Research Guides: ARTS 218: Chinese Calligraphy as an Art Form (HC): Background Information

Calligraphy and Painting

Shitao, Landscape, Qing Dynasty (Wikimedia Commons)

Background Information

The following sources provide overviews of Chinese calligraphy . They are a quick way to find out the basic facts and recent scholarly interpretations. When using an article in an encyclopedia or handbook, always check the bibliography for further reading at the end of the article. It will provide a selective list of the books, articles, and, frequently, Web resources considered to be the most up-to-date and reliable.

Calligraphy (essay by Amy McNair) [From Oxford Bibliographies Online Chinese Studies]
This essay gives a valuable overview of sources about Chinese calligraphy. Includes both English-language and Chinese books, articles, and illustrated guides. Note that Oxford Bibliographies Online Chinese Studies is available only in the Haverford campus.
Calligraphy
These pages on calligraphy include material about contemporary practices, see Calligraphy as an Avant-Garde Art and Calligraphy as an Amateur Art. This is part of A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization created by Patricia Buckley Ebrey at the University of Washington.
Companion to Chinese Art
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Includes an essay about calligraphy and an essay entitled "Words in Chinese Painting." Both essays concentrate on traditional art practices rather than on the modern era.
Encyclopedia of Modern China
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Provides critical information on Chinese culture and history from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the present day. See the article on calligraphy for links to other articles about individual calligraphers, types of art, and social practices.
Oxford Art Online
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Includes a major encyclopedia of art as well as other reference works. The entries are enhanced by numerous illustrations and links to artworks. Includes articles on broad topics, like "China, IV: Calligraphy".
Note the different subsections of the article including the most recent period of time, After 1912.

Art & Art History Librarians (HC)

	Julie Coy Art & Photography Librarian Profile & Guides
	Margaret Schaus Haverford College Profile & Guides

Image Web Sites

ARTstor
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A digital library that provides access to hundreds of thousands of digital images derived from a variety of museum, library and archival collections. Once you register on the site, you can download images to a personal folder.

Images are searchable by artist, time, period, and subject. Searching under calligraphy as a keyword and China as a geographic area brings up more than 1300 artworks dating from prehistory to 2017.

To see images of calligraphy digitized for Haverford College, type ARTSH218A into the general search box.

Calligraphic World of Mi Fu's Art
This lushly produced website celebrates the calligraphy and writing of the Sung scholar-official Mi Fu (1051-1107). The National Palace Museum, Taiwan has included excerpts from Mi Fu's writings and illustrations of his calligraphy.
Modern Chinese Calligraphy
Images illustrate the development of Chinese calligraphy in the 20th century. From a lecture by Kim Munson, San Francisco State University.
Out of Character: Decoding Chinese Calligraphy—Selections from the Collection of Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang
This 2014 exhibit from the Metropolitan Museum surveyed Chinese calligraphy from the 13th through the early twentieth century. Some examples are available on this website. See also the full exhibition catalog in Magill's art book collection.
See further images of the art work from its exhibition at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco.
Song and Yuan Dynasty Painting and Calligraphy
The show that was on exhibit from the Freer and Sackler museums is reproduced online with the calligraphic inscriptions and labels viewable as well.

Chinese Posters

Propaganda Posters
Posters from the 1920s and 1930s in Haverford's Special Collections. They relate to imperialism,politics, and war in China. The posters were collected by William Warder Cadbury, a Quaker medical missionary in China, during the 1920s and 1930s..
Chinese Posters: Propaganda, Politics, History, Art
This is a continuation of the Stefan Landsberger's Chinese Propaganda Poster Pages. The site features over 5,000 posters searchable by keyword.