齐白石

choi

Michael J Hatch, A Chinese Modernist; The 20th-century painter Qi Baishi receives a visually rich museum survey. Wall Street Journal, Feb 25, 2025, at page a13.
https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture ... -modernism-f13e8aa2

‘Qi Baishi: Inspiration in Ink’ Review: Playful Chinese Modernism
San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum offers a visually rich if under-contextualized survey of the work of the 20th-century painter and calligrapher.

Note:
(a)
(i)
(A) This is an exhibition review on Qi Baishi; Inspiration in Ink. Asian Art Museum, Dec 12, 2024 to Apr 7, 2025.
https://exhibitions.asianart.org ... inspiration-in-ink/
(B) The preceding Web page displays
Qi Baishi, Longevity Peaches  寿桃 (1935). In Qi Baishi Boutique. Beijing Fine Art Academy 北京画院.
https://english.bjaa.com.cn/opus.html?hcs=1&clg=89

Mentioned at the outset of the WSJ review, "鍾馗搔背圖; 不在下偏搔下，不在上偏搔上。汝在皮毛外，焉能知我痛癢。書丙寅詩題 鍾馗搔背圖 第五回也 齊白石" (1926) is also found in this Boutique. (丙寅年=1926)
(C) For an outsider like me, it is hard to know what the Academy is. However, there is a web page: 北京市文化和旅游局  所属机构_北京画院.
(D) The Web page titled Qi Baishi Boutique has Chinese contents (paintings, calligraphy or chops/seals) in Chinese. There is no corresponding page in 中文 version of this website, which does has a Web page titled 齐白石精品 with the same layout, contents in Chinese, but displays different arts of Qi's.
(ii)
(A) Asian Art Museum (San Francisco)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Art_Museum_(San_Francisco)
(1966- ; current full name: "Asian Art Museum of San Francisco – Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture"/ "
Until 2003, the museum shared a space with the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. As the museum's collection grew, the facilities in Golden Gate Park were no longer sufficient to display or even house the collection. In 1987 Mayor Dianne Feinstein proposed a plan to revitalize Civic Center that included relocating the museum to the Main Library. In 1995, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Chong-Moon Lee made a $15 million donation to launch the funding campaign for a new building for the museum[10]")
• Reading the quotation, you are forgiven to believe that a building was erected to house the museum. But once you read the footnote 10, you know the museum moved to the (old but architecturally splendid) Main Library.

Footnote 10 is: Laura Evenson, Chong-Moon Lee; From the depths of longing for a hamburger he couldn't afford and contemplating suicide, this entrepreneur rose to such success he was able to give $15 million to SF's Asian Art Museum. Nov 5, 1995.
https://www.sfgate.com/news/arti ... g-for-a-3020611.php
(Lee: "I had no money [when I first came to the United States]. But I knew this guy, Louis Burridge, who is still an adviser to the Taiwan government. He helped me come here")
• Capt Alvin Lewis Burridge. In Wall of Honor. National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, undated
https://airandspace.si.edu/suppo ... lvin-lewis-burridge
("During World War II, Mr. Burridge served as a Marine Corps flight instructor, aviator and intelligence officer in the Central and Northern Pacific.   In 1950, Mr Burridge joined General Claire Chennault as a pilot and executive of Civil Air Transport (CAT) in China and worked in Japan and Korea in post-war operations. His flying career covered most areas of China, where he assumed management responsibility which put him in direct control of the evacuation of a large part of the Chinese Government from the China Mainland to Taiwan")
(B) It was a move, not construction of a new building. This was confirmed in
Our History. Asian Art Museum, undated
https://about.asianart.org/our-history/
("The Asian Art Museum was founded in 1958 in San Francisco, a city with deep cultural and economic connections to the Asia-Pacific region and a population that is nearly one-third Asian and Pacific Islander, long recognized as the nation’s gateway to Asia. When collector Avery Brundage pledged to donate nearly 8,000 Asian artworks to the city, the funds were allocated to construct a new wing of the MH de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, which opened to the public in 1966.   After almost four decades in the park, in 2003, the Asian Art Museum moved to the Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art & Culture in the former Main Library building in San Francisco's Civic Center. The interior of this historic Beaux-Arts building was transformed to showcase * * * ")
(C) There is a en.wikipedia.org page for Chong-Moon Lee, which you need NOT read.

Separately, Chong-Moon Lee (1928- ) and his second wife Reiko Lee's "$1 million gift will help UC Berkeley's East Asian Library grow its world-class Korean collection." UC Berkely Library, Dec 13, 2023.  (The first name Reiko indicates her Japanese descent.)


(b)
(i) "不肯作神仙——北京画院藏齐白石精品展" 在美国旧金山亚洲艺术博物馆举办. 北京画院, Dec 15, 2024
https://www.bjaa.com.cn/news.html?hcs=1&clg=9&news=4147
("2024年，适逢齐白石诞辰160周年，北京画院携手美国旧金山亚洲艺术博物馆共同推出 '不肯作神仙——北京画院藏齐白石精品' 展览，于12月12日在旧金山亚洲艺术博物馆拉开帷幕。   展览中文题目取自齐白石篆刻的一枚印章，'年高身健不肯作神仙。' 老人高寿近百岁，一生堪称传奇。 * * * 本次展览从院藏2000余幅真迹及手稿中，甄选齐白石精品近50件/套，涵盖人物山水、水族鳞介、工笔草虫等多题材。 * * * 值得一提此展是齐白石与旧金山的重逢之旅。早在1960年5月，旧金山笛洋美术馆（旧金山亚洲艺术博物馆的前身）邀请了日本收藏家须磨弥吉郎在此举办了 '须磨收藏齐白石作品展，' 共展出齐白石画作152幅。时隔近百年 [64 years, to be frank]，白石老人 '如愿' 旧地重游，愿同海外的朋友，一起写著水墨与旧金山的故事")
(ii) Yakichirō SUMA  kanji: 須磨 弥吉郎 (1892-1970)
(A) You read this (the above quotation), and you formed the impression that Suma donated his collection to the San Francisco museum. Far from it.
There is no en.wikipedia.org for this guy. The zh.wikipedia.org has a sketch about him, which does not mention his art collection (there is no need to read it).
(B) 須磨弥吉郎
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/須磨弥吉郎
("section 1 諜報戦のパイオニア: 秋田中学校卒業後広島師範学校に進学するも、一転して法律家を志し中央大学法学部に転学。卒業後、1919年に外務省入省。   外国語6カ国語に堪能でイギリス、ドイツ等の在外公館に勤務を経て、1927年、在中国大使館二等書記官として赴任。在広東領事館領事等を経て、1932年、在上海日本公使館情報部長となり、対蔣介石政権の情報収集に努める。その後、南京総領事に転じる。   日米交渉の行き詰まりにより、開戦は必至の情勢となる中、須磨は、親枢軸的なスペインを拠点にアメリカの情報を収集する * * * 戦後は、こうした諜報活動の成果が米国に警戒されたためか 1945年12月6日、GHQが発出した逮捕命令者リスト（第四次逮捕者9名中の1人）に名を連ねるが、逮捕命令が出た時点では日本に帰国できず、マドリードに抑留された状態であった[3]。帰国後、A級戦犯容疑で巣鴨拘置所勾留されるが、1948年に不起訴処分で釈放。

my translation: Section 1 Pioneer in intelligence battle: After 秋田中学校 (a high school), he studied at 広島師範学校 [to be a teacher], then pivoted 一転 to 中央大学法学部 [another university] with an aim to be a lawyer 法律家. After graduation, he entered 外務省 in 1929. Proficient 堪能 in six foreign languages, he worked at various embassies such as UK and Germany. Afterwards he was  diplomat in China (1927 as 大使館二等書記官; 広東領事館領事; 1932 as 上海日本公使館情報部長 対蔣介石政権の情報収集に努める; 南京総領事; 1939 as 満州国外務局情報部長). [He and 山本五十六海軍次官 奔走 to form 東機関 for the purpose of 対外情報収集] When a war against the United States became inevitable, he was based in Axis-leaning Spain to collect intelligence on the US. * * * Right after WWII, he was arrested as a suspect of war criminal thanks to intelligence activity and was released in 1948. [While he worked in Spain, he collected western arts. He had collected Chinese arts while posted in China, taking in arts of 蘇人山、虚谷、斉白石、高剣父、高奇峰、陳樹人、徐悲鴻、溥儒、張大千. These (in Spain and China) are called the Suma Collection, now in museums in Japan (his family donated some, and sold the rest, to museums).
• ja.wikipedia.org for 外交官: 書記官 secretary is a mid-level diplomat with three ranks: 一等／二等／三等書記官 (First/Second/Third Secretary), the last higher than 外交官補 (Attaché) -- 補 being a suffix for assistant and thus 海将補 being rear admiral (admiral > vice admiral > rear admiral (> commodore, which US Navy "disestablished" in 1899).
• 海軍次官 is right below 海軍大臣. 山本五十六海軍次官  toiled under 第19代海軍大臣 米内 光政.
(C)
• With Japanese pronunciation ya, kanji 弥 means "all the more; increasingly."
• The kichi is Chinese pronunciation of kanji 吉.
• "須磨（すま）は、摂津国の地名。現在の兵庫県神戸市須磨区にあたる。": ja.wikipedia.org for 須磨.  (my translation: 須磨 is a place name since ancient time, when it was located in 摂津国. Presently it is a district in City of Kobe.)



(c) paintings
(i) The WSJ review in print carries
• Old Yet String  老当益壮; 三百石印富翁 [白石老人自号 '三百石印富翁'] 齊璜 依樣再三無厭 (1949)
• Living amidst Mountains and Bamboo  萬竹山居
(ii)
(A) The WSJ review online carries the additional
• Borrowing Mountains From Nature 借山图卷, no 11 (1910)
• Borrowing Mountains From Nature 借山图卷, no 22 (1910)
• Shrimp 虾; 一鳴先生清正。戊子 八十八歲齊白石 (1948)    (一鳴先生=梁寒操 (1899-1975); 戊子年=1948)
(B) English dictionary:
* shrimp (plural shrimp or shrimps)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shrimp
(iii) All of the above can be found in Qi Baishi Boutique (whose QRL is found in Note (a)(i)(B), except
• 萬竹山居. See the top painting in
北京画院藏齐白石精品展在湖南美术馆开展. 杭州市: 杭州市: 美术报, Feb 6, 2023.
https://yangbo.cctv.com/2023/02/ ... uuBSJnH230206.shtml
• 虾 (a painting found in Note (b) )

Both 萬竹山居 and 虾 are in the collection of 北京画院.


(d) "Qi's early experiments with a more modern, reduced landscape format show up in a suite of landscapes titled 'Borrowing Mountains From Nature' (1910). Each image reflects on a trip made to a famous site in China over the previous decade, and his terse compositions test the minimalist threshold of classical Chinese landscape forms. A leaf from the suite titled 'Three Main Peaks of Mount Hua' conveys one of the most iconic tourist destinations in China with two simple contrasting motifs of stones done in wet washes and clouds painted in undulating lines."
(i) "a suite of landscapes titled 'Borrowing Mountains From Nature' (1910). Each image reflects on a trip made to a famous site in China over the previous decade"

I did some research and found that the clause "Each image reflects on a trip made to a famous site in China over the previous decade" is false.
(A) from the Web: "1900年，齐白石居于 [湖南省 湘潭市] 莲花峰下的梅公祠 [which became 齐白石故居]，称之 '百梅书屋。' 后来又在院内盖了一间小房，名 '借山吟馆。'  "

"有朋友问齐白石 '你的借山吟馆，取了借山两字，是什么意思？'  齐白石回答说：'意思很明白，山不是我所有，我不过借来娱目而已！' "
(B) 吕晓 (北京画院理论研究部主任、研究员). 齐白石《借山图》的艺术特色和独特性. 美术报, Aug 2, 2018 (reproduced in 央博 CMG Meta Museum).
https://yangbo.cctv.com/2018/08/ ... n2IunQt180802.shtml
, which is an abridged version or a prequel of
吕晓, 画吾自画——齐白石山水画的创作历程及特点. 北京画院, serialized by 北京画院 as 上 (online publication Nov 9, 2022) and 下 (Nov 16, 2022).
https://www.bjaa.com.cn/news.htm ... g=163&news=3064

two consecutive paragraphs from 美术报:

"1902年，齐白石的好友夏午贻邀请他赴西安担任其如夫人的家庭教师 ['1902年，好友夏午贻邀请齐白石赴西安担任其如夫人的家庭教师': 画吾自画]，这开启了齐白石8年的 五出五归。' 8年的远游，齐白石游历了陕西、湖北、河南、河北、北京、天津、上海、江苏、江西、广西、广东、香港等地，跋涉过洞庭湖、长江、黄河、漓江、珠江，登临或路过华山、嵩山、庐山，增长了见闻，结识了很多朋友，品鉴过八大、石涛、金农的作品，对其山水画产生了深远影响。更重要的是，远游使齐白石获得身临真山实水，对景写生的机会，使其山水画摆脱了程式化束缚，取材丰富。1909年回到家乡后，齐白石以远游所得在家乡置地买房，生活富足而闲适，他开始整理远游的画稿，绘制成形制大致相同的一套册页，命名为《借山图》（有时他也称之为《借山吟馆图》），老人自记到：

吾有《借山吟馆图》，凡天下之名山大川，目之所见，或耳之所闻者，吾皆欲借之，所借之山非一处也。……皆中国风景，为山水写照。

"《借山图》现存22开，珍藏于北京画院，其最初的开数，说法不一。 * * *

(C) 樊玮, 雅昌讲堂｜齐白石到底有多爱《借山图》？  雅昌艺术网, undated
https://video.artron.net/show_courses_1288.html5
("在1902年之前，也就是齐白石40岁之前，他基本上是最多到过长沙，因为湘潭离长沙是非常近的，就是说他没出过远门。 * * * '五出五归' 的过程对于齐白石的艺术非常重要，远游之前，齐白石的山水主要是以《芥子园画谱》和 '四王' 山水风格为主，还没有形成自己的山水画风格。 * * * 1909年回到 [湘潭市] 家乡后，齐白石在家乡置地买房，与此同时，他也开始整理远游的画稿，1910年绘制成了形制大致相同的一套册页，命名为《借山图》，有时也称之为《借山吟馆图》。 * * * 根据《癸卯日记》的记载，齐白石在1903年初上北京的时候，画了一幅《借山吟馆图》给夏午诒。包括胡适在《齐白石年谱》中也有考证：白石在游长安之前，曾作借山图，亦名借山吟馆图。其后他游西安、北京、江西、广西等地，都 '自画所游之境，' 总名借山图卷，白石自状不记作画起于何时")
(ii) "A leaf from the suite titled 'Three Main Peaks of Mount Hua' "

吕晓 (female), 画吾自画.
https://www.bjaa.com.cn/news.htm ... g=163&news=3064
("《借山图》中的 '华岳三峰'与1903年为恩师胡沁园画的《华山图》团扇相比也有很大的进步。齐白石1903年从西安出发到北京，路过华山，但行旅匆匆，他并未登临这座天下奇绝的山峰，只在山脚下的西岳庙远望华岳三峰。1903年所画《华山图》比较忠实地表现从西岳庙远望华岳三峰之实景，三座高耸入云的山峰直插天际，山间萦绕白云，山下还画有丛树掩映的万寿阁，这座建造在高台上的楼阁是西岳庙的制高点，站在阁上可以遥望华山。《华山图》从实景出发，山峰以齐白石早期惯用的线皴表现，无论结构、皴法、用色，都显然有明代吴派大师沈石田的影响。虽有来自实地观察的新鲜感，但与《借山图》中的 '华岳三峰' 相比，还是显得新意不够。'华岳三峰' 中，山脚的树木、楼阁全部略去，只用深浅不一的墨团直接在画的上部画出屹立于云端的三座高峰，下面大部分画面用流转的线条勾画出铺天盖地的云海，形象简化到不能再简，山之巍峨奇险扑面而来")

This quotation is identical to that in 美术报, However, I select 画吾自画 because the latter put these two paintings together(, whereas had 美术报 had the latter only).

齐白石, 华山图团扇. 辽宁省博物馆藏.
"镜心,也称为托片，汉语词汇，是托一层宣纸于画后。其形式横、竖皆可，是一种简易的装裱形式。": 百度百科 for 镜心.
Neither painting is found in Qi Baishi Boutique.


(e) In 'Drinking Alone' (1949), two finely brushed crickets tentatively approach the dismembered husk of a russet-gold crab. A softly outlined drinking cup stands nearby. The stylistic contrast between the meticulous insects and the daubed crab shell reminds us of Qi's precision as well as his economy of brushwork.

齐白石, 獨酌; 白石老人. 工虫画册精品之二. 北京画院.
https://artouch.com/art-views/content-15212.html
(f) "Beijing Fine Art Academy's director, Wu Hongliang [院长 吴洪亮], and San Francisco's curator Fan Jeremy Zhang [策展人 张凡 (Taiwan does not have a translation for curator)]"

choi

--------------WSJ
A small blue ghost clambers over the exposed shoulders of the legendary folk deity Zhong Kui in the opening artwork of “Qi Baishi: Inspiration in Ink,” now at the Asian Art Museum here and traveling to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, later this year. The servant tries in vain to help his disheveled master locate and overcome a persistent irritation, as Qi’s inscription narrates, “You scratch low when the itch isn’t low, you scratch high when the itch isn’t high; if you’re not in my skin, how can you understand what bothers me?” The painting, titled “Little Ghost Scratching Zhong Kui’s Back” (1926), presents a playful but pointed jab at the limits of our capacity for sympathy. It is an apt starting point for this exhibition, which offers an exceptional survey of painting and calligraphy from the canonical Chinese modernist’s career but often provides too little historical context for audiences to fully understand it.

The Zhong Kui painting starts off the first of four main galleries devoted to the genres Qi Baishi (1864–1957) preferred—figures, landscapes, flowers and insects. As each themed gallery segues into the next, the layout of a northern Chinese courtyard home takes form, the same kind of house that Qi occupied for many years in Beijing. The long rectangular rooms square around a fifth, courtyard-like space filled with insect studies and bird-and-flower paintings accompanied by an audio track of trickling water.

Interactive analog and digital features amplify this immersive design throughout the galleries. The show’s first wall displays an array of handwritten letters visitors are encouraged to write in response to Qi’s work. Midway through the exhibition, a scholar’s desk inset with a digital touchscreen allows viewers to imitate Qi’s distinctive calligraphy style. Another screen shows a video with AI-generated images of San Francisco in Qi’s style, a less successful digital intervention that may mislead audiences to believe Qi painted the city.

The exhibition shines when it highlights the features that make Qi’s work so appealing, such as his direct, forceful style of brushwork, minimalist compositions, and preference for playful, common subjects like old men picking their ears, half-eaten lunches, and garden insects. In “Drinking Alone” (1949), two finely brushed crickets tentatively approach the dismembered husk of a russet-gold crab. A softly outlined drinking cup stands nearby. The stylistic contrast between the meticulous insects and the daubed crab shell reminds us of Qi’s precision as well as his economy of brushwork.

Qi’s early experiments with a more modern, reduced landscape format show up in a suite of landscapes titled “Borrowing Mountains From Nature” (1910). Each image reflects on a trip made to a famous site in China over the previous decade, and his terse compositions test the minimalist threshold of classical Chinese landscape forms. A leaf from the suite titled “Three Main Peaks of Mount Hua” conveys one of the most iconic tourist destinations in China with two simple contrasting motifs of stones done in wet washes and clouds painted in undulating lines.

The curatorial narrative provided by the Beijing Fine Art Academy’s director, Wu Hongliang, and San Francisco’s curator Fan Jeremy Zhang favors a well-worn story that positions Qi as a skilled peasant artisan who modernized the outmoded styles of Chinese painting. Because the exhibition is borrowed from Beijing’s collection, it avoids complicating this populist everyman persona with historical context. We’re left to wonder how Qi navigated the difficult changes of early and mid-20th-century China, and what modernizing painting might have actually meant to him.

Sometimes a crab is just a crab, but several artworks seem diminished without added context. The Zhong Kui painting, for instance, was completed in the same year China finally formed its first unified nationalist government in Nanjing after more than a decade of internal conflict and regional warlord rule following the 1911 revolution. The playful, chastising tone of Qi’s inscription seems to reflect a larger, national concern at the time about the possibilities of relating to one’s compatriots. Likewise, the pair of calligraphy scrolls that hang behind the digital scholar’s desk draw a simple poetic parallel between the cultivation of fields and peace, and they also happen to have been written by Qi in 1938 while he lived in Japanese-occupied Beijing.

What the exhibition may lack in historical or political interpretation it makes up for in provenance and quality. Qi Baishi’s artwork is among the most forged on the Chinese art market, an effect of its extremely high value at auction and his minimalist style, which is easier to passably imitate than most. The Beijing Fine Art Academy, of which Qi became the inaugural director in 1957, and which received much of his estate, provides a confident guarantee of authenticity.

Another boon is the depth of the Academy’s holdings. Several recently acquired painting sketches are on show. These rare drafts reveal Qi’s experiments with the ideal placement of figures’ limbs as well as the phrasing and location of his inscriptions, showing the labor and thought necessary to produce the effect of spontaneity that so many have valued in his work. This depth is matched by the breadth of the exhibition’s paintings. A better introduction to the painter sometimes referred to as “China’s Picasso” won’t be found anywhere outside of Asia.

Mr. Hatch teaches art history at Trinity College.