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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Zhong Kui out on an excursion with his sister

  • loan
  • Description

    Cheng Shifa (1921-2007), was born in the Jiangsu province in 1921. He came from a family of traditional doctors. After studying painting on his own, he entered the traditional painting department of the Shanghai Academy. He once earned a living by doing serial illustrations, known as lianhuanhua, calendars, and New Year pictures. After 1949, he joined the East China People’s Publishing House in Shanghai and began to acquire a reputation as an accomplished book illustrator. Today, Cheng Shifa is best known as a guohua ink painter and his strength is figure painting. One of his favourite subjects is the demon-queller Zhong Kui riding with his sister or marrying her off, as depicted in this painting. Zhong Kui was a 7th century scholar who failed the national exam. In Chinese folklore, a legend developed around him as a demon queller. Cheng’s brushwork is lively and sensitive, often with a pleasingly staccato rhythm. This painting was inscribed by the artist to Khoan (1919-2003) and Michael Sullivan (1916-2013) in 1980, when they visited his home in Shanghai. The inscription on the painting reads “The Excursion of the Jinshi Scholar of the Zhongnan Mountain. [Painted] On an autumn day of a gengshen year [1980]. A casual brushwork by Shifa. For Madam Khoan and Professor Sullivan to appreciate.” The couple visited China and many Chinese artists in 1980 at the invitation of the Chinese Artists’ Association.

  • Details

    Associated place
    AsiaChina Shanghai province (place of creation)
    Date
    1980
    Artist/maker
    Cheng Shifa (1921 - 2007) (artist)
    Cheng Shifa (1921 - 2007) (calligrapher)
    Associated people
    Khoan Sullivan (1919 - 2003) (recipient)
    Michael Sullivan (1916 - 2013) (recipient)
    Material and technique
    ink and colour on paper
    Dimensions
    mount 118 x 59.4 cm (height x width)
    painting 70 x 48.5 cm (height x width)
    along roller 69.7 cm (length)
    Material index
    Technique index
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    On loan from the Khoan and Michael Sullivan Collection.
    Accession no.
    LI2022.132
  • Further reading

    Sullivan, Michael, Modern Chinese Art: The Khoan and Michael Sullivan Collection, revised edn (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2009), no. 14 on p. 62, illus. p. 62 fig. II.14

Glossary

Zhong Kui

  • Zhong Kui

    Zhong Kui, or Shōki in Japanese, is a figure from Chinese folklore who appeared to the ailing 8th century Chinese Emperor Xuanzong in a dream and dispatched the demons that were haunting him. Shōki promised the Emperor that he would rid the world of demons.

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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