Click here to register: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRU8qbd_Wq4.

Earlier this year, UMMA received a transformative gift of more than 70 works of important and influential Chinese calligraphy. The Lo Chia-Lun Calligraphy Collection adds an impressive breadth of works to an already stellar collection of Chinese paintings and ceramics at UMMA. To mark the occasion, UMMA and the U-M Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies are delighted to present this important lecture with Chinese Art Historian, Dr. Amy McNair. McNair will discuss works in the collection by the famous Yuan-dynasty poet, Yang Weizhen (1296-1370), and highlight the importance of the Lo Chia-Lun Collection in the future studies of Chinese calligraphy. These works are colophons (a publisher's emblem or imprint) to one or two lost paintings, called The Fording Tiger, and are superb examples of his intentionally eccentric, awkward style of writing. The “fording tiger” image comes from the story of the Han-dynasty official Liu Kun (d. 57 CE), whose reputation for good government was so powerful that when he arrived to govern Hongnong (modern Sanmenxia, Henan), the local man-eating tigers swam across the Yellow River rather than face him. Yang was instrumental in establishing the importance of colophons on paintings and reviving the practice of yuefu poetry in the 14th century, making these two colophons containing yuefu poems highly significant works. 

Prior to the keynote, we are delighted to offer a rare opportunity to see works from the Lo Chia-Lun collection in UMMA’s object study rooms. You must register for a study room session. Please register for only one time slot. Capacity is extremely limited.

Both study sessions are currently full. You can register for the waitlist below. 

Waitlist for 4:30 p.m. Study Session 2

More about Dr. Amy McNair Amy McNair is a Professor of Chinese Art History at the University of Kansas and Editor-in-chief of the Asian art history journal Artibus Asiae. Her research interests are Chinese calligraphy and painting, and Chinese Buddhist sculpture. Her 1998 book on the Tang-dynasty calligrapher Yan Zhenqing was recently translated into Chinese as 中正之笔——颜真卿书法与宋代文人政治 (The Righteous Pen—Yan Zhenqing's Calligraphy and the Song Dynasty Literati Politics). Her latest book, The Stigma of the Painting Master: Liang Shicheng and The Xuanhe Catalogue of Paintings, will appear in 2023, published by Harvard Asia Center Publications.

Please join us after Dr. McNair’s talk for refreshments in the UMMA Apse.  

This workshop is made possible by the U-M Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies, the Department of History of Art, and the Jiu-Hwa Lo Upshur Endowment for Chinese Art. The Lo Chia-Lun Calligraphy Collection at UMMA is the gift of Jiu-Fong Lo Chang and Kuei-sheng Chang.