Contemplating Nature: Flowers, Gardens, and Self-Reflection in Chinese Painting

Expert art historians offer detailed glimpses into some of the many facets of the flower-and-bird genre in Chinese painting and reveal how these images of intimate nature can be thresholds to worlds rich with beauty and private emotions.

Each talk will be approximately 30 minutes with a Q&A following.

The following speakers will be joining us for this special one-day event.

9 – 9:30 am
Check In

9:30 am
Introduction

9:45 am
Richard Barnhart – Yale Professor Emeritus in the History of Art
Ducks and Herons in a Lotus Pond—before and after Bada Shanren

10:30 am
Hui-shu Lee – UCLA Professor in Art History
Things that Gratify the Heart: Zhang Zi’s (1153-1235) Lakeshore Gardens in Time and Space

11:15 – 11:30
Break

11:30 am
Peter Sturman – UCSB Professor in the History of Art and Architecture and East Asian
Languages and Cultural Studies
Falling Flowers on a River: Contemplations On Nature and Mortality

12:15 pm
Shou-chih Yen – Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt), Professor in the History of Art
Reconfiguring the Order of the Seasons: Xu Wei’s Nanjing Zahua (Mixed Flowers) 雜畵/雜花Scroll

1 – 2:15 pm
Lunch Break

2:15 pm
Stephen Little – Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Florence and Harry Sloan Curator of Chinese Art and Head, Chinese, Korean, and South & Southeast Asian Art Departments
Lives of Flowers at the Ming and Qing Courts

3 pm
Yun-chen Lu – DePaul University, Assistant Professor in the History of Art and Architecture
Flowers in the Snow: Before and After Gao Fenghan’s Disability

3:45 pm
Ying-chen Peng – American University, Associate Professor in Art History
Empress Dowager Cixi’s Flower-and-Bird Universe

Flowers on a River: The Art of Chinese Flower-and-Bird Painting, 1368-1911, Masterworks from Tianjin Museum and Changzhou Museum Lecture Series is made possible through the generosity of SBMA Friends of Asian Art and Capital Group, Inc. Oriental Lecture Fund.