Posted: Tuesday, September 07, 1999

Exhibition at San Francisco State University
Symposium at the M.H de Young Memorial Museum

San Francisco State University presents Chang Dai-chien in California, an exhibition of 40
paintings by the acclaimed Chinese artist and other materials, September 26 through November
20, 1999 in the Art Department Gallery in the Fine Arts Building on the university's campus.
Chang Dai-chien in California is the first exhibition of work made by Chang during his residency
on the Monterey Peninsula from 1967 to 1977, a period when he developed a "splash color and
splash ink" technique and radical media handling evocative of Abstract Expressionism. Chang
Dai-chien in California commemorates the 100th anniversary of the artist's birth and is presented
as part of SFSU's Centennial Celebration. The exhibition and symposium are cosponsored by
the
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the National Museum of History of Taiwan, with
support from China Airlines and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.

The best-known Chinese painter of the 20th century, Chang Dai-chien (1899-1983) is often
referred to as the "Picasso of China" and is believed to have produced nearly 30,000 original
works. During nearly 30 years living in the Americas (Brazil and California), Chang developed
stylistic innovations that revolutionized traditional Chinese painting. However, his work is rarely
considered outside the context of this literati tradition, even in such important exhibitions as
Challenging the Past. The Paintings of Chang Dai-chien, which was organized in 1991 by the
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution and later traveled to the Asia Society in
New York City and the St. Louis Art Museum.

"This exhibition is the most important Bay Area display of Chang's artistic achievement since
the
1972 retrospective at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco," says Mark Johnson, professor
of
art and director of the SFSU Art Department Gallery. "This is also the best opportunity ever to
consider the importance of Chang's California paintings, which are very clearly inspired by the
region's natural landmarks such as Big Sur and Yosemite."

Chang was frequently forced to live abroad due to social crises in China. In the late 1960s
Chang
acquired two homes near Carmel on the Monterey Peninsula, which would become his principal
residence for the next decade. His home became an important destination for artists from
throughout
Northern California, and he showed his work in exhibitions at several Bay Area venues. Chang
was acquainted with many prominent California art figures, including Ansel Adams and James
Cahill. Chang's widow and many children and grandchildren continue to reside on the central
California
coast.

Three consecutive days of events to open the Chang Dai-chien Centennial Celebration begin at
11:30 am on Friday, September 24 at San Francisco's City Hall with a special ribbon-cutting
event hosted by Mayor Willie L. Brown, Jr.; Supervisor Mabel Teng, artist Ou Hao-nien and
members of Chang Dai- chien's family. The Chang Dai-chien Centennial Celebration continues
with a special symposium at 1 pm on Saturday, September 25 at the M.H. de Young Memorial
Museum examining the artist's life and work. Speakers will include Michael Sullivan, professor
emeritus, Stanford University; James Cahill, professor emeritus, University of California,
Berkeley; Paul Karlstrom, director, Archives of American
Art, Smithsonian Institution; Gordon Chang, professor, Stanford University; artist C.C. Wang;
and Hung Liu, artist and professor of art at Mills College. The gala opening reception for Chang
Dai-chien in California will be held from 1 to 4 pm on Sunday, September 26 at the Art
Department Gallery. Admission to all events is free.

Chang Dai-chien in California represents the latest example of SFSU's commitment to research
and exhibition of the creative legacy of Asian American artists active in the state. Previous
exhibitions have included With New Eyes: Toward an Asian American Art History in the Westin
1995 and Sino Ka? /Ano Ka ?: San Francisco Babaylan in 1998. The university also received a
$82,900 grant in 1997 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to produce a directory of
Asian American artists active in California from 1840 to 1965.

What: Art Exhibition Chang Dai-chien in California
When: September 26 - November 20, 1999
Reception: Sunday, September 26, 1 - 4 pm
Where: Art Department Gallery, Fine Arts Building San Francisco State University, 1600
Holloway Avenue
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 12 - 4 pm; Wednesday, 12 - 7 pm
Admission: Free
Info: 415/338-6535 -a www.sfsu.edu/- gallery

Posted: Monday, September 06, 1999

Following the resounding success of the first 'Asian Art in London' held in November 1998, the academic and commercial worlds are again collaborating to stage Asian Art in London 1999 from Tuesday 9 to Saturday 20 November. This inspired initiative sees some fifty dealers and auctioneers joining forces with museums and other institutions to hold a series of exhibitions and auctions, lectures, seminars and social events including a Charity Gala Dinner at the British Museum.

A series of exciting events is planned to attract museum curators, collectors and scholars from all over the world as well as to appeal to the general public. The social highlight of the programme will be a spectacular Gala Dinner at the British Museum on Wednesday 17 November in the presence of H.R.H. Princess Alexandra and H.E. Mr. Ma Zhen Gang, the Ambassador for the People's Republic of China. The reception will centre around the Museum's exhibition Gilded Dragons: Buried Treasures from China's Golden Ages which has been organised to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Tickets for this glamorous evening are £250 each and the proceeds will go towards the British Museum's Asian Educational Programme in the new Clore Education Centre.

The forging of this new partnership between Asian Art in London and the British Museum is an exciting development that will build an important bridge between London's academic and commercial establishments. Asian Art in London will hold a cocktail party sponsored by Mikimoto, the eminent London and Tokyo jewellery house, on Friday 19 November at the British Museum. Earlier the same evening there will be a lecture by Carol Michaelson, curator of the Gilded Dragons exhibition, who will introduce the treasures from the exhibition and present a panorama of Chinese life as lived in the golden ages.

The Victoria & Albert Museum is also staging two exhibitions marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and which commemorate the impact of Mao Zedong on Chinese art and culture. Mao: From Icon to Irony looks at images of Mao in the roles of leader, teacher, father and deity through objects ranging from mass-produced domestic statues to a unique papercut by Hou Yimin made for a state exhibition. Fashioning Mao examines how the fashion industry has 'commodified' the image of Mao. A third exhibition taking place at the time of Asian Art in London at the V & A is Prestigious Pots which brings together for the first time important and rare Chinese 13th to 15th century ceramics of the Yuan and early Ming dynasties. The 1999 Annual Benjamin Zucker Lecture by Mr. Abolala Soudavar, The Mughals and the Legitimacy Problems of the House of Timur, takes place at the V & A on 18 November and the same day there will be a gallery talk by Charlotte Horlyck on Korean Funerary Art.

Asia House and the Oriental Rug and Textile Society of Great Britain will present The Flowering of Asian Ornament, two related lectures which will be held at the School of Oriental and African
Studies (SOAS) on 14 November. Faces, Clouds and Flower Scrolls: Chinese Ornament from 1500 BC to 1400 AD is the title of the lecture to be given by Dr. Jessica Rawson, Warden of Merton College, Oxford, and former Keeper of the Department of Oriental Antiquities, British Museum. Newcomers to Paradise: Exotic influence in later Islamic Ornament is the enticing subject for Dr. Jon Thompson, Research Associate, Faculty of Oriental Studies, Cambridge.

The major London auction houses will be holding sales to coincide with Asian Art in London. Christie's will hold two Chinese sales on 16 November: Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art and Chinese Export Art, including a section devoted to works produced for the Portuguese market. The following day they will hold two Japanese sales: Japanese Art and Design and Netsuke and Lacquer from the Japanese Department of Eskenazi Limited. This important sale of one hundred Japanese works is being held following the death in 1996 of Luigi Bandini, the renowned specialist and head of Eskenazi's Japanese department.

Sotheby's will hold a sale of Chinese and Japanese Works of Art and Oriental Textiles on 16 November, Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art including important snuff bottles and Chinese Export Ceramics and Works of Art on 17 November. Sotheby's sale of Japanese Works of Art, Prints and Paintings including the Raymond Bushell Collection of Netsuke takes place on 18 November. Finally on 19 November, Phillips will hold a Fine Sale of Oriental Ceramics and Works of Art which will feature Chinese and Japanese ceramics, textiles and works of art, with a particular emphasis on carvings.

In addition the educational arms of Sotheby's and Christie's are arranging symposia. Sotheby's Institute's Forms and Transformations: Recent Developments in the Study of Tibetan Sculpture on 11 and 12 November takes its emphasis from the Nyingjei Lam collection, one of the finest collections of Tibetan Buddhist sculpture in the world, which will be exhibited for the first time at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Chaired by Dr. Pratapaditya Pal, former curator of Indian and Southeast Asian Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and currently Fellow for Research at the Norton Simon Museum, the symposium takes place at the Ashmolean Museum and at SOAS in London.

Christie's International Art Studies' one-day symposium Vasco da Gama's Legacy: The Portugal-China Trade marks the imminent return of Macao to China with an international panel of scholars who will examine the 500-year relationship between Portugal and China. Phillips will host a loan exhibition from the Sir Victor Sassoon Chinese Ivories Trust from 9 to 20 November, with an introductory talk by one of the trustees on 9 November. The exhibition will focus on carvings from the Ming and Qing dynasties, with examples made for both export and domestic markets.

One of the great strengths of London as a market place is the expertise of the specialist dealers. Linda Wrigglesworth's exhibition Feng shui in Textiles, Part II will be complemented on 13 November by her associate Gary Dickinson's lecture To Make Auspicious: religious and decorative household textiles of the Qing Period. Gray's Antiques Market will hold two lectures on 15 November: Café Society and the East India Trade by Gordon Lang and Myths and Legends - Designs on Porcelain by Dr. Rosemary Scott.

Grace Wu Bruce, leading dealer in Ming furniture, will present a loan exhibition Ming Furniture from the Collection of Dr. S.Y. Yip, accompanied by a scholarly book by Dr. Yip, a renowned connoisseur and collector from Hong Kong. Fifty of his major pieces, most of which have never been seen in Europe, will be on display at the Institute of Contemporary Art in the Mall. Meanwhile to celebrate the first anniversary of the opening of Grace Wu Bruce's Mayfair gallery, The Secrets of Ming Furniture will highlight one piece from Dr. Yip's collection which will have been taken apart to reveal the secrets of its construction.

Partridge Fine Arts will stage an exhibition entitled Vision of the East to celebrate the influence of the East on the decorative arts in Europe. The 47 selected works are divided into three categories: items made in China and Japan for the export market; items made in Europe incorporating imported Chinese and Japanese lacquer and porcelain; and works made in Europe which are either in imitation of Eastern pieces or in the chinoiserie style.

The fifty dealers participating in Asian Art in London include such well-known names as Barry Davies Oriental Art, Eskenazi, S. Marchant & Son, Sydney L. Moss, and Michael & Henrietta Spink. As well as mounting special exhibitions, holding lectures and publishing scholarly catalogues for Asian Art in London, the dealers will be holding a series of late-night openings. The first will be St James's on Sunday 14 November, the following evening it will be the turn of Mayfair, and on Tuesday the doors will be open in Kensington Church Street and Westbourne Grove.

The initiative for the first Asian Art in London came from a group of London-based dealers, enthusiastically supported by the auction houses and academic world. A survey of those participating showed that business conducted during the first event in 1998 measurably increased over the same period in 1997. The astonishing range of Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Southeast Asian, Himalayan, Korean and Islamic art to be unveiled during Asian Art in London 1999 will again demonstrate London's pre-eminence in these fields and the unrivalled expertise, the diversity of dealers and the resources of public collections to be found in the city.

For public enquiries, please telephone: 0171 499 9190/2215
or visit the website: http://www.asianartinlondon.com
________________________________________________

For further press information, calendar of events, separate press releases on Gala Dinner and dealers' events and photographic material, please contact:

Sue Bond Public Relations
Boxted Hall
Bury St. Edmunds
Suffolk IP29 4JT
Tel. +44 1787 282288
Fax. +44 1787 282119
E-mail: suebond@compuserve.com PSB/ff/16/8/99