A universal guide for China studies

Chinese Art

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Contemporary art
當代藝術

Calligraphy
Printing
Painting
Contemporary art

Some links to modern painters:

www.duxinjian.com
Du Xinjian - Contemporary Chinese Artist
Background and portfolio of contemporary Chinese artist who paints surrealist style oil paintings. Free screensaver of his modern Chinese art available online.

www.xuejiye.com
Xue Jiye
Explore Xue Jiye's contemporary Chinese art, including classical and modern oil paintings and sculptures. Learn about the artist and download a free screensaver.

www.wangjingchineseart.com
Wang Jing: Modern Chinese Art
Colourful floral, animal and human figurative semi-abstract paintings by this Chinese woman artist. Download a free screensaver with her modern Chinese art.

www.songhaizeng.com
Song Haizeng
View cheerful, figurative oil paintings by this Chinese artist. Each painting is unique, and all are self-portraits of an artist with a very positive philosophy.

www.wumengchun.com
Wu Meng Chun - Contemporary Chinese Art
Chinese artist presents a complete online portfolio of his self-portrait artwork. Wu describes the influence of his Chinese Buddhist teachings on his paintings.

www.morganchineseartist.com
Morgan - Chinese Artist
Morgan, a Chinese artist, exhibits his paintings of figures, half-submerged or floating in the water. Art critique, biography and screensavers are also available.

www.artscenechina.com
Art Scene China - a modern Chinese art gallery based in Shanghai featuring full portfolios online of over 20 of China's leading contemporary Chinese artists.

www.newchineseart.com
New Chinese Art: Center for Contemporary Chinese Art - a noncommercial center for contemporary Chinese art showcasing modern Chinese painting, lithographs, sculptures, installations and other artwork.
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oracle bones of the late Shang Dynasty 商 (12th century BC), but these inscriptions were only discovered in the last decade of the 19th century. Incised in tortoise plastrons, scholars call this script jiaguwen 甲骨文 "Tortoise Bone Script".
  • At the same time, ritual bronze vessels were not only decorated with wonderful patterns (wen 紋) but also inscribed with a text in a style called jinwen 金文 "Bronze Script". This writing style was somewhat different to the oracle bone inscriptions because of regional differences and historical development with simplifications, but also with more difficult and complex characters than before.
  • The later type of bronze inscriptions developed to the so called Large Seal Script (dazhuanti 大篆體 or zhouwen 籀文) style that can be found on seals, bronze vessels or other bronze items like mirrors or installment symbol, pottery, jade, weapons, coins, and on stones (called shiwen 石文 "stone inscriptions").
  • When the First Emperor of Qin 秦始皇帝 unified China, he had standardized the Small Seal Script (xiaozhuanti 小篆體). The Seal Script in general is called zhuanshu 篆書. Very rare are Seal Script examples written on silk, called boshu 帛書 "Silk Inscriptions". The terms "Large" and "Small" refer to the time when these scripts were prominent. In fact, only few characters are really different in these two styles.
  • For the administration of the vast empire of China, a simplified style had developed that was written wish brush and ink on bamboo slips and later on paper. This style - beginning during the Warring States period 戰國, but especially under Qin and Han 漢 dynasties - is called Chancellary Script or Clerical Script (lishu 隸書). Instead of the sometimes curved turns of the Seal Script, the Chancellary Script uses only straight strokes with angled turns.
  • A very cursive draft script was developed