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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Street in Chongqing after Japanese Bombing 1940front

© The artist's estate

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Street in Chongqing after Japanese Bombing 1940

  • loan

  • Description

    Michael Sullivan (1916-2013) arrived in China as a member of the International Red Cross in 1940, and he was assigned the task of transporting medical supplies between Chongqing, Kunming, Guiyang, and Chengdu. During his journeys in west China he witnessed severe bombing by the Japanese. This sketch by Lü Sibai (1905-1973) shows a street in Chongqing after Japanese bombing. Lü Sibai was an oil painter who studied in France from 1929 to 1934. He returned to China in 1934 and taught at the Art Department of National Central University Nanjing, which had been moved to west China during the Second World War (1939-1945). Lü produced this drawing and gave it to Khoan Sullivan (1919-2003) in Chongqing in 1941, before she met Michael. It is, therefore, the first work in the Khoan and Michael Sullivan collection of Chinese art. Lü Sibai committed suicide during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).

  • Details

    show all
    Associated place
    Asia › China › Sichuan province › Chongqing (place of creation)
    Asia › China › Sichuan province › Chongqing (subject)
    Date
    1940
    Artist/maker
    Lü Sibai (1905 - 1973) (artist)
    Associated people
    Khoan Sullivan (1919 - 2003) (recipient)
    Material and technique
    pen on paper
    Dimensions
    page 13.2 x 19.3 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    processed material › paper
    Technique index
    drawn (image) › line drawing › pen drawing
    Object type index
    visual representation › drawing
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    On loan from the Khoan and Michael Sullivan Collection.
    Accession no.
    LI2022.350

  • Further reading

    Sullivan, Michael, Modern Chinese Art: The Khoan and Michael Sullivan Collection, revised edn (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2009), no. 28 on p. 240, illus. p.241 fig. 28

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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