Yun Shouping

Paintings and Calligraphy from the Palace Museum and the Shanghai Museum

The Palace Museum

Between 2011 and 2018, the Palace Museum jointly organized exhibitions with the Shanghai Museum and the Macao Museum of Art (MAM) under the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao SAR on the calligraphy and paintings of the ‘Four Wangs of the early Qing period’ and Wu Li. This year, the three museums are cooperating once again on this Yun Shouping painting exhibition at MAM. The exhibition completes the series of the ‘Six Masters of the early Qing period’. It aims to provide Macao audiences with a visual feast of exquisite calligraphy and painting through the remarkable cultural relics on display and the exhibition’s sophisticated curation.

It is a well-established fact that the ‘Four Wangs’ (Wang Shiming, Wang Jian, Wang Hui and Wang Yuanqi) and ‘Wu Yun’ (Wu Li and Yun Shouping) are collectively known as the ‘Six Masters of the early Qing period’. They led the painting circles of the early Qing dynasty, influenced the creative trends during their lifetimes and became widely respected as pioneers of the orthodox Chinese painting tradition. Yun Shouping, known by the sobriquet Nantian, was a native of Wujin in Jiangsu Province. He excelled at the ‘three perfections’, namely poetry, calligraphy and painting. Yun had become particularly famous for his paintings and his unique works had earned him a great reputation as an outstanding Chinese painter over the years. During the transition from the Ming to the Qing dynasty, Yun created new works by blending old styles into his pieces while also reinventing the ancient ‘boneless painting’ technique. Yun established the pinnacle of the boneless bird-and-flower painting technique in the Qing dynasty by ‘innovatively reviving the past’. As a result, the artist’s works are hailed as the superior examples of the ‘orthodox school of realism’. His landscapes were created by inheriting a variety of ancient painting techniques. Taking nature as his mentor, Yun painted with an unfettered and refreshing style as he demonstrated his extraordinary and subtle skills. In addition to painting, he often inscribed refined and flowing poems in his works, showcasing his pure and elegant poetry style. His brushwork was vivid and natural, and he often conveyed, through both his painting and poetry, the refreshing sentiments of the contemporary literati alongside his own graceful aesthetics.

The Palace Museum collection contains more than 300 pieces of Yun Shouping’s paintings and calligraphy works, from his youth to his later years. Most paintings are bird-and-flower pieces; however, there are some landscapes. The majority of his calligraphy works are chi du (which refers to ‘written correspondence’). The exhibits have been selected as the ‘best of the best’. The audience can not only fathom the formation and evolution of the artist’s style but also marvel at his exploration and innovation of techniques. More importantly, we hope that through these works, the audience can experience the beauty of the artist’s paintings, which are seen as examples of the ‘orthodox school of realism’.

Regarding Yun Shouping’s painting and calligraphy works, we must mention his family’s traditions, disciples and peers. The Palace Museum has a rich array of works pertaining to each of these three subjects in its collection. In particular, it has a comprehensive collection of the Yun family’s paintings and calligraphy works spanning from the second half of the 16th century to the early 20th century and covering more than 10 generations. In fact, the museum has more works by the Yun family’s female painters than any other major museum in China or, for that matter, the rest of the world. By carefully selecting and combining the numerous cultural relics, we have crafted a visual experience by juxtaposing works from Yun’s lifetime with pieces from other eras. Thus, visitors not only see Yun Shouping’s dialogue and discussion with art collectors and artists during his lifetime, but also get to witness the formation, development and inheritance of the painting and calligraphy styles of the ‘Changzhou School of Painting’ over time. This means they can further appreciate Yun Shouping beyond knowing him as simply ‘the best of a generation’.

For this exhibition, the Palace Museum and the Shanghai Museum have each selected nearly 100 excellent paintings and calligraphy works. The exhibition aims to provide the Macao audience with a comprehensive presentation of Yun Shouping’s captivating character, the exquisiteness of his works, the traces and transmission of his techniques, as well as the painting and calligraphy skills he and his fellow contemporary artists employed. Artist Qi Gong once commented on Nantian’s vivid artistic

depictions: ‘A stream and a stone are illustrated as majestic as Mount Xi; a single grass and a flower seem as fragrant as wild vegetables’. We sincerely wish this exhibition every success, and we hope that the Macao audience can experience the same emotions that we felt during the curation process – to be moved by the spring breeze under Nantian’s brush, all the while cherishing innocence and cultivating beautiful thoughts.

 

Wang Xudong

Director of the Palace Museum