INTRODUCTION
Over ten years, since 2011, the Macao Museum of Art (MAM), the Palace Museum and the Shanghai Museum have joined hands to present calligraphy and painting exhibitions on the ‘Four Wangs’ and Wu Li of the ‘Six Masters of the early Qing period’. In 2023, the three museums once again collaborate to organise Yun Shouping: Paintings and Calligraphy from the Palace Museum and the Shanghai Museum. The show completes the MAM’s exhibition series of the ‘Six Masters of the early Qing period’.
For this exhibition, the Palace Museum and the Shanghai Museum have selected more than 180 works by Yun Shouping and others from their collections. Across three sections, namely ‘Masterpieces’, ‘Disciples and Successors’ and ‘Fellow Artists’, the show presents Yun Shouping’s artistic achievement and far-reaching influence. The exhibition features representative and important works created by Yun Shouping at each stage of his career, as well as those by his family successors and disciples, including Ma Yuanyu, Fan Tingzhen and Zhang Wei. Some exhibits also showcase Yun Shouping’s artistic exchange and friendships with fellow artists, including Wang Hui, Wang Shimin and Zha Shibiao. The exhibition allows the audience to understand Yun Shouping’s artistic charm and painting theories comprehensively. Meanwhile, through the connections between the exhibits and the comparison of their subjects, the exhibition also calls for the audience’s retrospection and reflection on the ‘Six Masters of the early Qing period’.
This exhibition allows Macao residents and art enthusiasts at home and abroad to thoroughly understand Yun Shouping’s art while appreciating his refreshing and gorgeous works of purity and innocence. It is also aimed to advocate relevant academic research, sort out his artistic path and understand his influence on Chinese painting since the Qing dynasty.