fluktor -|||- study - office - newsletter September 03, 2005

Channel News Asia, 01 September 2005
New national platform Singapore Art Show to celebrate local visual art
By Julia Ng, Channel News Asia

The National Arts Council will launch a new national platform to showcase local visual art and artists.

Called Singapore Art Show, it will be packed with exhibitions and involve international curators.

It aims to bring art to the doorstep of Singaporeans.

The Singapore Art Show hopes to attract at least half a million visitors to 22 exhibitions to be held at various locations across the island.

More than 400 art works by over 200 Singapore artists will be on display as part of a month-long (September 23 to October 23) celebration of local visual art - by Singapore artists, for Singaporeans from all walks of life.

The exhibits will range from the traditional art form to the contemporary and abstract, from masterpieces by Singapore's pioneer painters to works by the second generation artists.

Lee Suan Hiang, CEO of National Arts Council, said: "This Singapore Art Show will feature 10 core exhibitions and 12 in-conjunction exhibitions. In addition, we will have 26 outreach programmes that reach out to not just the art aficionados but the community at large.

"Our idea is to make this art show a celebration of diversity and accessible to Singaporeans at large. And we hope that through the art show, we'll also attract visitors to Singapore and give visitors a good impression of Singapore as a vibrant art c
ity.

"In addition to the Singapore audience, we've also invited curators from overseas, many of the national arts councils from around the world. So the idea is not just to bring Singapore to the world but to bring the world to Singapore and let audience, both locally and internationally, to appreciate Singapore art."

Goh Ching Lee, director of programme development, National Arts Council, said: "We're also inviting some international guests to Singapore - curators and people who're involved in the visual art - from Germany, UK, for example, to come to see the works of our artists, to familiarise themselves with what Singapore art has to offer and we hope that they would then invite some of the artists back to their own countries in terms of inviting them for residency, collaborations and exhibitions overseas."

"Singapore Art is really a concerted effort to showcase, promote develop Singapore artists, Singapore curators, and give them a platform to launch themselves internationally," he added.

Singapore Art Show will be officially launched on September 27 by Dr Lee Boon Yang, Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, at the Singapore Management University. - CNA/ir

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/166049/1/.html

***************************

China Daily, September 1, 2005
Ancient Treasures Reveal Charm of Liangzhu Culture

Strolling down the southern halls of the National Museum of China, where an exhibition of prehistoric treasures opened on August 19, Wang Yuchun, a middle school student from Beijing, feels like she is "traveling back in time to meet some of my earliest ancestors."

"It is amazing to know that people living in eastern China some 5,000 years ago could create such trendy jade ornaments, such beautiful stone implements, and such elegant pots," she said.

Deeply impressed by the mysterious motifs carved on the surfaces of the stone and jade funeral objects, she said: "The exhibition arouses my strong interest to learn more about ancient Chinese history."

Jointly organized by Zhejiang Provincial Bureau of Cultural Heritage, Zhejiang Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics, and the museum, the grand exhibition, entitled "Dawn of Civilization," offers visitors 213 sets of treasures. About two thirds are jade objects, from the Liangzhu culture of the New Stone Age. The exhibition runs until November 19.

Along with the prehistoric treasures of stone, jade, pottery and silk, a number of old photos, video programs, maps and illustrations, and small scale models of the sites of the ruins help visitors understand Liangzhu culture.

The first 20 people through the doors each morning will each receive a set of 3D photos of some of the Liangzhu culture relics as souvenirs, said Yang Guimei, a chief coordinator at the exhibition from the National Museum of China.

Dawn of civilization

"Seventy years ago, Chinese archaeologists bumped into some new findings in the small town of Liangzhu, in the Hangzhou Bay of East China's Zhejiang Province. It turned out to be that their findings reveal what is known worldwide today as Liangzhu culture, a glorious, primitive culture that plays an important role in shaping the Chinese civilization," said Dong Qi, deputy director of the museum, at the opening ceremony of the exhibition.

Since the very first Liangzhu culture site was discovered in 1936, at least 500 more sites dating from between 5,300 and 4,000 years ago, have been excavated. They cover about 36,000 square kilometers in the Taihu Lake Rim and Hangzhou Bay, on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

The sites span East China's Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, and Shanghai, with Liangzhu and Pingyao towns in Zhejiang as their heart.

The past 20 years have witnessed a large number of discoveries of tombs and ruins, gradually making clear the characteristics of the Liangzhu culture. New findings are still coming out even today.

All of the ruins and sites discovered so far clearly show the people of the Liangzhu culture were bright and diligent. They made splendid achievements materially and spiritually, applying plough implements in paddy rice field agriculture, producing black pottery, jade and lacquer-wares, and even silks.

"It is safe to say that the Liangzhu culture is a pinnacle of primitive Chinese culture that exerts strong influences upon the following periods of Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties," Dong said.

The ancient culture spurred the rapid growth and evolution of primitive civilization in central China, finally leading to the prosperity of early Chinese civilization, Dong said.

The ceremonial objects cong, yue, and engraved motifs featuring a semi-god with a non-human face, which were widely used in the ritual systems of the Xia and Shang dynasties (c. 21st century-1046 BC) bear a strong influence from the Liangzhu culture.

Attractive exhibits

The Beijing exhibition consists of three sections. One is about stone objects, another about pottery and weaving items, and the third about jade wares.

What first attracts the attention of visitors is the stone yue axes and several stone plough-heads on display in the first section.

They were excavated from the sites of Fanshan and Yaoshan towns of Yuhang in Zhejiang Province at different times.

Each with a perfect round hole in it, the stone yue axe is believed to be a weapon from the New Stone Age. The jade yue axes are believed to have been used as funeral objects, according to Liu Bin, a chief coordinator of the exhibition from the Zhejiang Province side and veteran researcher from the Zhejiang Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics.

The stone yue axes may have also served as a symbol of military power for the owner of the tombs. The more stone yue axes were buried in a tomb, the more military power the owner of the tomb had, Liu said.

Usually only two or three stone yue axes are found in small tombs while more than 100 are placed in each of several large tombs, possibly belonging to the rulers of a certain tribe, Liu added.

Unlike the stone yue axes, the jade yue axes were possibly symbols of kingship between the primitive tribes, said Liu.

For instance, exhibit No 1018 in the third section of the exhibition, a jade yue axe attached to a wooden handle that is decorated with jade beads on both ends, is believed to be one used as a staff of authority by a king.

The shape of the object suggests the origin of the ancient Chinese character "wang," meaning kingship, easily found in the oracle bone engravings in later times in ancient China, researchers say.

A larger stone plough-head on show in the first section of the exhibition was excavated last July from the Zhuangqiaofen ruins in the city of Pinghu, Zhejiang Province. It is so far the earliest stone-made plough-head ever found in China, and is believed to be attached to a wooden handle.

It is widely considered a key piece of evidence indicating the formation of a farming culture more advanced than that with farming tools like the pickaxe, said Liu Bin.

On display in the second section is a range of black pottery items.

The charming pottery containers and vessels possibly used for food, fruits and wines, found in the tombs, ruins, and other sites of the Liangzhu culture indicate a highly developed lifestyle, researchers say.

The most eye-catching are he pots with three solid legs, four-legged, black pottery ding vessels, black pottery dou plates with carved emblems, a cup with a broad handle, a pot with a lid and a pair of exquisitely modeled loop handles, and a cute and funny-looking filter.

The black pottery dou plate suggests the origin of the Chinese character "dou," originally meaning a stemmed cup or bowl for food or fruits, and later referring to such vegetables as beans and peas, Liu explained.

Besides diverse jade ornaments for the waist, the hair, the neck, the ear, and the wrists, visitors may be surprised to spot the fragmented parts of a jade spinning machine.

It is estimated that the spinning machine may have been used to weave hemp cloth about 35 centimeters in width, according to Liu.

Many of the jade objects on show, including the ornaments, the spinning machine and belt hooks, suggest that people of the Liangzhu culture may have cultivated a refined taste for clothing and adornments. This would have laid a solid foundation for the coming of the government-oriented ritual systems popular in the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, researchers say.

(China Daily September 1, 2005)

http://service.china.org.cn/link/wcm/Show_Text?info_id=140429&p_qry=archaeology

***************************

www.chinaview.cn, 2005-08-27
HK to hold exhibition for master painter Chao Shao-an

HONG KONG, Aug. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- An opening ceremony was held here Saturday to kick off an exhibition commemorating the 100th birthday of Chao Shao-an, a master of Chinese painting.

About 120 paintings selected from the Hong Kong Heritage Museumand the Guangzhou Museum of Art will be showcased to the public atthe Heritage Museum from Aug. 28 to Jan. 2, 2006.

The exhibition, "Essence of Purity Exhibition to Commemorate the 100th Birthday of Chao Shao-an", features Chao's representative works which date from the 1930s to the 1990s covering a rich variety of subject matters, such as flower and birds, grasses and insects, landscapes and animals. Highlights include Chao's two large-scaled paneled works "Banana Trees" and "Pine Tree".

To depict Chao's colorful creative world more vividly, the exhibition also features his photographs, original poetry manuscripts and sketches.

Deputy Director of Hong Kong Leisure and Cultural Services Chung Ling-hoi said at the opening ceremony that Chao Shao-an's works, ranking among the leading masters of 20th century Chinese painting, are pivotal to the developments and transformations of Chinese painting, especially in flower and bird paintings.

Chao Shao-an (1905-1998) began studying painting when he was 16.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/27/content_3412124.htm

__________________

with kind regards,

Matthias Arnold
(Art-Eastasia list)

http://www.chinaresource.org
http://www.fluktor.de

__________________________________________

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available at:
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For postings earlier than 2005-02-23 please go to:
http://www.fluktor.de/study/office/newsletter.htm


	September 03, 2005: [achtung! kunst] Singapore: Singapore Art Show - Hong Kong/Guangzhou: Chao Shao-an. Essence of Purity

	Channel News Asia, 01 September 2005 New national platform Singapore Art Show to celebrate local visual art By Julia Ng, Channel News Asia The National Arts Council will launch a new national platform to showcase local visual art and artists. Called Singapore Art Show, it will be packed with exhibitions and involve international curators. It aims to bring art to the doorstep of Singaporeans. The Singapore Art Show hopes to attract at least half a million visitors to 22 exhibitions to be held at various locations across the island. More than 400 art works by over 200 Singapore artists will be on display as part of a month-long (September 23 to October 23) celebration of local visual art - by Singapore artists, for Singaporeans from all walks of life. The exhibits will range from the traditional art form to the contemporary and abstract, from masterpieces by Singapore's pioneer painters to works by the second generation artists. Lee Suan Hiang, CEO of National Arts Council, said: "This Singapore Art Show will feature 10 core exhibitions and 12 in-conjunction exhibitions. In addition, we will have 26 outreach programmes that reach out to not just the art aficionados but the community at large. "Our idea is to make this art show a celebration of diversity and accessible to Singaporeans at large. And we hope that through the art show, we'll also attract visitors to Singapore and give visitors a good impression of Singapore as a vibrant art c ity. "In addition to the Singapore audience, we've also invited curators from overseas, many of the national arts councils from around the world. So the idea is not just to bring Singapore to the world but to bring the world to Singapore and let audience, both locally and internationally, to appreciate Singapore art." Goh Ching Lee, director of programme development, National Arts Council, said: "We're also inviting some international guests to Singapore - curators and people who're involved in the visual art - from Germany, UK, for example, to come to see the works of our artists, to familiarise themselves with what Singapore art has to offer and we hope that they would then invite some of the artists back to their own countries in terms of inviting them for residency, collaborations and exhibitions overseas." "Singapore Art is really a concerted effort to showcase, promote develop Singapore artists, Singapore curators, and give them a platform to launch themselves internationally," he added. Singapore Art Show will be officially launched on September 27 by Dr Lee Boon Yang, Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, at the Singapore Management University. - CNA/ir http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/166049/1/.html ************************* China Daily, September 1, 2005 Ancient Treasures Reveal Charm of Liangzhu Culture Strolling down the southern halls of the National Museum of China, where an exhibition of prehistoric treasures opened on August 19, Wang Yuchun, a middle school student from Beijing, feels like she is "traveling back in time to meet some of my earliest ancestors." "It is amazing to know that people living in eastern China some 5,000 years ago could create such trendy jade ornaments, such beautiful stone implements, and such elegant pots," she said. Deeply impressed by the mysterious motifs carved on the surfaces of the stone and jade funeral objects, she said: "The exhibition arouses my strong interest to learn more about ancient Chinese history." Jointly organized by Zhejiang Provincial Bureau of Cultural Heritage, Zhejiang Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics, and the museum, the grand exhibition, entitled "Dawn of Civilization," offers visitors 213 sets of treasures. About two thirds are jade objects, from the Liangzhu culture of the New Stone Age. The exhibition runs until November 19. Along with the prehistoric treasures of stone, jade, pottery and silk, a number of old photos, video programs, maps and illustrations, and small scale models of the sites of the ruins help visitors understand Liangzhu culture. The first 20 people through the doors each morning will each receive a set of 3D photos of some of the Liangzhu culture relics as souvenirs, said Yang Guimei, a chief coordinator at the exhibition from the National Museum of China. Dawn of civilization "Seventy years ago, Chinese archaeologists bumped into some new findings in the small town of Liangzhu, in the Hangzhou Bay of East China's Zhejiang Province. It turned out to be that their findings reveal what is known worldwide today as Liangzhu culture, a glorious, primitive culture that plays an important role in shaping the Chinese civilization," said Dong Qi, deputy director of the museum, at the opening ceremony of the exhibition. Since the very first Liangzhu culture site was discovered in 1936, at least 500 more sites dating from between 5,300 and 4,000 years ago, have been excavated. They cover about 36,000 square kilometers in the Taihu Lake Rim and Hangzhou Bay, on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The sites span East China's Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, and Shanghai, with Liangzhu and Pingyao towns in Zhejiang as their heart. The past 20 years have witnessed a large number of discoveries of tombs and ruins, gradually making clear the characteristics of the Liangzhu culture. New findings are still coming out even today. All of the ruins and sites discovered so far clearly show the people of the Liangzhu culture were bright and diligent. They made splendid achievements materially and spiritually, applying plough implements in paddy rice field agriculture, producing black pottery, jade and lacquer-wares, and even silks. "It is safe to say that the Liangzhu culture is a pinnacle of primitive Chinese culture that exerts strong influences upon the following periods of Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties," Dong said. The ancient culture spurred the rapid growth and evolution of primitive civilization in central China, finally leading to the prosperity of early Chinese civilization, Dong said. The ceremonial objects cong, yue, and engraved motifs featuring a semi-god with a non-human face, which were widely used in the ritual systems of the Xia and Shang dynasties (c. 21st century-1046 BC) bear a strong influence from the Liangzhu culture. Attractive exhibits The Beijing exhibition consists of three sections. One is about stone objects, another about pottery and weaving items, and the third about jade wares. What first attracts the attention of visitors is the stone yue axes and several stone plough-heads on display in the first section. They were excavated from the sites of Fanshan and Yaoshan towns of Yuhang in Zhejiang Province at different times. Each with a perfect round hole in it, the stone yue axe is believed to be a weapon from the New Stone Age. The jade yue axes are believed to have been used as funeral objects, according to Liu Bin, a chief coordinator of the exhibition from the Zhejiang Province side and veteran researcher from the Zhejiang Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics. The stone yue axes may have also served as a symbol of military power for the owner of the tombs. The more stone yue axes were buried in a tomb, the more military power the owner of the tomb had, Liu said. Usually only two or three stone yue axes are found in small tombs while more than 100 are placed in each of several large tombs, possibly belonging to the rulers of a certain tribe, Liu added. Unlike the stone yue axes, the jade yue axes were possibly symbols of kingship between the primitive tribes, said Liu. For instance, exhibit No 1018 in the third section of the exhibition, a jade yue axe attached to a wooden handle that is decorated with jade beads on both ends, is believed to be one used as a staff of authority by a king. The shape of the object suggests the origin of the ancient Chinese character "wang," meaning kingship, easily found in the oracle bone engravings in later times in ancient China, researchers say. A larger stone plough-head on show in the first section of the exhibition was excavated last July from the Zhuangqiaofen ruins in the city of Pinghu, Zhejiang Province. It is so far the earliest stone-made plough-head ever found in China, and is believed to be attached to a wooden handle. It is widely considered a key piece of evidence indicating the formation of a farming culture more advanced than that with farming tools like the pickaxe, said Liu Bin. On display in the second section is a range of black pottery items. The charming pottery containers and vessels possibly used for food, fruits and wines, found in the tombs, ruins, and other sites of the Liangzhu culture indicate a highly developed lifestyle, researchers say. The most eye-catching are he pots with three solid legs, four-legged, black pottery ding vessels, black pottery dou plates with carved emblems, a cup with a broad handle, a pot with a lid and a pair of exquisitely modeled loop handles, and a cute and funny-looking filter. The black pottery dou plate suggests the origin of the Chinese character "dou," originally meaning a stemmed cup or bowl for food or fruits, and later referring to such vegetables as beans and peas, Liu explained. Besides diverse jade ornaments for the waist, the hair, the neck, the ear, and the wrists, visitors may be surprised to spot the fragmented parts of a jade spinning machine. It is estimated that the spinning machine may have been used to weave hemp cloth about 35 centimeters in width, according to Liu. Many of the jade objects on show, including the ornaments, the spinning machine and belt hooks, suggest that people of the Liangzhu culture may have cultivated a refined taste for clothing and adornments. This would have laid a solid foundation for the coming of the government-oriented ritual systems popular in the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, researchers say. (China Daily September 1, 2005) http://service.china.org.cn/link/wcm/Show_Text?info_id=140429&p_qry=archaeology ************************* www.chinaview.cn, 2005-08-27 HK to hold exhibition for master painter Chao Shao-an HONG KONG, Aug. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- An opening ceremony was held here Saturday to kick off an exhibition commemorating the 100th birthday of Chao Shao-an, a master of Chinese painting. About 120 paintings selected from the Hong Kong Heritage Museumand the Guangzhou Museum of Art will be showcased to the public atthe Heritage Museum from Aug. 28 to Jan. 2, 2006. The exhibition, "Essence of Purity Exhibition to Commemorate the 100th Birthday of Chao Shao-an", features Chao's representative works which date from the 1930s to the 1990s covering a rich variety of subject matters, such as flower and birds, grasses and insects, landscapes and animals. Highlights include Chao's two large-scaled paneled works "Banana Trees" and "Pine Tree". To depict Chao's colorful creative world more vividly, the exhibition also features his photographs, original poetry manuscripts and sketches. Deputy Director of Hong Kong Leisure and Cultural Services Chung Ling-hoi said at the opening ceremony that Chao Shao-an's works, ranking among the leading masters of 20th century Chinese painting, are pivotal to the developments and transformations of Chinese painting, especially in flower and bird paintings. Chao Shao-an (1905-1998) began studying painting when he was 16. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/27/content_3412124.htm __________________ with kind regards, Matthias Arnold (Art-Eastasia list) http://www.chinaresource.org http://www.fluktor.de __________________________________________ An archive of this list as well as an subscribe/unsubscribe facility is available at: http://listserv.uni-heidelberg.de/archives/art-eastasia.html For postings earlier than 2005-02-23 please go to: http://www.fluktor.de/study/office/newsletter.htm