Zhu Chengjun 朱稱俊 (born 1946, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, China; active China and United States). World in a Wine Pot 壺天, 2018. Handscroll, ink on paper; calligraphy written in seal script. Image: 16 3/4 x 45 1/2 in. (42.5 x 115.5 cm); Mount: 17 1/2 x 53 1/2 in. (44.5 x 136 cm); Roller: 1 3/4 in. (4.5 cm). The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
The highly anticipated opening of the Chinese Garden’s new art gallery is now scheduled to take place this summer at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, with an exhibition of Chinese calligraphy as its inaugural installation. “A Garden of Words: The Calligraphy of Liu Fang Yuan” 書苑——流芳園典藏書法作品 opens Aug. 28, 2021, in the Studio for Lodging the Mind 寓意齋. The exhibition will be presented in two rotations of 20 works each; the first installation continues through Dec. 13, 2021, and the second runs from Jan. 29 through May 16, 2022.
The work of 21 contemporary ink artists will be featured, including Bai Qianshen, Michael Cherney, Grace Chu, Fu Shen, Lo Ch’ing, Tang Qingnian, Wang Mansheng, Wan-go Weng, Zhu Chengjun, and Terry Yuan, among others.
“Chinese calligraphy is an art of seeming contradictions,” explained Phillip E. Bloom, the June and Simon K.C. Li Curator of the Chinese Garden and Director of the Center for East Asian Garden Studies. “Though crafted with simple materials—brush, ink, and paper—its visual forms are myriad. Though written according to rigid rules, it also encourages sophisticated forms of personal expression. And while it is ubiquitous in the Chinese-reading world, calligraphy nevertheless can remain difficult even for the erudite to appreciate. Through this exhibition, we hope to help make it more accessible and to make a significant contribution to public engagement with the art form.”
A gallery guide, in English and in Chinese, will be available, and an exhibition webpage will provide additional resources, including an interactive map of calligraphy locations within the garden, with translations of the inscriptions and information on the artists.