Yun Shouping

Paintings and Calligraphy from the Palace Museum and the Shanghai Museum

Shanghai Museum

Yun Shouping’s artistic achievements are the most comprehensive of the Six Masters of the early Qing period. He excelled at poetry, which was always graceful, meaningful and expressive. He once noted: ‘Poetry needs to be extremely spiritual. Its melody, which is like singing and can inspire great praise, should move the listener. However, if the sound of the poetry doesn’t move the listener, then it is not poetry. The same goes for calligraphy and painting. The ideas and structures, as with a poem’s melody, must be thought through before a work is created with a brush. Without these ideas and structures, a work cannot be properly called calligraphy or painting’. Yun’s paintings are highly poetic. He studied landscape painting under his uncle Yun Xiang in his early years and was influenced by the artistic style of Dong Qichang in the late Ming dynasty. As a result, he crafted his own original style, thanks to the rich artistic traditions that ran through his family and his unique skill in blending the styles of Song artist Huang Gongwang with those established by the Southern School of Chinese painting.

In terms of his bird-and-flower paintings, Yun followed the style of the Northern Song master Xu Chongsi. By studying painting history and practising authentic painting skills, he innovatively revived ancient ‘boneless’ (mogu) painting techniques. Using the skills he had learned by studying the works of Dong Qichang, who categorised landscape painting into ‘Northern’ and ‘Southern’ schools, Yun inherited Dong Qichang’s mantle in his own landscape works. He integrated the spiritual pursuits of simplicity and innocence into his flower paintings from life and he showed a sincere admiration for nature’s beauty. Additionally, Yun’s calligraphy takes inspiraton from the works of Tang calligrapher Chu Suiliang. His calligraphy is graceful, pure, unrestrained and elegant. His poetry, painting and calligraphy works perfectly complement each other.

For many years, the Macao Museum of Art, the Palace Museum and the Shanghai Museum have enjoyed a profoundly close relationship. Since 2004, we have joined hands to organise exhibitions and academic events that promote traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting. As a result, together we have achieved an incredible social impact and an array of fruitful academic achievements. We have worked closely together for the past 20 years since our first collaboration, Rules by the Masters: Paintings and Calligraphies by Ba Da and Shi Tao – Collections of the Palace Museum and Shanghai Museum. The exhibition this year marks our eighth collaboration. To comprehensively showcase Yun Shouping’s artistic achievements in poetry, calligraphy and painting, the Shanghai Museum has selected 53 sets (totalling 92 pieces) of remarkable artworks from its collection of more than 100 artworks created by Yun, his disciples and his peers. With these excellent cultural relics, I believe we can present Yun Shouping’s rich and splendid artistic achievements and contributions to painting history of China hand-in-hand with the Palace Museum.

A good museum is a beacon of urban civilisation. For years, the Macao Museum of Art has made fruitful contributions to the promotion and development of culture and art. Its success is worth learning from. Therefore, it is with great pleasure that we are once again able to work together with the Palace Museum and the Macao Museum of Art.

I wish this exhibition and the symposium every success.

 

Chu Xiaobo

Director of the Shanghai Museum