A confession - I love Chinese calligraphy and Chinese painting and have seen many great exhibitions of calligraphy in China, Europe, America and Australia. Sadly, this is not one of them.
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Last year, the National Museum of Australia toured to the National Museum of China its fabulous Old Masters: Australia's Great Bark Artists exhibition. It was a great success and an eye-opener for China. This is the reciprocal exhibition from Beijing and sadly the Chinese museum has severely underestimated the sophistication of Australian art audiences.
The publicised main attraction is the famous scroll, Emperor Qianlong's Southern Inspection Tour, recording the emperor's tour in 1751, which took almost four months and covered some 2900 kilometres.
![Emperor Qianlong's Southern Inspection Tour (detail) – Empress Dowager Chongqing. Image: National Museum of China Emperor Qianlong's Southern Inspection Tour (detail) – Empress Dowager Chongqing. Image: National Museum of China](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/fdcx/doc74uthtdjbqg1gwhdrmcj.jpg/r0_0_4021_2256_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The emperor (r. 1736-95) commissioned the most famous artist of the time, Xu Yang, a native of Suzhou, to record in 12 monumental hand scrolls the emperor's historic tour of south China. Each of the scrolls is about 68 centimetres high and 1400-2600 centimetres long and the whole set was completed in ink and colour on silk in six years, in time for the emperor's 60th birthday, in 1770.
Subsequently, a second set on paper was commissioned from the same artist and was completed five years later.
The set on silk was dispersed and some scrolls were lost. The longest scroll was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the rest scattered among collections in China and Paris. The set on paper is at the National Museum of China. The work is renowned for its detail and, despite the central role of the emperor in each of the scrolls, there is a myriad of details from Chinese 18th century life and virtuoso explorations of traditional Chinese artistic conventions.
Alas, in Canberra we are seeing neither the 18th century silk scrolls, nor the scrolls on paper, but a modern-day copy of a 20-metre portion after the 154-metre-long original. The 14-minute animation of the scrolls, a tourist attraction at the Beijing museum, is more like a school project than a serious engagement with Xu Yang's art. The headline for this exhibit should read, 'Come to Canberra to see a 21st century copy of an 18th century scroll in Beijing'.
The rest of the exhibition from China consists of the work of three contemporary or near contemporary artists - Wang Naizhuang (1929-), Xiao Lang (1917-2010) and Xie Yun (1929-). While not without interest, they are not the most accomplished practitioners of Chinese calligraphy. The calligraphy of Wang Naizhuang's grandfather, Wang Fu'an, would have come as a real revelation; his grandson's paintings are very competent, but predictable.
![Silk robe dance, 2011, by Wang Naizhuang. Image: National Museum of China Silk robe dance, 2011, by Wang Naizhuang. Image: National Museum of China](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/fdcx/doc74uthwdnsrq1i0qhdpu.jpg/r0_0_770_1333_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The painter and calligrapher, Xiao Lang, whose major retrospective exhibition at the National Museum of China I saw in 2016, was a master of the classical bird-and-flower painting style and exploited the Xiao Xieyi technique (small freehand brush work). His Cat and fabric tiger (1950) is a masterful example of careful observation, lucidity of line and rapid execution.
![Peacock, 1998, by Xiao Lang. Image: National Museum of China Peacock, 1998, by Xiao Lang. Image: National Museum of China](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/fdcx/doc74uthw6tahy1er83p6aj.jpg/r0_0_853_1666_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The poet and painter Xie Yun, who was also the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the same museum in 2016, has a sophistication in his depictions of birds, insects and re-evocations of bronze script and his famous series of kowtow on the Great Wall. This veteran artist combines grace with humour and breathing ease of execution.
![Mountain, 1995, by Xie Yun. Image: National Museum of China. Mountain, 1995, by Xie Yun. Image: National Museum of China.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/fdcx/doc74uthtw1dslalctm6aj.jpg/r0_0_907_1331_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
There is such a great tradition of classical Chinese calligraphy; just think of Yan Zhenqing, Liu Gongquan, Cai Xiang, Emperor Huizong of Song, Ni Zan, Wen Zhengming, Li Si, Zhang Zhi, Wang Xizhi and the famous female calligrapher Wei Shuo. There are also outstanding modern calligraphers and painters, Zhao Zhiqian, Wu Changshi, Wang Zhen, Xu Beihong, Liu Haisu, Qi Baishi, Zhang Daqian, Li Keran, Wu Guanzhong. As well are contemporary Chinese calligraphy-based artists, most known to Australian audiences through the Asia Pacific Triennials in Brisbane or the White Rabbit Gallery in Sydney, including Xu Bing, Yang Yongliang, He Xiangyu, Jiang Weitao, Hu Qinwu, Lao Dan and Monika Lin.
Pity that none are included in this exhibition.
The other exhibit in the show is the Harvest of Endurance scroll from the collection of the National Museum of Australia. It is a 50-metre-long scroll dealing with two centuries of Chinese migration to Australia.
It was commissioned by the Australia China Friendship Society in celebration of the Australian Bicentenary in 1988 and was acquired by the museum in 1992. The 8-metre-long section of the scroll on display has an assembly of Chinese-Australian luminaries as well as somewhat stiff portraits of Australian leaders who had ideas on Chinese migration, including Al Grassby and Arthur Calwell.
![Harvest of Endurance Scroll by artist Mo Xiangyi (detail). Image: © Australia-China Friendship Society, 2019. Courtesy of National Museum of Australia. Harvest of Endurance Scroll by artist Mo Xiangyi (detail). Image: © Australia-China Friendship Society, 2019. Courtesy of National Museum of Australia.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/fdcx/doc74utavu6ahe2r3tb6aj.jpg/r275_19_571_190_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Illustrative and didactic, the scroll's primary role is as a valuable historical record made from within the Chinese community on its contribution to Australia.
Considering the enormous richness of the Chinese calligraphic tradition and the conventions of painting on scrolls, this is a limited and relatively disappointing exhibition.
- The Historical Expression of Chinese Art: Calligraphy and Painting from the National Museum of China. National Museum of Australia, Lawson Cres, Acton. Closes July 28.