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

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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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Wuxi and Lake Tai

  • loan
  • Description

    Michael Sullivan (1916-2013) witnessed and studied the biggest single transition in Chinese art in the 20th century, in which the East engaged with the West. The artist of this painting, Wu Guanzhong (1919-2010) was a leading figure in this transition, able to move easily between Chinese and Western media and express a wide range of ideas and feelings in his paintings. Wu studied from 1937 to 1942 in the Hangzhou Academy under Pan Tianshou (1897-1971) and Lin Fengmian (1900-1991) and from 1947 to 1950 in the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He created a new, contemporary style of ink painting that captures the beauty of villages in the Jiangnan region with striking simplicity. Wu’s oil landscapes, though less experimental than his ink painting, are lyrical and light in touch, combining echoes of Maurice Utrillo (1883-1955) and Raoul Dufy (1877-1953) with a Chinese sense of space. This landscape scene was painted in 1973 and given by the artist to Khoan (1919-2003) and Michael in 1980.

  • Details

    Associated place
    Asia China (place of creation)
    AsiaChinaJiangsu province Lake Tai (subject)
    AsiaChina Jiangsu province (Wuxi) (subject)
    Date
    1973
    Artist/maker
    Wu Guanzhong (1919 - 2010) (artist)
    Associated people
    Khoan Sullivan (1919 - 2003) (recipient)
    Michael Sullivan (1916 - 2013) (recipient)
    Material and technique
    oil on panel
    Dimensions
    frame 41.5 x 49 x 4 cm (height x width x depth)
    painting 26 x 34 cm (height x width)
    Technique index
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    On loan from the Khoan and Michael Sullivan Collection.
    Accession no.
    LI2022.58
  • Further reading

    Sullivan, Michael, Modern Chinese Art: The Khoan and Michael Sullivan Collection, revised edn (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2009), no. 122 on p. 135, illus. p.135 fig. II.122

    Sullivan, Michael, Art and Artists of Twentieth Century China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), pl. 78

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.

 

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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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