Professor Peter Sturman. Courtesy images.
SANTA BARBARA — The Santa Barbara Museum of Art to present ‘Sketching Ideas’: Writing’s Visuality in Chinese Flower-and-Bird Painting Lecture by Peter Sturman, Professor, Department of History of Art and Architecture, UC Santa Barbara at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 5 at SBMA’s Mary Craig Auditorium, 1130 State St., Santa Barbara.
Xieyi, “the writing or sketching of ideas,” refers to a particularly free-form mode of painting in China that showcases the artist’s virtuosity wielding a quick-moving brush to capture vibrant and seemingly spontaneous images. Forefronting the dynamic potential of the brush, the technique naturally calls to mind the art of calligraphy, especially the dynamic cursive script, but Xiyu’s association with the art of writing goes far deeper than surface appearances. Spontaneity implies naturalness and authenticity, even spiritual transcendence. Moreover, for scholar-official painters, Xiyu’s linkage to calligraphy offered an essential bridge between image-making and literary expression.
In this talk, Professor Sturman traces some of the rich history of Xiyu painting in flower-and-bird painting, its vital ties through calligraphy to the early formation of literati painting, and its multifaceted expression in the paintings of later masters such as Xu Wei (1521–1593) and Bada Sharen (1626–1705).
Location: SBMA’s Mary Craig Auditorium, 1130 State Street, Santa Barbara
Free Students and SBMA Members/$5 Non-Members
Get tickets at tickets.sbma.net
Zhu Da/Bada Shanren, Qing dynasty, 1626–1705, Flowers on a River (detail), 1697. Ink on paper, hand scroll. Tianjin Museum.