"Together the text and illustrations gradually reveal many of the major themes and characteristics of Chinese painting. To "read" these works is to enter a dialogue with the past. Slowly perusing a scroll or album, one shares an intimate experience that has been repeated over the centuries. And it is through such readings that meaning is gradually revealed."--BOOK JACKET.

Written by a team of eminent international scholars, this book is the first to recount the history of Chinese painting over a span of some 3000 years.

From earliest times the delicate precision of Chinese painting has captivated Western art lovers. The sophisticated techniques, the evident love of nature and the glimpses of a quiet civilised life all add to the enchantment. This book begins with the quick sketch-like painting from the Lo-Yang tombs, dating from the 3rd century, and continues with the closely observed T'ang paintings of people, not only Emperors and court dignitaries, but also peasants and grooms with the celebrated T'ang horses. Sung painters produced some of the most powerful landscapes in Chinese art, with their strangely shaped mountains looming menacingly up through the mists, and with man, absorbed in fishing or in meditation, dwarfed by the immensity of his environment. Nautre always present in Chinese art, now preoccupied painters almost to the exclusion of all else, and the studies of trees, particularly bamboo and pines, set in mountainous river landscapes are superb. Bussagli takes the account right up to the 19th and 20th centuries, a period seldom covered in books on Chinese painting. -- Book jacket.

An introduction to a millennium's worth of Chinese paintings features 400 classical works by more than 240 artists that represent their different historical periods, in a volume that offers insight into how Chinese art uniquely reflects cultural perspectives and the natural world.

What is Chinese painting? When did it begin? And what are the different associations of this term in China and the West? In Chinese Painting and Its Audiences, which is based on the A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts given at the National Gallery of Art, leading art historian Craig Clunas draws from a wealth of artistic masterpieces and lesser-known pictures, some of them discussed here in English for the first time, to show how Chinese painting has been understood by a range of audiences over five centuries, from the Ming Dynasty to today. Richly illustrated, Chinese Painting and Its Audiences demonstrates that viewers in China and beyond have irrevocably shaped this great artistic tradition. Arguing that audiences within China were crucially important to the evolution of Chinese painting, Clunas considers how Chinese artists have imagined the reception of their own work. By examining paintings that depict people looking at paintings, he introduces readers to ideal types of viewers: the scholar, the gentleman, the merchant, the nation, and the people. In discussing the changing audiences for Chinese art, Clunas emphasizes that the diversity and quantity of images in Chinese culture make it impossible to generalize definitively about what constitutes Chinese painting. Exploring the complex relationships between works of art and those who look at them, Chinese Painting and Its Audiences sheds new light on how the concept of Chinese painting has been formed and reformed over hundreds of years.

Drawing on the British Museum's extensive collection, this book explores the traditional hierarchy of materials and techniques reaching back as far as the Han Dynasty in the third century BC. In the history and character of the works under scrutiny, this sumptuously illustrated book conveys an understanding of Chinese art in all its great variety.

Traditional Chinese painting is one of the purest art forms in existence, continuing as it does the techniques and themes that have been employed over centuries to create the most exquisite works in ink and wash. Whether meticulously realist or vibrantly expressive, often expertly combining skilful calligraphy with stunning draughtsmanship, these works all pay homage to what went before them. Focusing on classical painting, especially the colour-infused work of the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing dynasties (1644–1912), this delightful book reveals the fascinating history of Chinese painting. From Dai Jin to Ma Quan; from dramatic mountainscapes and tranquil rivers, through intricate and vivid depictions of animals and flowers, to peaceful pastoral scenes and busy tableaux of court life, the engaging text and lush reproductions ensure an enchanting read.

Beyond Representation surveys Chinese painting and calligraphy from the eighth to the fourteenth century, a period during which Chinese society and artistic expression underwent profound changes. A fourteenth-century Yuan dynasty (1279 - 1368) literati landscape painting presents a world that is totally different from that portrayed in the monumental landscape images of the early Sung dynasty (960 - 1279). To chronicle and explain the evolution from formal representation to self-expression is the purpose of this book. Wen C. Fong, one of the world's most eminent scholars of Chinese art, takes the reader through this evolution, drawing on the outstanding collection of Chinese painting and calligraphy in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Focusing on 118 works, each illustrated in full color, the book significantly augments the standard canon of images used to describe the period, enhancing our sense of the richness and complexity of artistic expression during this six-hundred-year era.

While readers will come away from Chinese Art with a nuanced understanding of Chinese culture, the volume is also a work of art in its own right—a must-have collectible for any devotee of Chinese art and culture. Assouline’s Ultimate Collection is an homage to the art of luxury bookmaking—the oversized volume is hand-bound using traditional techniques, with several of the plates hand-tipped on art-quality paper and housed in a luxury silk clamshell.

The Chinese Art Book is a beautifully packaged, authoritative, and unprecedented overview of Chinese art from its earliest dynasties to the contemporary generation of artists enlivening today's art world. 300 works represent every form of Chinese visual art, including painting, calligraphy, sculpture, ceramics, figurines, jade, bronze, gold and silver, photography, video, installation, and performance art. Full of surprises for readers of all levels, The Chinese Art Book breaks new ground by pairing works that speak to one another in unexpected ways, enlightening historical, stylistic and cultural connections. Concise descriptive essays place each work in context, while cross-references lead the reader on a fascinating journey through Chinese art history. The Chinese Art Book features an introductory essay by Colin Mackenzie, Senior Curator of Chinese Art at the Nelson-Akins Museum of Art, along with an accessible summary of Chinese political and cultural history, a comprehensive glossary defining technical terms, and an illustrated timeline.