Read on Twitter
Ongoing exhibition at the National Palace Museum in Taipei：
"She & Her - On Women and Their Art in Chinese History"
「她—女性形象與才藝」
#ChineseWomenArtists #NationalPalaceMuseum #女史流芳 #故宮博物院 @NPM_Taiwan #她
Thread 1/n
"She & Her - On Women and Their Art in Chinese History"
「她—女性形象與才藝」
#ChineseWomenArtists #NationalPalaceMuseum #女史流芳 #故宮博物院 @NPM_Taiwan #她
Thread 1/n
"though, compared to men, extremely few women artists have been recorded by name in the annals of history, nonetheless, from those that have, there is no lack of exquisite and stylistically unique works in brush and ink" --from the introduction to the exhibit
Some examples:
2/n
Some examples:
2/n
Dignified plainness
Wen Chu 1595-1634, "Calligraphy of Policy on Peaceful Governance"
文俶， ⟨書治安策⟩
Text: Han dynasty memorial, exemplar of political exposition.
With two personal seals: “Duan Rong” (端容) and "House of Apricot Flowers in Spring Rain" (杏花春雨樓)
3/n
Wen Chu 1595-1634, "Calligraphy of Policy on Peaceful Governance"
文俶， ⟨書治安策⟩
Text: Han dynasty memorial, exemplar of political exposition.
With two personal seals: “Duan Rong” (端容) and "House of Apricot Flowers in Spring Rain" (杏花春雨樓)
3/n
Wen Chu was the great-granddaughter of famous artist Wen Zhengming.
4/n
4/n
Art-historical power couple
Guan Daosheng 1262-1319, "Letter to Abbot Zhongfeng"
管道昇 1262-1319，⟨致中峯和尚尺牘⟩
Guan Daosheng was the wife of the famous artist-scholar Zhao Mengfu and she signs with a double surname seal "Zhao-Guan" (趙管）
5/n
Guan Daosheng 1262-1319, "Letter to Abbot Zhongfeng"
管道昇 1262-1319，⟨致中峯和尚尺牘⟩
Guan Daosheng was the wife of the famous artist-scholar Zhao Mengfu and she signs with a double surname seal "Zhao-Guan" (趙管）
5/n
Dense allusion
Chen Shu 1660-1736, "Mountains still, days long"
陳書，⟨山靜日長圖⟩
[detail]
6/n
![Dense allusion Chen Shu 1660-1736, "Mountains still, days long" 陳書，⟨山靜日長圖⟩[detail]6/n](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Em6ZiRmUcAAH92C.jpg "Dense allusion Chen Shu 1660-1736, \"Mountains still, days long\" 陳書，⟨山靜日長圖⟩[detail]6/n")
Chen Shu 1660-1736, "Mountains still, days long"
陳書，⟨山靜日長圖⟩
[detail]
6/n
[Chen Shu, cont.] Inscription: "The mountains are quiet as in remote antiquity; The long summer days are like in childhood. In these times of peace and leisure, build a dwelling deep, read, listen to the mountain springs. There is no human bustle here to disturb one's sleep." 7/n
![[Chen Shu, cont.] Inscription: "The mountains are quiet as in remote antiquity; The long summer days are like in childhood. In these times of peace and leisure, build a dwelling deep, read, listen to the mountain springs. There is no human bustle here to disturb one's sleep." 7/n](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Em6aV1DVQAA8jqP.jpg "[Chen Shu, cont.] Inscription: \"The mountains are quiet as in remote antiquity; The long summer days are like in childhood. In these times of peace and leisure, build a dwelling deep, read, listen to the mountain springs. There is no human bustle here to disturb one's sleep.\" 7/n")
[Chen Shu, cont.] Also with seals and appreciation poem in the ubiquitous hand of Qianlong Emperor. 8/n
![[Chen Shu, cont.] Also with seals and appreciation poem in the ubiquitous hand of Qianlong Emperor. 8/n](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Em6alv6UcAM0VtI.jpg "[Chen Shu, cont.] Also with seals and appreciation poem in the ubiquitous hand of Qianlong Emperor. 8/n")
Landscape works -- traditionally the most prized painting genre -- by women artists are especially rare.
This piece by Lin Xue (林雪 fl. first half of C17th) is the only handscroll landscape painting in the museum. [detail] 9/n
![Landscape works -- traditionally the most prized painting genre -- by women artists are especially rare. This piece by Lin Xue (林雪 fl. first half of C17th) is the only handscroll landscape painting in the museum. [detail] 9/n](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Em6a64CVcAAp72_.jpg "Landscape works -- traditionally the most prized painting genre -- by women artists are especially rare. This piece by Lin Xue (林雪 fl. first half of C17th) is the only handscroll landscape painting in the museum. [detail] 9/n")
This piece by Lin Xue (林雪 fl. first half of C17th) is the only handscroll landscape painting in the museum. [detail] 9/n
[Lin Xue, cont.]
10/n
![[Lin Xue, cont.]10/n](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Em6bG0MVgAEygE3.jpg "[Lin Xue, cont.]10/n")
10/n
The Tang dynasty woman poet Yu Xuanji wrote these lines on viewing the list of (all-male) candidates who had passes the imperial examinations:
雲峰滿目放春晴
歷歷銀鈎指下生
自恨羅衣掩詩句
舉頭空羨榜中名
[translation follows] 11/n
雲峰滿目放春晴
歷歷銀鈎指下生
自恨羅衣掩詩句
舉頭空羨榜中名
[translation follows] 11/n
[Yu Xuanji, translation]
Mountain summits fill the gaze amongst parting clouds of spring,
From fine fingers emerge the silver strokes of powerful writing.
I detest this gauze dress that veils my poetry,
As I envy in vain the names on the listing. 12/n
Mountain summits fill the gaze amongst parting clouds of spring,
From fine fingers emerge the silver strokes of powerful writing.
I detest this gauze dress that veils my poetry,
As I envy in vain the names on the listing. 12/n
Eleven centuries later, in a collection containing over 10,000 works of painting and calligraphy by men, the NPM holds just 233 works by women.
Even in this exhibit, only 18 of the 72 works on display are by women artists. The remainder are paintings of women by men. 13/n
Even in this exhibit, only 18 of the 72 works on display are by women artists. The remainder are paintings of women by men. 13/n
Whilst the biases of the past may have severely limited the number of works that survive and made it into the collection, the number 233 is not fixed for ever: of those 233 works, 56 are "new additions in the form of donations, purchases and entrustments". 14/n
So with exhibitions like this, NPM can highlight what works they do have; and with targeted acquisitions, they could maybe add a few more. 15/n
When I look at this wonderful fan painting by Li Yin, I sigh with admiration.
....
Li Yin 1616-1685, "Two Boats Racing"
李因, ⟨雙帆競渡⟩
16/n
....
Li Yin 1616-1685, "Two Boats Racing"
李因, ⟨雙帆競渡⟩
16/n
...But in the context of the paucity of works by women artists, I'm also filled with rage and shame at the suppression of so much potential creativity -- suppression that continues more or less explicitly today in both east and west.
Li Yin, "Two Boats Racing" [detail]
17/n
![...But in the context of the paucity of works by women artists, I'm also filled with rage and shame at the suppression of so much potential creativity -- suppression that continues more or less explicitly today in both east and west. Li Yin, "Two Boats Racing" [detail] 17/n](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Em6dbuyVEAEkmst.jpg "...But in the context of the paucity of works by women artists, I'm also filled with rage and shame at the suppression of so much potential creativity -- suppression that continues more or less explicitly today in both east and west. Li Yin, \"Two Boats Racing\" [detail] 17/n")
Li Yin, "Two Boats Racing" [detail]
17/n
Li Yin lived and suffered through the upheavals of the Ming-Qing transition, leaving us poems such as this:
萬姓流亡白骨寒
驚聞豫魯半凋殘
徒懷報國慚彤管
洒血征袍羨木蘭
[translation follows] 18/n
萬姓流亡白骨寒
驚聞豫魯半凋殘
徒懷報國慚彤管
洒血征袍羨木蘭
[translation follows] 18/n
[Li Yin, translation by Wai-yee Li 1/2]
"Countless are undone and adrift, as white bones grow cold.
I heard, with alarm, that Yu and Lu have been half devastated.
..."
19/n
"Countless are undone and adrift, as white bones grow cold.
I heard, with alarm, that Yu and Lu have been half devastated.
..."
19/n
[Li Yin, translation by Wai-yee Li 2/2]
...
"Vain is the will to serve the country; ashamed of the red brush [of a women writer],
I envy Mulan, shedding blood on the robes of battle. "
(from "Women and National Trauma in Late Imperial Chinese Literature" by Wai-yee Li ) 20/n
...
"Vain is the will to serve the country; ashamed of the red brush [of a women writer],
I envy Mulan, shedding blood on the robes of battle. "
(from "Women and National Trauma in Late Imperial Chinese Literature" by Wai-yee Li ) 20/n
The blood splatters in the poem brings to mind those in Gentileschi's "Judith Slaying Holofernes". Gentileschi 1593-1656, a near contemporary of Li Yin, has been the subject this year of the first ever solo show dedicated to a woman artist at the National Gallery in London. 21/n
Li Yin was the subject of a solo show at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2017. https://www.cpr.cuhk.edu.hk/en/events_detail.php?id=13696&t=her-distinguished-brushwork-an-exhibition-featuring-paintings-by-the-seventeenth-century-artist-li-yin
22/n
22/n
(Since #CUHK and #MuLan #木蘭 have been mentioned, please keep in mind #save12hkyouth and #RealMulan #AgnesChow ) 24/n
Side note: it's curious that the character 「她」 in the title of the exhibit is the gendered female third person pronoun, which was not used in the classical Chinese language that these artists wrote. 25/n
Further side note: the title character「她」is written in the calligraphic style of that most standard -- and male -- calligrapher Yan Zhengqing. 26/n
