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U N I V E R S I T Y O F C A L I F O R N I A , B E R K E L E Y A R T M U S E U M A N D PA C I F I C F I L M A R C H I V E

Mailing Address: 2625 Durant Avenue #2250 Berkeley, California 94720-2250 bampfa.berkeley.edu

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact:

Peter Cavagnaro pcavagnaro@berkeley.edu

(510) 642-0365 University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) presents

Beauty Revealed Images of Women in Qing Dynasty Chinese Painting THE FIRST MAJOR EXHIBITION TO EXPLORE THE GENRE OF CHINESE PAINTING KNOWN AS MEIREN HUA , OR BEAUTIFUL WOMEN PAINTINGS September 25—December 22, 2013

Berkeley, CA, August 15, 2013— The UC

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film

Archive (BAM/PFA) proudly presents

Beauty Revealed: Images of

Women in Qing Dynasty Chinese

Painting, on view September 25 through

December 22, 2013. Featuring nearly

thirty works, this exhibition is the first to

bring together a genre of Chinese

painting known as meiren hua, or

paintings of beautiful women. Situating

the works within the social and economic

contexts of the High Qing period (mid-

seventeenth to the late eighteenth

century), the exhibition challenges the

prevailing opinion that these subjects are

high status women—either members of

Beauty About to Bathe, eighteenth century; hanging scroll, ink and colors on silk; 61 x 34 ¼ in.; private collection: Ferdinand M. Bertholet, Amsterdam.    

the court or other privileged women. By reading the visual codes embedded in the

images, Beauty Revealed instead makes the case that these women are

courtesans.

Borrowing seldom-before-utilized techniques

from the West, including one-point perspective

and heavy opaque colors, the artists, many of

them unknown professional painters who

painted on demand and for a fee, pursue a

realism not previously seen in Chinese painting.

Rather than the willowy beauty shown in a

garden setting or surrounded by family among

luxurious furnishings typical of earlier periods,

these paintings generally feature a single, near

life-size figure, often in a brazenly unladylike

posture. Their garments tend to be low cut and

transparent, and their bound feet exposed. For

example, the direct gaze of the woman in Putting

out the Lamp, addressed to the (presumably

male) intended viewer, offers a suggestive

undercurrent of greater intimacy, one of the

hallmarks of this genre. Other codes of

accessibility include the woman’s relaxed

posture with right leg drawn up under left, the open sleeves that reveal her arms, and

the highly stylized extension of her right hand in a controlled gesture reaching to

snuff out the light. Her expression engages the audience in a way never before seen

in Chinese figure painting.

The backdrops further draw viewers into the women’s world, conveying significant

information about their wealth, taste, learning, and accomplishments. The women

Putting Out the Lamp, China, late 18th century (detail); hanging scroll, ink and colors on paper; 65 x 24-5/8 in.; University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive: gift of James Cahill and Hsingyuan Tsao.

   

are depicted surrounded by everyday objects packed with erotic symbolism. The art

has an immediate impact, inviting viewers to enter and enjoy another world, one

perhaps longed for and unattainable.

In addition to several paintings from BAM/PFA’s own collection, Beauty Revealed

features loans from institutions and private collections from around the U.S. and

Europe. It is organized into distinct sections that explore the intimate life of women

within the garden, home, bath, and brothel. Curated by Senior Curator for Asian Art

Julia M. White in collaboration with UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus James Cahill, the

exhibition is accompanied by an exquisitely illustrated catalog with essays by Cahill,

White, and noted historian Sarah Handler. The catalog entries are by Chen Fongfong,

with contributions by Nancy Berliner and White.

Tours in both Mandarin and English, an illustrated talk by Cahill, a conversation

between by Judith Zeitlin (University of Chicago) and Margaret Francesca Rosenthal

(University of Southern California) about courtesan cultures in China and Italy, a

presentation by Handler on furnishings depicted in the meiren paintings, a

performance by internationally renowned musician Wang Fei on the qin instrument,

and other related events will provide visitors with additional opportunities to explore

and re-evaluate this previously misunderstood genre of Chinese painting.

Support Beauty Revealed is organized by Senior Curator for Asian Art Julia M. White in collaboration with UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus James Cahill. The exhibition is made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Arts; an anonymous foundation; the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation; Sheila Keppel; Jane DeBevoise in honor of Professor James Cahill; Mary Ellen Anderson; the Chan Foundation; Arnold and Jr-jye Chang; Jane R. Lurie; Judy Andrews and Kuiyi Shen in honor of Professor James Cahill; Asian Art Department, Bonhams; Fred Levin and Nancy Livingston, The Shenson Foundation in memory of Ben and Jess Shenson; and the UC Berkeley Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities. The exhibition catalog is made possible by contributions from Grace Chang and Jennifer Chang Chernick, John and Julia Curtis, Hok Pui and Sally Yu Leung, and Howard and Mary Ann Rogers. Special thanks to our media partner World Journal.

World Journal

Public Programs Sunday, September 29, 2013; 3 p.m. James Cahil l on Meiren Paintings: The Discovery of a Genre Learn about Qing dynasty paintings of meiren, or beautiful women, in this illustrated talk by UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus James Cahill, who has spent decades discovering and interpreting these enigmatic images. Included with gallery admission Sunday, October 6, 2013; 3 p.m. A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Courtesans: A Conversation with Judith Zeitl in and Margaret Francesca Rosenthal How do courtesans in Italy and China compare? What might this comparison reveal? University of Chicago’s Judith Zeitlin and Margaret Francesca Rosenthal of the University of Southern California examine and compare courtesan culture and its representation in Qing dynasty China and Renaissance Italy. Included with gallery admission Saturday, October 19, 2013; 1:30 p.m. American Sign Language Guided Tour Expert sign language interpreter Patricia Lessard joins a UC Berkeley graduate student guide for an insightful tour of Beauty Revealed. No reservations required. Included with gallery admission Sunday, October 27, 2013; 2 p.m. Guided Tour in Mandarin Join a guided tour of Beauty Revealed in Mandarin with BAM/PFA J.S. Lee Memorial Fellow Chen Fongfong, a graduate student in art history at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Included with gallery admission Sunday, November 3, 2013; 3:30 Musical Performance on the Qin by Wang Fei Internationally noted qin performer, scholar and teacher Wang Fei offers a recital on this classical Chinese instrument in the intimate surround of Ming and Qing Dynasty Chinese paintings. Wang, founder and director of the North American Guqin Association, teaches guqin and guzheng in UC Berkeley’s Department of Music. Included with gallery admission Friday, November 22, 2013; time to be determined Colloquium

In tribute to James Cahill's fundamental insights regarding Chinese experiments with perspectival representation during the late-imperial period, the Institute for East Asian Studies will host a symposium on perspective in Chinese painting to accompany Beauty Revealed . Participants will include Eugene Wang, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Professor of Asian Art, History of Art & Architecture, Harvard University; Richard Vinograd, Christensen Fund Professor in Asian Art, Department of Art & Art History at Stanford University; and Nancy Berliner, Curator of Chinese Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Free admission September 26 through December 22, 2013; Thursdays at 12:15 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Guided Tours Meet in the Bancroft lobby for guided tours of Beauty Revealed led by UC Berkeley graduate students from History of Art and East Asian Languages and Cultures. No reservations required. See the online calendar (http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/calendar) for the complete schedule, including additional tours on October 4 and 5. Included with gallery admission Catalog Beauty Revealed: Images of Women in Qing Dynasty Chinese Painting Essays by James Cahill, Sarah Handler, and Julia M. White Published by UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive Distributed by D.A.P. 126 pages; 67 color illustrations Hardcover; $49.50 ISBN 9780971939714 Available in the Museum Store in September 2013 About BAM/PFA Founded in 1963, the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) is UC Berkeley’s primary visual arts venue and among the largest university art museums in terms of size and audience in the United States. Internationally recognized for its art and film programming, BAM/PFA is a platform for cultural experiences that transform individuals, engage communities, and advance the local, national and global discourse on art and ideas. BAM/PFA’s mission is “to inspire the imagination and ignite critical dialogue through art and film.” BAM/PFA presents approximately fifteen art exhibitions and 380 film programs each year. The museum’s collection of over 16,000 works of art includes important holdings of Neolithic Chinese ceramics, Ming and Qing Dynasty Chinese painting, Old Master works on paper, Italian Baroque painting, early American painting, Abstract Expressionist painting, contemporary photography, and video art. Its film archive of

over 14,000 films and videos includes the largest collection of Japanese cinema outside of Japan, Hollywood classics, and silent film, as well hundreds of thousands of articles, reviews, posters, and other ephemera related to the history of film, many of which are digitally scanned and accessible online. Museum Information Location: 2626 Bancroft Way, just below College Avenue across from the UC Berkeley campus. Gallery and Museum Store Hours: Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Open L@TE Fridays until 9 p.m. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Gallery admission: $10 adults (18-64); $7 non-UC Berkeley students, seniors (65+), disabled persons, and young adults (13-17); free for BAM/PFA members, UC Berkeley students, faculty, staff, and retires, and children (12 & under). Galleries are open for free to the public on the first Thursday of each month. Information: 24-hour recorded message (510) 642-0808; fax (510) 642-4889; TDD (510) 642-8734. Website: bampfa.berkeley.edu

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