first listing in every tourist guide book and travel website and always crowded. Beginning this month, the daily visitor count will be limited to 80,000 people per day. As many as 122,000 have crushed through on a…
Palace Museum Side Halls
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 16 It is called Forbidden City because it was forbidden to enter or leave without the emperor’s permission. It was the central seat of political and ceremonial power in China for 500 years, 1406—1912. The central axis is comprised of a series of throne rooms and vast courtyards. On either side are warrens of intimately scaled private rooms, kitchens, apartments, and chapels. Some halls are now museums containing extraordinary…
CAFA & Red Gate Open Studios
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 17 Central Academy of Fine Arts, CAFA is a world class university with many distinguished faculty and alumni. It is located in the northeast Chaoyang section of Beijing. In 2008, on the 90th anniversary, the school opened a major museum designed by Japanese architect Arata Isozaki. There is a well-stocked art supply store on campus. Red Gate Gallery, mentioned in a previous post, also operates an international artist residency program….
IOAM Ink Art
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 18 The exhibition In Riotous Profusion — The New Possibilities of Ink Art opened at Inside Out Art Museum, Haidian, Beijing with a symposium of distinguished speakers. President Fan Di’an of China Academy of Fine Art, CAFA toured the show. The collection highlights cultural roots of ink art in China with a contemporary lineage dating to 1960s Taiwan and 1980s mainland China. Eight artists working in ink with abstract…
Mutianyu
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 19 Begun in 500 BCE, the great wall is actually many walls built at different times with different materials depending on the era and region. (See Peter Hessler and David Spindler). An archaeological survey by China’s State Administration of Cultural Heritage announced in June 2012 the completion of a five year measurement of the wall at 21,196.18 km (13,170.69 miles), more than twice the length of previous estimates. With…
Tian’anmen
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 20 The front entrance to the Imperial City in Beijing is called Tian’anmen, or Gate of Heavenly Peacemaking. First built in 1415 during the Ming Dynasty, it is where Mao Zedong’s portrait is centrally hung. Forbidden city is within the Imperial City north of Tian’anmen. The immense open area called Tian’anmen Square is on the opposite side of a busy street from Imperial City gate. Tunnels are used to…
Beihai Park
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 21 Imperial gardens, temples, and pavilions of the 171 acre Beihai Park began to be built in 1163 AD. Located on one of three interconnected lakes adjacent to Imperial City in the center of Beijing, it has been a public park since 1925. People spend summer afternoons playing music, reading newspapers, strolling, and boating. The earthquake ravaged but still standing Tibetan Buddhist White Dagoba, original construction 1651, is on…
Beihai Northwest
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 22 Still with a lengthy list of unseen places in Beijing despite a month in the city, on my last day I returned to Beihai Park to be outside in a garden. The northwest section contains temples, pavilions, memorials, and a large lake-front walkway. Restoration produces a deceptive blend of ancient and contemporary sensibilities. Real people sing and dance in antique pavilions. The Buddhist Temples are active sites of…
Beijing Fashion
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 23 China has had a developing market economy since reforms led by Deng Xiaoping in 1978 following the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. There is a wide variety of individual color and style in women’s fashion. Clothing is plentiful and inexpensive. There are several trends in the city. Formal occasion dresses show up at all times of day in unlikely public places, made with sheer white flowing and layered…
Houhai Hutong
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 24 Beihai North subway station entrance was the first place I stepped outside in the city the first week in Beijing on my way to art openings further down the line. Across the street an imposing antique building made me wonder what it was. Plastic wrapped young women sold tours in the rain. Identically hatted tourist teams disappeared into worryingly maze-like narrow alleys. On the last day after a…
Hutongs & Sanlitun
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no.25 New friend Jiayu, who introduced herself on the subway using the English name Jessie while I was going to art openings the first weekend, offered to be my guide to see the oldest hutongs in Beijing on my last day in the city. Believing she was also my host meant she tried to pay for everything we ate despite our recent acquaintance, a courtesy pressed by many Chinese friends…
Departure Haidian
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 26 The opportunity offered by the Inside Out Art Museum for an artist residency in Beijing fulfilled my lifelong desire to go to China. While there, the museum made no demands on my time, in part because the residency manager left her job the week I arrived. Everyone else in the museum was busy installing and promoting major shows. I alternated studio days of painting and drawing with day…
Arrival Shanghai
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — SHANGHAI, no. 27 There are few more evocative city names in the world than Shanghai. When Wang visited me in Beijing, he urged me not to leave China without seeing his city. The first day was a long one beginning at 4:30 a.m. Wang’s colleague Mr Li continued his generosity toward me by personally driving me the hour long ride to the airport. After a two-hour delay due to weather, the…
Bus Trip
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — ZHEJIANG, no. 28 My arrival in Shanghai coincided with a previously scheduled trip of Wang’s colleagues and students from the Shanghai University Architecture and Painting departments. They graciously included me in their plans to view the China Academy of Art Thesis Exhibitions in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province, a three hour drive north of Shanghai. We departed with overnight bags in two buses from the university at 7:00 AM. Tinted…
China Academy of Art
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — ZHEJIANG, no. 29 China Academy of Art thesis exhibitions, Xiangshan campus map The China Academy of Art is a world-class fine arts institute in Zhejiang Province, one of the most developed and wealthiest provinces in China. The campus is located on the outskirts of the capital city Hangzhou. The school was designed by architects Wang Shu, winner of the Pritzker Prize, and Ly Wenyu, his collaborator and wife. He is dean of…
CAA Exhibitions
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — ZHEJIANG, no. 30 The China Academy of Art thesis exhibitions are extensive. The school provides rigorous instruction in a full spectrum of degree programs on three campuses. The school was founded in 1928 as the first art university and first graduate school in Chinese history. CAA is under the direct management of the Ministry of Culture. Despite the large quantity of work we viewed in a three hour visit, it was…
Somewhere in China
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — ZHEJIANG, no. 31 Except for scant details, my courteous young interpreter Elena had limited knowledge of our location, destination, or itinerary. The adult professors spoke among themselves, merrily enjoying a family-style vacation in the country. They barely looked out the bus windows. Twenty-four hours after leaving Beijing for Shanghai, I was somewhere in China without a map, internet connection, or place name. The verdant scenery that whizzed by was spectacular. Later…
Quan Shanshi Art Center
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — HANGZHOU, no. 32 After lunch in the tea plantation region outside Hangzhou, the bus delivered six of us to the Quan Shanshi Art Center. It is a private museum that displays, collects, and promotes oil paintings from around the world. The center includes instruction, research, and free public access. The special exhibit during my visit was 19th Century French Realist Painting. The museum is named for the Chinese painter Quan Shanshi…
Liangzhu Museum
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — HANGZHOU, no. 33 Hangzhou is known as “a paradise on earth” for its picturesque wonders. The threadbare hotel we stayed in must once have been elegant, its broad marble stairway having since been roped off. Photographs were prohibited inside. Elena and I shared a spartan room on the second floor. I slept well despite the smell of cigarettes and street noise coming through the window we opened to move the air….
Vanke Dignified Life
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — HANGZHOU, no. 34 A short distance from the Liangzhu Museum is the Vanke Dignified Life Cultural Village, a retirement zone of residential, hospital, nursing and rehab services, shops, restaurants, an international youth hostel, and 35% green space. The bus dropped us off near the non-denominational church Mei Li Zhou. It was designed by Tsushima Design Studio of Tokyo and built in 2010, not by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando, as my…
Shanghai Tower
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — SHANGHAI, no. 35 Three days after arrival, following an unexpected bus trip to Hangzhou, I was finally able to see Shanghai. My colleague Wang assigned a new chaperone to me from his student pool. Mr Li’s daughter Jaiyi met me at my hotel lobby where we coordinated our plan for the day: her list, my list, and Wang’s list. First on his list was the Museum of Contemporary Art, located in…
Dian Xin Restaurant
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — SHANGHAI, no. 36 Lunch on Nanjing Road was an exquisite meal after the exhilaration of the Shanghai Tower. The taste of every dish was unbelievable, carefully selected by Jaiyi. The second floor restaurant is through a nondescript corner door next to a food stall window. Among the regional dishes were steamed dumplings, eel soup, prawns, soft crab tofu, and crab shell pies. If I could return to China it might be…
China Art Museum
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — SHANGHAI, no. 37 The China Art Museum in Shanghai was originally built for the China Pavilion of Expo 2010. It is the largest art museum in Asia. The permanent collection is mainly Chinese modern art with substantial special exhibitions. The building design references several traditional forms of joinery, cap style, and bronze pots. It is enormous and visited by millions of people each year. detail of two ink murals on left…
Qingming Scroll
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — SHANGHAI, no. 38 The China Art Museum, built as Expo 2010 China Pavilion in Shanghai, houses an installation originally created for the fair. Based on a 12th century scroll by Zhang Zeduan (1085–1145 AD), the original Song Dynasty painting is one of China’s greatest cultural treasures. The painting depicts daily life of urban and rural people, animals, vehicles, and landscape at all levels of society engaged in diverse economic activities. Of…
River Towns
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — ZHOUZHUANG, no. 39 On the second to last day in Shanghai, Wang arranged for me to join a student bus trip to Zhouzhuang, ninety minutes west of Shanghai. Blurry photographs taken through the bus window were washed out even more by the overcast day. In small corners of the images the camera caught people working — on rivers, in fields, and laying tile. They appeared to have stepped directly from the Qingming scroll…
Zhouzhuang Streets & Houses
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — ZHOUZHUANG, no. 40 Early in my artist residency in May 2015, I’d visited an imitation river town built in the 18th-century for the enjoyment of imperial concubines. It was designed to recreate actual river towns such as Zhouzhuang, ninety minutes west of Shanghai by bus. It is one of thousands of similar towns with varying degrees of historical significance. Artifacts of civilization in the area date to 770 BC. Three million…
Zhouzhuang Lunch & Temple
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — ZHOUZHUANG, no. 41 There is a story about why the popular local meal Wansan pork hock is named after Shen Wansan, the richest man in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasty in Zhouzhuang. It was explained to me several times but I could not comprehend the meaning. It had to do with multi-family intrigue, commercial competition, the sound of his name being similar to the word for pig, and his…
Scary Anatomy Museum
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — ZHOUZHUANG, no. 42 Another thing that I did not understand, in addition to the legend of Wansan pork hock and the location of tea plantations, is why on the return trip from Zhouzhuang to Shanghai our next stop was The Museum of Mystery of Life. The bus group disembarked at a warehouse-style building. Tickets were arranged and a guided tour began, this time entirely in Chinese. The first exhibit of a…
The Bund
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — SHANGHAI, no. 43 On my last day in Shanghai and first time in a week I found myself unexpectedly on my own for two hours in the city. I set out to walk the length of Nanjing Road to the Bund, mostly emptied of tourists by Monday morning rain. The Peace Hotel, formerly Sassoon House and Cathay Hotel, has a storied past. It was meticulously restored in 2007 to it’s 1926-29…
Shanghai Museum
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — SHANGHAI, no. 44 The Shanghai Museum is one of several significant institutions within The People’s Park in downtown Shanghai. It contains an insanely sumptuous collection. No material escapes the expressive form and skill displayed by the Chinese and Tibetan people at the highest level of expertise: cloth, bead, wood, jade, gilt-brass, ink, paint, paper, ceramic, stone, bronze. The few samples here do not include items that are difficult to photograph through…
Shanghai Old City
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — SHANGHAI, no. 45 The area within the original city wall of Shanghai remained exclusively Chinese during the period of foreign concessions that followed the defeat of the Qing dynasty by the British Empire in 1839. Unfortunately most of the old city has been replaced by a new city that pretends to be old — in a completely artificial way. It is a commercial development designed to accommodate hordes of tourists. Beyond…
Goodbye Shanghai
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — SHANGHAI, no. 46 It is appropriate for friends and food to be at the center of my last night in China. Wang arranged for himself and his three university students who had been my guides to meet for an evening meal. After finding his first choice closed, we had dinner at a Xinjiang-style restaurant. Later walking on a dark street, we passed a group of people crouched on a dimly lit…