Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Michael Sullivan: A Life of Art and Friendship

(from 11th Mar until 14th Sep 2014)

A commemorative exhibition in memory of Michael Sullivan, leading scholar of Chinese art.

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The Silver Look of Trees

  • loan
  • Description

    In the 1980s, Michael Sullivan (1916-2013) visited China frequently and made many new friends among the younger artists who had emerged from the darkness of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). On one visit, he met printmakers who were developing the shuiyin (water-based printing) technique into an expressive art form at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. This work, a fine example of the technique, was given to Michael by Lu Fang (born 1932), a teacher at the Academy. The inscription reads ‘For the respected Professor Michael Sullivan and Madam Wu Huan. Lu Fang in Hangzhou.’

    Shuiyin print is a technique perfected early in the 17th century in southern Anhui province and Nanjing, Jiangsu province. The blocks are hand-coloured with watercolor and printed on multilayer sprayed paper to produce subtle gradations of tone and atmosphere, the aim being to create the effect of a painting. With the fall of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the tradition in Nanjing declined and was not revived until the early 1960s, when the Jiangsu branch of the Chinese Artists Association held training sessions in the technique.

  • Details

    Associated place
    AsiaChinaZhejiang province Hangzhou (place of creation)
    Date
    August 1986
    Artist/maker
    Lu Fang (born 1932) (printmaker)
    Associated people
    Khoan Sullivan (1919 - 2003) (recipient)
    Michael Sullivan (1916 - 2013) (recipient)
    Material and technique
    shuiyin
    Dimensions
    frame 62 x 74 x 1.5 cm (height x width x depth)
    print 39 x 51.2 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    Technique index
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    On loan from the Khoan and Michael Sullivan Collection.
    Accession no.
    LI2022.10
  • Further reading

    Sullivan, Michael, Modern Chinese Art: The Khoan and Michael Sullivan Collection, revised edn (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2009), no. 33 on p. 186, illus. p. 187 fig. III. 33

Glossary

shuiyin

  • shuiyin

    Shuiyin is a water-soluble ink printed woodcut.

Past Exhibition

see (1)

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Notice

Objects from past exhibitions may have now returned to our stores or a lender. Click into an individual object record to confirm whether or not an object is currently on display. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis, so please contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular Eastern Art object.

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