Alternative Dreams: 17th-Century Chinese Paintings from the Tsao Family Collection
(Los Angeles—June 17, 2016) The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents Alternative Dreams: 17th-Century Chinese Paintings from the Tsao Family Collection, one of the finest existing collections of Chinese paintings in the United States, formed over a period of 50 years by the late San Francisco Bay Area collector and dealer Jung Ying Tsao (1923–2011).
The 17th century witnessed the fall of the Chinese-ruled Ming dynasty (1368–1644), the founding of the Manchu-ruled Qing dynasty (1644–1911), and was one of the most turbulent and creative eras in the history of Chinese art. Comprising over 120 paintings, the exhibition explores ways in which artists of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties used painting, calligraphy, and poetry to create new identities as a means of negotiating the social disruptions that accompanied the fall of the Ming dynasty. Alternative Dreams presents work by over 80 artists, many of whom are the most famous painters of this period—including scholars, officials, and Buddhist monks.
“Alternative Dreams is a window into a lost world. The window comprises Chinese paintings and their accompanying calligraphies, through which one can explore key aspects of Chinese culture,” says Stephen Little, Florence & Harry Sloan Curator of Chinese Art at LACMA. “Among these is the respect for antiquity and the importance—for an artist—of transforming the past into something new and relevant for the present.”
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