The Great Chinese Art Transfer
How So Much of China's Art Came to America
By (author) Michael St. Clair
Not available to order
Publication date:
01 April 2016Length of book:
250 pagesPublisher
Fairleigh Dickinson University PressISBN-13: 9781611479119
This book tells the story of how and why millions of Chinese works of art got exported to collectors and institutions in the West, in particular to the United States. As China’s last dynasty was weakening and collapsing from 1860 into the early years of the twentieth century, China’s internal chaos allowed imperial and private Chinese collections to be scattered, looted and sold. A remarkable and varied group of Westerners entered the country, had their eyes opened to centuries of Chinese creativity and gathered up paintings, bronzes and ceramics, as well as sculptures, jades and bronzes.
The migration to America and Europe of China’s art is one of the greatest outflows of a culture’s artistic heritage in human history. A good deal of the art procured by collectors and dealers, some famous and others little known but all remarkable in individual ways, eventually wound up in American and European museums. Today some of the art still in private hands is returning to China via international auctions and aggressive purchases by Chinese millionaires.
The migration to America and Europe of China’s art is one of the greatest outflows of a culture’s artistic heritage in human history. A good deal of the art procured by collectors and dealers, some famous and others little known but all remarkable in individual ways, eventually wound up in American and European museums. Today some of the art still in private hands is returning to China via international auctions and aggressive purchases by Chinese millionaires.
Drawing primarily on secondary sources and collection catalogues, the book comprises an engaging overview of collections formed largely by Americans during this extraordinary period. It is an invaluable guide for anyone who wants to discover more about key individuals, identifying as it does the sheer number of people collecting Chinese material, and providing almost dictionary-like entries. . . .[It will] be relevant for students of Chinese studies, museum studies, history, art history, as well as curators, collectors and dealers – and, indeed, anyone interested more generally in Chinese art and collecting.