在疫情的陰霾下,全球文博界皆面對巨大的挑戰,同時也衍生了許多富有建設性和創造力的應對之道。本論壇首次以網上形式進行,為中國藝術館員提供一個平台重新審視中國藝術藏品、展覽、教育項目設計與及數碼科技創新的策略。透過論壇前的案例分享 (以視頻形式進行)以及兩晚在線專題討論,參與者共同構想博物館未來,並在過程中得出了重要的啟發。
網上進行 • 香港
日期:2021 年 4 月 23 日至 24 日
主持人:
吳志華博士(香港故宮文化博物館)
姚進莊教授(香港中文大學文物館)
蘇格蘭國家博物館
蘇格蘭國家博物館最近的去殖民化工作及新冠藏品收集
很多博物館在積極地進行去殖民化工作。雖面臨公共衛生危機及封城期間閉館數月,一系列圍繞帝國與殖民歷史及遺留問題的專案正在蘇格蘭國家博物館有條不紊地開展,此報告將討論與中國藏品相關的工作及在此過程中遇到的一些疑問。報告的第二步將介紹博物館最近的新冠藏品徵集工作,我將分享在收集相關中國藏品的一些想法,特別是主題、計劃及選擇流程方面。
大英博物館
後疫情時代大英博物館中國藝術展覽的新形式及展望
受啟發自清代畫家任熊《自畫像》及其題跋中「莽乾坤,眼前何物」一句,本演講提出了以下問題:2021年之後,大家是否還願意一如過去250多年那樣,親身走到市中心的實體建築物裡去觀看玻璃櫃子里的器物呢?這一簡短的報告圍繞後疫情時代中國藝術項目的未來提出了一系列問題,探討中國藝術將在文化與文化空間越漸重要的未來扮演何種角色。本人認為,本地觀眾將透過我們看見全新的未來,一種經過精心策劃的體驗,將觀眾及其本地或獨特經歷置於敘述的中心。我們對全球化敘事及文化之間的聯繫的關注即將減少,取而代之地,我們將更加關注地方文化及個體經驗的普世化。雖然博物館研究員具有催化理解的功能, 但也許未來的觀眾希望自己動手策劃屬於自己的展覽。在逃離博物館研究員的權威之聲時,我們是否能賦予觀眾更大的能量?我們又應當如何進一步善用流行文化和日常物件,與精美的藝術品並置共陳,增進理解?
納爾遜阿特金斯藝術博物館
納爾遜-阿特金斯藝術博物館所藏果親王墓葬出土的吉服袍
當博物館面臨許多挑戰的時候,藝術品來源研究顯得格外重要,來源研究不僅加深對館藏的了解,也幫助博物館了解過去,以繼往開來。本報告提出一個藏品來源研究的案例,以一件吉服袍為主,在博物館資料庫中,此袍著錄為「百鶴吉服袍」,且傳為清代果親王 (1697-1738) 墓出土。這件吉服風格華麗,以完美無缺的織綉手工藝完成,稱得上是清代服飾中的上品,所以自2014年後是館裡幾項保護特案和展覽的重點文物。然而,當這些特案進行時,博物館保護員和策展人遇到了很多問題,為了幫助解決這些問題,筆者針對對吉服的收藏史和來源,在博物館檔案資料中做了研究,發現其中許多資料有待發掘。從研究中,筆者也認識到以後全盤的研究需要和國際學者、機構共同合作。因此,這件吉服的來源研究結合保護措施和展覽,期望能對藝術品的收藏史,清代服飾,和墓葬織品的研究有所貢獻。
克里夫蘭藝術館
從全球隔離到區域開放:用展覽回饋社會
本報告將介紹克利夫蘭藝術博物館在疫情期間為了克利夫蘭本地社區而組織開展的兩個展覽專案。「來自庫藏的故事」這一展覽精選了博物館庫藏中的藝術品,講述它們的故事。「平沙落雁—音樂的詩意與力量」是和中國當代藝術家彭薇的合作項目。彭薇為了表彰克利夫蘭管弦樂團以及全世界的音樂家在疫情期間的重要身份,構思了這一裝置藝術。
舊金山亞洲藝術博物館
亞洲藝術博物館:在全球疫情後展示中國
本演講簡要介紹了舊金山亞洲藝術博物館在全球疫情後時代的中國藝術展覽策劃,並藉此探討DEAI (多元、平等、可及、包容)思潮對當今博物館實踐的影響。顯而易見,DEAI思潮撬動了博物館現有的框架,更好地連結了策展人與館內外其他專業人員,促進富有啟發的談話與合作,為展覽策劃與教育項目的創新提供了新的機會。而本館即將拉開帷幕的展覽「鳳凰故國:長江中游曾楚文化展」,則是一個可供探討如何在展覽籌備和內容中融入DEAI價值的極佳範例。此展覽包含150件考古出土文物,是一個來自武漢——2020年全球疫情震中地區——的巡展。策展人一度憂慮疫情對武漢的衝擊,以及疫情是否會影響與此展覽相關的項目;而我們如今堅信若能成功地在美國舉辦這個展示中國悠久文化的展覽,這將幫助武漢這座城市及其民眾在海外重塑積極的公眾形象。
此展覽探討了中國青銅時代後期多樣而複雜的周代藝術。展览旨在为观众提供中華文明形成的新視角,尤其是長江流域這一值得更多關注的中華文化搖籃。疫情導致的延期,恰好給予我們更多的時間去重新設計展覽的敘事和反映DEAI價值的展覽結構。這一展覽首次將曾國與楚國並置對比,在南方土著與來自中原周代宗主間文化交流與同化這一更加廣闊的情境中,展現這對競爭對手八百年間的興衰成敗。這一段被遺忘的競爭揭示了周代疆土之外的藝術發展暗流,並展示了建構我們今天所認知「中國」的多元文化傳統。另外,展覽的豐富內容亦鼓勵我們思考如何利用多種語言的導覽和說明文字、數字化說明,以及新的社區拓展項目,更好地為觀眾提供大開眼界的觀展體驗。最後,古代中國豐富多樣的信仰與習俗,提醒我們在展廳中呈現多樣化觀念和多角度闡釋的重要性。我們為此設計了專門的展板和數字互動體驗,以反映來自博物館策展人和教育者之外的聲音與觀察。
主持人:
羅諾德博士(香港大學美術博物館)
姚進莊教授(香港中文大學文物館)
清華大學藝術博物館
改變博物館互動方式之數字化項目
清華大學藝術博物館自2016年9月10日落成開放起,就十分重視運用新的技術手段加強與觀眾的互動交流,開館以來的70個展覽大都留下了360度全景數字展廳,還有微信、網站、微博、抖音、視頻號等各種新媒體手段的應用。2020年初突如其來的新冠疫情,更促進清華藝博思考如何更好地通過數字化手段,來保持活力、增強粘性,為此特別策劃了《視窗》:疫情期間圖像檔案徵集活動,並且提前上線了藝博淘寶旗艦店,開闢了文創衍生品的線上銷售新管道。本演講旨在與同行專家及觀眾分享清華藝博的上述實踐與探索,以期集思廣益、取長補短,不斷改進和提升互動方式和效果。
大英圖書館
從實體到數字:數字化領域的公眾參與學習資源
新冠疫情促使公眾與文化機構在因環境快速變化並受影響的數位領域中,快速回應新的挑戰、限制與重新構想其與大眾的交流。許多組織機構,如大英圖書館,注重在擴展並多元化數位服務,包含數位化館藏與學習資源、線上文化活動、社交媒體與數位參與活動。大英圖書館也專注於收集Covid-19相關物件進行收藏和鼓勵公眾參與的活動。在大英圖書館中,負責中文館藏的典藏與維護的館員也藉由參與線上活動來回應這次的挑戰。參與數位活動的人數增加、本地社區互動與國際交流也透過線上平臺持續發展。本演講透過呈現在疫情中圖書館的活動,探索在嘗試數位化項目拓展的過程中所積累的經驗如何能夠為文化機構重新定義公眾參與,並為參與和接觸實體典藏和線上典藏的可持續發展模式提供靈感。
維多利亞與艾爾伯特博物館
維多利亞與艾爾伯特博物館數字項目與中國圖像志索引典:促進中國藏品圖像檢索的變革
在被迫閉館的情況下,公共博物館如何與其觀眾的保持緊密的聯繫?博物館的數字存在如何能滿足其用戶的多種需求 – 情感的、智性的、學術的?我們又如何在快速反應與長期規劃之間找到一個平衡點?本次演講試圖通過維多利亞與艾爾伯特博物館在過去一年疫情期間諸種數位專案的演示來陳述以上的問題。演講將分為兩部分。在第一部分,我們將以快照的方式回顧在此期間本館各類數字活動,包括線上特展導遊,系列主題博客短文,網路授課,以及藏品數位化。第二部分,我們將簡要介紹「中國圖像志索引典」(簡稱「中圖典」)。這是一個專門為中國古代視覺文化而編制的分類系統以及一個與之配套的圖像資料庫。其中我們將描述「中圖典」的性質與範圍,解釋啟動項目背後的思考,以及演示「中圖典」如何能夠協助藝術史家與博物館研究員進行學術研究與文獻整理。
中國絲綢博物館
中國絲綢大系與絲綢之路數字博物館
中國絲綢博物館與北山堂從2014年始就有著長期深入合作。目前,中國藝術品特別是中國絲綢受到了各方關注,浙江大學出版社已基本完成了《中國繪畫大系》,現希望與我們合作共同出版《中國絲綢大系》(SCS)工程系列出版物;絲綢地圖項目(WSM)則收集世界各地的中國絲綢放至地圖上,將形成一個豐盈的資料庫;另外,絲綢之路周(SRW)的舉辦也讓我們希望做更多線上的展覽。所以,我們有了「出版物——資料庫——雲展覽」的思路,也得以陸續啟動這些項目。
此次的演講則將圍繞《中國絲綢大系》(SCS)和絲綢之路數字博物館(SROM)這兩個專案具體展開:《中國絲綢大系》(SCS)將做成集資料性、學術性、研究性和文獻性於一體的綜合性絲綢專業圖書;絲綢之路數字博物館(SROM)則將與國內外約50家絲綢之路相關博物館聯手打造一個集「數位藏品」、「數位展覽」、「數位知識」與「雲上策展」四個層次為一體的平臺。我們正著手打造並將陸續推出這兩個項目,希望獲得大家的支援。
主持人:吳志華博士(香港故宮文化博物館)
賽努奇博物館
賽努奇博物館陳列室的翻新
2020年3月,賽努奇博物館(Cernuschi Museum)開設了新的長期收藏陳列室。 該項目是博物館工作人員多年努力的結果。 它滿足並開拓了包括成人和兒童在內的觀眾對中國歷史和亞洲內部文化交流的新視野。
新的收藏路線首先介紹了博物館創始人亨利·塞努奇(Henri Cernuschi)的生平及其收藏。 之後,開啓時間之旅。 觀眾將瞭解從新石器時代到21世紀近五千年的中國歷史。 如果說中國藝術作為參觀的主幹綫,那麼針對韓國,日本和越南的陳列櫃將成為支點。 參觀路綫的盡頭再開啟了另一個新空間,專門展示近現代書畫。
香港藝術館
香港藝術館新貌與新思維
成立於1962年,作為香港第一所公營美術館,香港藝術館見證了半個世紀以來香港藝術生態圈的變遷。藝術館與時並進,2015-2019年進行大型的翻新及擴建工程,並趁重塑建築硬體的契機,重新審視自己在香港、周邊地區以至國際間的角色和定位,於2019年底重開時呈現全新面貌。香港藝術館總館長將介紹藝術館翻新擴建、品牌重塑工程,以及重開後新路向。
荷蘭國家博物館
封城與解封:新冠疫情期間的荷蘭國家博物館亞洲展廳
新冠肺炎疫情重創荷蘭國家博物館。2020年疫情期間博物館的參觀人數創下自二次世界大戰以來的最低人數。在本報告中,我將簡短地介紹荷蘭國家博物館,特別是亞洲藝術部在首次封城、解封以及二次封城期間如何面對來自新冠病毒的挑戰。本報告包括兩個部分:(一)向博物館觀眾的對外措施、以及(二)博物館的對內措施。
東京國立博物館
增進國際合作:東京國立博物館的中國藝術交流與日本藝術交流
東京國立博物館自1872年創建以來,作為國家的歷史和文化的對外交流窗口,一直致力於國際文化交流。講演主要介紹近年本館實施的與中國及歐美博物館、美術館之間的展覽交流現狀,通過實例解說中國文化在日本的受容狀況和與中國博物館間的展覽合作與學術交流。並簡要介紹新冠疫情之下的東京國立博物館活動。
博物館擔負有傳承文化遺產的使命,必然也會受到國家主義、民族主義等價值觀的影響。在新冠疫情依然未能得到有效控制的今天,自國中心主義更有擡頭趨勢,藝術欣賞眼光也趨於內向化。此時,全世界的博物館更需要聯合在一起共同推進博物館活動,展示世界的多元文化。
上海博物館
打造超級連接的文化樞紐 —上海博物館東館建設的若干思路
本題借用了2018年國際博物館日主題「超級連接的博物館:新方法、新公眾」和2019年國際博物館日主題「作為文化樞紐的博物館」中的兩個概念,用以突顯上海博物館東館建設的有關指導思想與價值取向。東館立足于建設成為全球卓越的中國古代藝術博物館,同時也以塑造和服務「新公眾」為使命,展現其承載了藝術的殿堂、文化的課堂、休閒的廳堂等多重複合功能的更大作為。
主持人:莫家詠博士(香港藝術館)
北京大學賽克勒藝術與考古博物館
疫情時代的思考:大學博物館的社會責任
疫情給博物館帶來意想不到的挑戰。對於大學博物館來說,首先是封校、限流、閉館帶來觀眾的變化或隔絕,由於大學博物館地處大學校園,未來一段時間可能主要面對校園社區的觀眾,對校外觀眾的服務由線下轉為線上;其次,原有工作計畫全部打亂或停止。面對各種不確定,我們開始思考面對這樣的巨變,像我們這樣資金、人力有限且體量不大的大學博物館在這場危機中及未來可以為社會做什麼?更抽象的說大學博物館的社會責任是什麼?我們認為有兩點最為重要:1.博物館通過多種線上形式給予觀眾心靈的陪伴,使他們獲得自信與力量;2.博物館通過線上展覽、教育活動等可以潛移默化地讓觀眾成為包容、理解、尊重文化多樣性的人。這兩點有助於人們面對災難時更加理智和團結。圍繞這樣的責任我們開始重新思考博物館可以做什麼?我們主要做了以下三項工作:1. 進行藏品數位資訊的採集及數位資源建設工作,為以後更好的服務公眾做準備; 2. 反思總結以往做過的展覽有哪些不足,在未來的展覽中如何避免; 3.重新規劃線上的服務:虛擬展示、展覽及藏品的深度解讀,更加突出博物館的社會責任。為了能讓校園中的志願者在閉館期間可以參與博物館的幕後工作,我們邀請他們參加藏品數位資訊採集整理、展覽VR中語言導覽的製作及微信公眾號推送文章的資料收集等。以上是我們疫情以來的思考與探索,希望未來能更好的發揮大學博物館的社會作用。
新南威爾士藝術館
西方博物館中國藝術主任角色的再思考 — 澳大利亞的一個案例
新南威爾士藝術博物館在澳大利亞是與中國合作的引領者。從1981到2016年,我館舉辦了15個來自中國博物館和文化機構及一個來自臺北故宮的展覽。其中有3個展覽來自北京故宮博物院, 3個來自陝西省。如此卓越的成績充分體現了我館對推廣中國文化和參與中國的堅定承諾。如此活躍的借展規劃也為我們同中國同仁的長期合作打下了堅實的基礎。
近期席捲全球的新冠疫情給舉辦巡迴展覽造成了種種困難。然而,先進的網路技術設施為尋求有創意性地同中國博物館同事們進行學術交流和溝通的方式提供了機會。通過本演講我們希望介紹中國藝術主任可以在策展之外的專業交流中所起到的重要作用。
我們相信在今天如此兩極分化的世界保持人與人之間的友好關係和文化交流更顯其重要性。
費城藝術博物館
通過展陳策劃促進社會變革
博物館領域如今正面臨前所未有的挑戰。疫情凸顯並加劇了我們社會結構中潛在的問題。在意識到自己的角色已異於往昔後,博物館紛紛做出回應,認為需要適應當今社會產生變革。費城藝術博物館正在啟動一個長達三年時間的「中國藝術倡導方案」,探索運用館藏中國藝術品來促進社會變革的方式,試圖在整個社會層面更具關切性、多元化和包容度。在此次演講中,我將介紹怎樣通過我們新策劃的中國展廳讓藏品對觀眾來說更具可訪問度和關切性。我將與大家探討一個多層面的方法——不僅要考慮藏品的展示,同時還要兼顧公眾教育活動的策劃。
國家亞洲藝術博物館
現代美術館作為靜思和睿辨的避風港與先鋒:對展示、收藏的來源與資訊散播之新敏銳度
我感謝北山堂對博物館使命持續且深思熟慮的支持,以及籌劃該論壇以聚集專家們探討博物館如何渡過疫情,與如何在該經驗之驅使下想像在美國常被稱為「新常態」(the new normal) 的新未來。我想要以一句來自佛利爾美術館與賽克勒美術館,即史密森學會之國立亞洲藝術博物館,對美國亞太裔社群的團結聲援訊息以作為我的評論之開場。我們哀悼2021年3月16日在亞特蘭大遇害的八位人們,並被提醒著我們期望佛利爾美術館與賽克勒美術館分享亞洲藝術文化的使命能夠協助消滅反亞裔暴力。
敝館,佛利爾美術館與賽克勒美術館收藏、保存、研究、展示並出版亞洲藝術。我們接觸華盛頓特區當地的觀眾,全美國內觀眾,並漸觸及國際社會。我們呼籲敝館發聲以在對抗仇恨、種族主義、仇外主義及厭女主義做出貢獻。然而,在打擊惡劣行為的同時,我們必須意識到美術館本質上並非政治的──其非政策制定者,其作為社會變革引擎的程度和方式始終為一個熱門話題。
雖然如此,無疑地,美術館能夠做好的一件事為透過呈現人類在藝術背後的創造力以連結人們──過去與現今的人們,以及所有種族的人們。藉由藝術,博物館打開情感渠道並刺激大腦,創造人們間的連結,建立文化敏感度和同理心。我們希望透過激發新的文化意識與知識,能夠激發人們更高的個人與社會責任。儘管陳述了這個宏大的目標,個人而言,我不想要遺忘讓博物館之所以美妙,且適宜啟發人們最好一面的部分原因是博物館作為遠離塵囂的寧靜避風港,自社會議題的沈重稍作喘息之地,讓人們接觸藝術及從事二十世紀初佛利爾美術館創辦人稱之為「寂靜的沈思與有見地的相比」(quiet contemplation and intelligent comparison) 的空間 (實體的或虛擬的) 之功能。
這即為何我將報告命名為「現代美術館作為靜思和睿辨的避風港與先鋒」。當我們 邁向日益建立在科技與數位化之博物館實踐──事物之先鋒面,我認為我們必須至少確保博物館之部分實體空間和部分線上虛擬存在能夠作為一個喘息空間,提供復癒的避風港,一個給平靜思緒和安靜學習之空間。博物館既是一個空間,也是一種體驗;博物館既是避風港,也是一種令人大開眼界並走在前端的接觸。
我將會在報告中論述「新常態」(new normal) 和藝術收藏道德之某些面向。在該摘要中,我點出幾個實例。關於在疫情中出現並將持續之新型態「博物館展示」(museum display),我提到敝館之「冥想與正念」(Meditation and Mindfulness) 工作坊──在該工作坊中受過培訓之冥想老師帶領線上課程,透過身體和呼吸練習靜心,同時在正念練習中,他也聚焦在敝館的一件藝術品以促進內心之平靜。在冥想練習後接著為簡短的策展人講座,提供關於藝術品之歷史脈絡和更多資訊以活化仔細觀察藝術品之經驗。這是一種融合人們與藝術之完美方式──一種結合身體與大腦的方式,為如何在線上「展示」(display) 藝術提供一種新典範。
我也想要談談收藏的道德。當我們想到博物館收藏管理和藝術文化推廣之使命,我們知道博物館必須建立公眾信任。「誠實」(probity) 需深植於博物館的使命、實務和哲學中,就如誠實需為人類所有努力之基礎一樣。人們應知道藝術品的來源,而敝館正努力讓我們典藏之藝術文物所經歷的來源更加透明化。這是一項龐大並正在進行中的計畫,將會花上數年的時間,而在此我將注意力拉到佛利爾美術館與賽克勒美術館對於「1970年聯合國教科文組織關於禁止和防止非法進口文化財產和非法轉讓其所有權的方法的公約」(UNESCO 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property) 之遵循。然而,作為一個典藏歷史始於美術館創始人查爾斯・朗・佛利爾自1900年前後收購藝術品的博物館,敝館有很廣的歷史範圍要著手;此外,敝館也需留意任何從第二次世界大戰期間非法藝術品轉讓所產生的問題。敝館有一個專業的藏品來源研究員,而所有的策展人都對藏品來源研究做出貢獻。
目前,我們努力透過兩個途徑來分享藏品來源資訊。首先,在敝館之網站上我們有各件藝術文物之照片,並為此給予簡短的辨識碼,包括品名、日期,有時候包括過去展覽之標籤,且我們總是顯示「藏品來源」。有時候,資訊很粗略,這意味完整資訊尚未被輸入,或者研究尚在進行中。但是對於查爾斯・朗・佛利爾的藏品,我們往往有清楚的紀錄,而當有清楚的紀錄時,我們會鍵入資訊,舉例而言,我們可能會標註「查爾斯・朗・佛利爾1916年從紐約來遠公司購入該物品」。此外,我們擁有數個來自佛利爾、學者們和藏家們之檔案庫,這些都列在我們的網站上,並可以親自到館造訪。
另一個我們處理藏品來源的途徑是與其他博物館合作,贊助線上研討會以探討向歐美藏家和博物館提供中國藝術品之主要來源,例如盧芹齋(C.T. Loo)。在2020年12月我們贊助了「重新審視盧芹齋 二十世紀亞洲藝術市場之新資訊來源與觀點」(C.T. Look Revisited New Sources & Perspectives on the Market for Asian Art in the 20th Century) 研討會 ,而我們將在2021年4月15日主辦「山中商會:全球亞洲藝術交易之早期先鋒」(Yamanaka & Co.: Early Pioneer of the Global Asian Art Trade)研討會。
佛利爾美術館與賽克勒美術館之宗旨是在分享藝術典藏的方式上具創意,並對於其歷史保持坦誠。
故宮博物院
疫情和後疫情時期故宮博物院的實踐與探索
2020年突如其來的新冠疫情給全球文博機構帶來空前挑戰,各博物館都在努力尋求變革與突破。面對突如其來的新冠疫情,在習近平主席的堅強領導下,中國人民戰「疫」取得重大成果。故宮博物院嚴格落實中央的決策部署,根據故宮的實際情況,在開放、展覽、宣傳教育及對外交流等諸多方面積極尋求應對措施。
首先是及時閉館並適時開館。針對疫情形勢,我院審時度勢,快速建立了完善的應急回應機制,保證開放工作穩中有序進行。其次是開展線上線下展覽活動。2020年,我院集中力量辦好兩個大型精品展覽,積極開展其它配套活動,擴大展覽傳播力和影響力。2021年春節期間,我院推出了一系列特色展覽,為群眾就地過年做好服務。再者是為應對觀眾量減少的情況,我院將故宮的文化資源和互聯網相結合,通過數位藏品、直播活動和線上教育項目等創造性轉化和創新性發展,與公眾形成良性互動。最後是我院的對外交流與合作。在全球疫情蔓延的情況下,我院在符合防疫要求的前提下,積極保持與國際及地區間的交流合作,並將部分重要工作放線上上開展,比如高精度文物圖片展覽、學術論壇、文物保護技術交流等。
在疫情的衝擊下,我國博物館要在守護和傳承文化及傳統的同時,重新思考自身的定位及服務社會的方式。
** 按主題演講順序排列
論壇探討全球視野下的中國藝術史研究、展覽策劃及公眾教育活動,嘗試反思中國藝術展覽的價值及新方向。與會者分享世界各地博物館與文化機構如何透過跨學科與跨文化互動,突破國家與文化的疆界,理解和闡釋中國藝術。
皇家安大略博物館
日期:2018 年 10 月 17 日至 19 日
主持:蘇芳淑教授(北山堂基金)
清華大學藝術博物館
不僅僅是教學博物館─清華大學藝術博物館的實踐之路
作為誕生僅僅2年左右的年輕大學博物館,清華大學藝術博物館自開館以來,先後舉辦了近30個異彩紛呈的展覽,開展了大量的公共教育和專業教育活動,吸引了將近100萬觀眾前來參觀,贏得較多聲譽和社會各界的廣泛關注。我們有一個雄心勃勃的願景─成為中國最好、世界一流的大學博物館。
圍繞這個願景,在過去的2年中,我們做了哪些嘗試和努力?取得哪些經驗和教訓?在全球化的特定歷史背景下,未來我們該何去何從?制約我們成長的關鍵因素有哪些?作為從非專業領域跨界到博物館管理崗位的一位副館長,我是如何協調環境工程專業教育工作與博物館管理工作的衝突?我將和大家分享清華藝博的成長實踐,也期待得到同行和前輩的指導和幫助。
蘇格蘭國家博物館
機遇與挑戰︰蘇格蘭國家博物館中國文物收藏與展示
歷經150多年的發展,蘇格蘭國家博物館所擁有的中國文物藏品數量可觀,其中不乏精品,並且近些年在當代藝術品的收藏上有所拓展。博物館於1996年開放首個東亞藝術館,現正處於建設之中的東亞新館是博物館15年總體規劃的最後一階段。新的展館將通過4個主題展示中國、日本及朝鮮半島的古往今來,並有數件專為為新館定制的藏品。新館的建設帶來了令人振奮的發展,但機遇與挑戰總是並存的,我將藉這個報告與各位分享自己負責中國藏品的典藏與展示工作的一些心得。
荷蘭國家博物館
二十一世紀展示中國藝術的挑戰與機會: 以阿姆斯特丹國家博物館為例
已有逾兩百年歷史的荷蘭國家博物館,一直以來致力於中國藝術的收藏。本報告以荷蘭國家博物館為例,針對其於過去、現在、以及未來對中國藝術的展示進行討論。報告分為3個部份:第一、荷蘭國家博物館中國藝術文物的收藏史以及過去對中國藝術的展示;第二、自其於2013年重新開館迄今的中國藝術展示;以及第三、荷蘭國家博物館有關中國藝術展示的未來展望。同時,有關展示中國藝術以及策劃有關中國藝術展覽的限制與挑戰亦包含在論述中。
主持:嵇若昕教授(輔仁大學博物館學研究所)
柏林國家博物館亞洲藝術館
中國文人藝術與文化 ─ 本土觀念及其全球影響
「文人藝術」(有文化修養人士、文人或騷人墨客的藝術)是中國文化之精粹。在國外某些華人聚居的地區,不少文人收藏的珍玩,及書畫作品都被視為文人藝術的代表作並得到重視。在歐洲,中國書畫作品對於普羅大眾而言相對陌生。因此,介紹中國文人文化予歐洲觀眾時,一般會面對更多挑戰。
本演講將根據個人經驗與本人對文人文化的了解,描述文人思想的要義、跨文化和全球化等問題。首先,展示我曾在歐洲、亞洲和美國等地學習和工作時所些文人藝術和文化研究。然後集中講述本人的研究領域,即元代文人和道士張雨(1283 – 1350)。最後,我將討論不同博物館如何將文人藝術概念化,以及簡單介紹即將於柏林洪堡空間開幕的國家博物館亞洲藝術館中的中國文人藝術及文化展館。
上海博物館
中國文化藝術對日本江戶時代繪畫的影響
日本在進入江戶時代(1603-1867)之前已經分別受到了我國唐代和宋元文化的兩次影響,隨著時間的流逝,這些來自中國的文化藝術漸漸融入到日本的本土文化中。到了江戶時代又有一股最新的明末清初的文化思潮影響了日本,而且這個時期日本在德川幕府的統治下持續了將近300年,社會的穩定和經濟的繁榮,促進了文化藝術的飛速發展。因而日本的繪畫、陶瓷、工藝等藝術領域在這個時期均得到了極大的發展,打破了過去的單一形式,新興藝術流派層出不窮,形成了百花齊放、爭奇鬥豔之勢。
江戶時代隨著出版業的迅速發展,中國明末清初的最新繪畫風格與藝術理論很快傳到了日本各地,被日本畫家視為至寶。日本的繪畫藝術也因此提升到了一個新的高度。比如,一些日本的知識分子由於憧憬書本上中國文人的理想境界而刻意模仿他們的生活方式,日本文人畫就是在這樣的文化背景下誕生的。然而誕生在京都的琳派藝術其支持者,大都是富有的商人,相比那些追求理想境界的知識分子,他們更加注重生活的品質與品味,所以琳派的作品往往更多的體現了日本一般民眾的日常生活。此次演講將以日本江戶時代各派的作品為例,探討日本江戶時代繪畫吸收中國文化的過程與傳承方式。
中國絲綢博物館
美國費城藝術博物館藏絲綢經面初探
「經面」,俗稱「經皮子」,當時文獻中也稱其為「掩面」,指的是經折裝佛經封面和封底的裱封。明清時期,特別是明代晚期刊印的《永樂北藏》,裝裱材料多以各色華麗的絲綢織物製成,流傳至今,成為研究當時絲綢生產的重要材料。費城藝術博物館共藏有絲綢經面539件,其中大部分來自Carl Schuster的舊藏,此外,還有來自Howard A. Wolf和Peter A. Benolie捐贈的兩函經書,這些織物無論品種還是圖案都十分豐富,較全面地反映了明清時期的絲織技術和藝術風格。根據記載,當時用於佛經裝裱的面料主要是緞、綾、絹等幾種,但事實上,除了成套經書外,這些經面織物均為顯花織物,這種現象的出現,可能是因當時古董商將經面撕下出售時,認為素織物沒有價值,故未保留。從經緯線用色情況來看,這批顯花織物可分為單色織物和多彩織物兩種。而經面圖案涉及的範圍十分廣泛,包括植物、動物、人物、吉祥、幾何和雲紋等,幾乎涵蓋了當時所有的織物流行題材,並大多賦有祥瑞之意。值得注意的一點是,有些經面織物原來可能是作補子、袍料等服飾之用,甚至還有用幾片圖案相近的零料拼貼而成的現象,推測出現這種情況的原因,一種可能是為表虔誠,以自己所用之物布施,另一種可能,則是製作時財力不足,只能以零料充數。
主持:姚進莊教授(香港中文大學文物館)
芝加哥大學
在虛擬現實中展示中國藝術
世界各地的藝術館皆隨現今流行的趨勢在展覽中加入數碼元素,例如智能電話應用程式、互動式平台、數碼模型,以及虛擬現實。中國藝術展覽亦非例外。這些科技產品具資訊及教育性,有助深化參觀者的視覺體驗,並進一步提升他們對展覽的興趣和認識。有時候,這些科技產品還被用作噱頭以激發觀眾的「數碼感官」。雖然這些數碼元素主要用以配合博物館的展覽和裝置策略,以吸引更多年青參觀者進場;但隨著數碼技術的發展,它們亦同時為藝術品創造「新形象」,帶來格外的視像、感觀、體驗和理解。換句話說,這種在美術展覽中嶄新的「數碼性」不止是一個策展性的議題或挑戰,還具有藝術史層面的重要意義。虛擬現實能提供最全面的視覺倣擬,但若實行在中國藝術上亦帶來不少爭議性的問題。
有些人認為早在西方源用的透視再現法中,已呈現出虛擬現實的概念和實踐。透視再現的原理是要製造一個以觀看者為中心的視覺,並用可實證量度的方法,仿擬他與四周空間的關係,令觀看者有如置身於虛擬空間。因此,他們認為這樣照方抓藥,為一向缺乏透視再現的中國傳統藝術品重建虛擬的體驗,是一個牽強的舉動。雖然這說法在某程度上是對的,然而,本次演講將論証中國亦存在虛擬現實的歷史,只是以不同於西方透視發的形式而存在。為此,這次發表演說先會重新審視三維科技製造出來的中國藝術數碼圖像,並論說其圖像非原本藝術品的再現,而是再創造。其次,演說會在更廣闊的中國藝術史情境中,探討虛擬現實的數碼圖像怎樣融入傳統藝術。最後,演說將反思現時在中國藝術展覽的數碼技術,並據此提出新圖像技術如何改變中國藝術的展示方式,和我們欣賞及認識它的方法。
北京大學賽克勒考古與藝術博物館
如何應用數字技術實現一個理想展覽的邏輯 ─ 以北大賽克勒博物館大同沙嶺北魏壁畫展為例
1、北京大學賽克勒博物館簡史 北京大學賽克勒藝術與考古博物館於1993年對外開放,是中國第一所教學博物館。賽克勒博物館不僅展示了北京大學在考古和文物研究方面的成就,而且還通過與來自不同文化背景的藝術家和專家合作舉辦藝術展覽和研討會,是一個重要的學術交流中心。
2、展覽所涵蓋的主題 由北京大學考古文博學院與雲岡石窟研究所合作舉辦的《另一個世界的想像──大同沙嶺7號北魏墓葬壁畫與雲岡石窟藝術》展覽於2017年1月12日至2018年3月26日在北京大學賽克勒博物館舉辦。本次展覽基於山西省大同市沙嶺北魏7號壁畫墓葬考古發現。這些壁畫的發現被評為2005年「中國十大考古發現」之一。在這次展覽中,我們展示了幾幅複製的壁畫和一些來自雲岡石窟遺址出土的雕像。這些壁畫複製品是在雲岡石窟研究所的考古學家和內蒙古自治區的壁畫家共同努力下創作的。他們在這個項目上通力合作了2年。雕像和壁畫描繪了北魏統治階級所享有的富裕生活方式,以及他們想像的來世的奢華生活。
3、展覽亮點 本次展覽強調跨學科專業人士的合作,展覽團隊包括考古學家、策展人、藝術史學家、古代建築史專家、藝術家和電腦專家。在以後的演講中,我將進一步討論如何利用最新研究成果以及數位技術(如3D列印和VR)等新方法來擴展觀眾的參與體驗,以及如何使用微信創建展覽語音導覽等問題。
德國德累斯頓國家藝術收藏館
德累斯頓瓷器研究計劃:著錄皇室收藏亞洲外銷瓷器收藏
瓷器與絲綢和茶葉一樣,都是由中國外銷至世界的商品,他們都極富異國風情和身份象徵,在亞洲市場始終需求龐大,並且16世紀之後的西方世界也紅極一時。對歐洲人而言,瓷器上的裝飾通常是他們對非西方文化的第一印象,激發他們對整個世界和文化奇觀的嚮往。
茶葉和絲綢很快會變質,但瓷器即使有缺損也有近乎永恆的生命,因此通常被視為物質文化中早期全球化的最佳例子。瓷器在西方世界很有影響力,是西方室內設計的新元素,亦在1700年左右成為改變歐洲飲食習慣的核心,對之後於18世紀盛行的中國風影響深遠。
瓷器在歐洲的廣泛應用及各考古發現清楚顯示,瓷器於18世紀影響著荷蘭社會的各個層面。另外,歐洲上層階級亦收藏瓷器,起初作為奇珍櫃的陳列品,之後則設立瓷器室,展示數量巨大、不同形狀、顏色和裝飾的瓷器收藏,以顯示擁有者的品味和地位。
奧古斯特二世(1670-1733)為薩克森選帝侯及波蘭國王,在18世紀早期擁有豐富和完整記錄的瓷器收藏,逝世時擁有接近25,000件中國和日本瓷器。由於這些瓷器可以與當代藏品目錄的描述配對,記載奧古斯特二世在哪裏得到這些瓷器,購買價格和怎樣使用它們。所以,雖然只有三分之一的瓷器避過戰火而存於在德國德累斯頓的茨溫格宮,但它們仍然是非常重要的藏品。這種難能可貴的對應關係之所以存在,是因為每件藏品到來時,底部都被銘刻或繪畫了一個數字。由此可見,我們的瓷器藏品庫能夠原汁原味地反映一個時代的關於瓷器的品味、鑑藏和繁多的種類。
此外,這些瓷器藏品亦標誌著邁森首批真正西方瓷器的發明和發展。邁森位於德累斯頓附近,奧古斯特二世當時大力支持邁森瓷器製造作坊發展,甚至打算在德累斯頓的「日本皇宮」將邁森瓷器與亞洲瓷器一同展示,但這個計劃從未實現。
現時,我們正在進行一個圖錄整理項目,建立英文版本的現代數字化圖錄,記錄奧古斯特二世遺留的每件亞洲瓷器藏品。承蒙北山堂基金和其他機構的支持,所有藏品已經拍照紀錄,所有相關的目錄條目亦已謄寫並翻譯。30名各國專家正在撰寫新條目,作為此項目的學術指導,我在論壇將展示項目成員的最新發現。
主持:沈辰博士(皇家安大略博物館)
** 以專題講座先後排序
論壇探討不同文化背景的博物館如何透過科學技術、歷史研究、展覽設計以及教育推廣,促進學術界及公眾對中國藝術的理解。
主辦機構:故宮博物院
日期:2016年10月13 – 15日
香港藝術館
博物館與眾同享 – 守護與推廣中國書畫收藏
博物館的建立為人類具歷史和文化價值的事物提供了良好的保存環境;它的藏品不但凝聚了文明精粹並反映其發展進程,又為衍生更優秀的文化、藝術提供豐富養份。中國書畫作為精緻文化藝術的重要載體,對於它的保存、研究、教育推廣誠然是博物館及相關從業員非常重要的使命和工作。
清代乾隆《石渠寶笈》著錄唐宋元書畫作品共約二千件,但相比六百多年前宋徽宗的書畫譜記錄,單是北宋前作品已達七千六百多件,反映了書畫一類珍貴的紙絹作品在歷史流傳進程中,是非常脆弱並輕易湮沒。北京故宮博物院去年舉辦了《石渠寶笈》的展覽和國際學術研討會,來自世界各地的博物館館長、專家、學者深入地再檢視這批中國文明瑰寶,為往後保存、研究和傳播知識進一步釐清問題,從而奠立更堅實的發展基礎,充份發揮了現代博物館的功能。
《石渠寶笈》的一部份作品在上世紀經香港散佚海外,當時幸有虛白齋主人劉作籌先生傾力搶購得以保留十三件。劉先生有感歷史上個人書畫收藏大多如過眼雲煙,決定將虛白齋藏品捐贈予香港藝術館。館方特設專業部門管理,建立先進的虛白齋倉庫、研究室和展廳,其中不斷利用了藏品中的《石渠寶笈》書畫舉辦專題展覽和教育活動,又出版教育刊物。又例如大英博物館亞洲部館長,曾利用館藏《石渠寶笈》的南宋馬和之《陳風圖》,以長江文化為專題策劃展覽,讓海外觀眾得從不同角度了解中國歷史、文化和書畫藝術。此舉亦說明了現代博物館和館長如何執行守護與推廣文化知識的使命與責任。
丹佛藝術博物館
百年歷程:丹佛美術博物館的中國藝術收藏與展示
The history of a museum’s collection reflects the museum’s vision and mission. Collecting and promoting Chinese arts in American art museums reflects the museum’s understanding of the role of Chinese arts in their strategic plan. Since 1915, the Denver Art Museum has been collecting and promoting Chinese art. This centennial journey represents a unique perspective of a west American museum towards Chinese art. Like many American museums with Chinese art collections, Denver Art Museum has largely built its Chinese art collections from private donations. However, unlike some museums with big gifts from one or few collectors, the Chinese art collections at the Denver Art Museum were primarily accumulated through small or medium gifts over the past century. Almost 400 donors from the US, Asia, Europe and South America have helped build the collections. The first of these was Walter C. Mead (1866-1951), who pledged his collection of Chinese and Japanese art ‘to the people of Denver’ in 1915, forming the nucleus of Asian arts at Denver up to the early 1940s. With the generous support of these donors and the museum’s own purchases, the Denver Art Museum’s Chinese art collections rank today among the finest in North America, representing 5,000 years of art history of China.
With the expansion of its Chinese art collections over the past century, the Denver Art Museum embarked on ambitious exhibitions and programmes featuring and presenting Chinese arts and culture to the residents of Denver and beyond. It has to date developed or hosted more than ninety special exhibitions — including many collaborations with museums in Asia, Europe and other parts of the US — along with educational programmes, lecture series and academic symposia.
天津博物館
天津博物館的古代藝術品收藏、研究與展示
演講主要分為兩部分內容,一是介紹天津博物館的歷史沿革,收藏品類別、構成、來源及特色。二是結合天津博物館近年來策劃舉辦的古代藝術系列展覽,如繪畫史系列的《海上風華–天津博物館藏”海派”繪畫作品展》、《見”怪”非怪–天津博物館藏揚州畫派作品展》、《筆墨真趣–清初”四王”繪畫作品展》、《晚明繪畫作品展》、《畫與書歸–明代中期吳門繪畫特展》,以及古器物研究系列的《硯拓–天津博物館藏古硯與拓片展》、《鏡影–天津博物館藏曆代銅鏡展》等展覽,分析介紹天津博物館在藝術史研究及展示及社會教育等方面所作的嘗試及得失,探討未來藝術研究、策展、傳播的目標和方向。
紐瓦克博物館
紐瓦克博物館的中國項目:過去與未來
Today the Chinese art collection of the Newark Museum numbers approximately 9,000 works of art (not including an additional 5,600 works of Tibetan art). Over 100 Chinese objects entered the collection with the Museum’s founding in 1909. The first major exhibition to focus on China was the 1923 traveling exhibition, “China, the Land and the People”. Organized in conjunction with the Chinese legation in Washington, DC, this was an unprecedented compilation of early twentieth-century Chinese crafts which showcased contemporary (1920s) life in China as well as its history. Two smaller exhibitions formed from this larger one traveled to twenty other US cities in the 1920s. This institutional history prompted a number of significant gifts of Chinese art to the Museum throughout the twentieth century.
In recent years, several projects have focused on different facets of the collection. The Museum hosted Professor Han Huirong 韓慧榮 of Beijing Normal University 北師大 to review and publish the Museum’s extensive collection of paper cuts resulting in the 2015 publication: Revolutionary Chinese Paper Cuts from the Newark Museum. 《剪綵出東方 紐華克博物館館藏中國剪紙》. This summer of 2016 Professor Lei Chinhau 雷晉豪 recently of Hong Kong Baptist University reviewed the Museum’s pre-Ming dynasty ceramic collection. We anticipate a publication resulting from his review in the near future.
Recent exhibitions of Chinese art at the Museum feature both special exhibitions and permanent gallery reinstallations. In 2013, the special exhibition “Ming to Modern, Elevating the Everyday in Chinese Art”《明代至今:日用品中的中國藝術》was drawn entirely from the Museum’s holdings (excepting one loaned work). In 2012 three permanent gallery reinstallations were created along these themes: “Re-Activating Antiquities: Honoring the Archaic in Chinese Art, 200 BC-2012 AD” 《復古》; “China’s China: Porcelain, Earthenware, Stoneware & Glazes”《中國陶瓷》; and “Buddhism, Taoism, Confucius and Cult of Mao: China’s Religious Arts” 《佛教,道教,孔子和毛澤東的崇拜》. Additional permanent gallery installations that showcase Chinese art include the 2011 “Tiaras to Toe Rings: Asian Ornaments” and in 2010 “Red Luster: Lacquer & Leather Works of Asia”.
Planning for the next special exhibition is underway. With the working title: China Trending: 18th Century Fads and Fashions for Velvets, Painted Enamels and Glass, the exhibit will feature the Museum’s own superior examples of Chinese velvets, painted enamel wares and glass works and will highlight some of the early global exchanges between China and Europe that led to the creation of these pieces. As demonstrated above, the Museum welcomes visiting scholars to study and publish focused aspects of the larger collection. Areas that remain understudied include our significant holdings of jades, paintings, costumes and textiles.
故宮博物院
故宮文物的傳統修復工藝與新技術應用
故宮是明清兩代24位皇帝之朝寢,彙集了無數奇珍異寶,藏品歷經數百年乃至上千年的滄桑,存在不同程度的破損。文物修復歷來有之,修復之法世代傳承。文保科技部經歷歷史沿革,現已發展成為從事文物保護修復和科學研究的業務部門。隨著科學技術在文物保護中的應用,為文物病害的診斷、文物的預防性保護和文物修復提供了重要的支撐。「古法」和「今術」的結合構建起故宮博物院的「文物醫院」。半個多世紀以來,文物被送進「文物醫院」,文物醫生使他們延年益壽。伴隨著「平安故宮」工程的實施,我部已擁有4項國家級非物質文化遺產,木器、織繡、漆器、百寶鑲嵌、金石、鐘錶、陶瓷、古書畫裝裱修復、古書畫臨摹、古書畫數位噴繪複製、囊匣製作、唐卡、藝術品修復等13個門類的工作室一百多位專業技術人員每年修復文物數百件。
主持:雷勇博士(故宮博物院)
芝加哥大學
天龍山石窟專案與展覽計畫: 流散佛像的數位存檔與石窟復原
The Tianlongshan Caves Project-Introduction
The Buddhist cave shrines of Tianlongshan were carved from the mountainside outside of Taiyuan City, Shanxi province, mostly from the sixth through eighth century. In recent history they have been seriously damaged when their sculptural contents were first recognized for their aesthetic value and dispersed through the international art market. Since 2014 the Center for the Art of East Asia at the University of Chicago has collected wide-ranging information and images of the sculptures and caves. A small work team has traveled around the globe to photograph and conduct 3D scanning of about one hundred sculptures and has created a website as database that brings together historical information, old photographs, and digital photographs and 3D models of the sculptures. This is searchable by cave numbers, museum locations, sculptural figure types, and other criteria and viewable with interactive 3D displays.
Dispersed Sculptures
More than 150 sculptures known from publications have been attributed to the Tianlongshan caves. The sculptures taken from the caves now are located in museums around the world where their original significance as religious images in the context of a cave temples and religious practice is lost. The former locations of many of these sculptures can now be confirmed with the current research and collected information. In addition the project will work with collaborators in China to conduct 3D scanning of the caves. This will enable us to create digital reconstruction of caves based on the scanned 3D data that could be shown in museum galleries together with the sculptures.
Exhibition Concepts and Goals of Digital Installations
The next step in the Tianlongshan Caves Project is to design a special museum exhibition that makes innovative use of contemporary technology. The goal is to devise new ways to create museum installations that offer an engaging, informative, and in some cases, interactive experience for a general museum audience. In both intimate and large-scale digital displays, the installations will create virtual spaces inside of galleries that offer new ways to view works of sculptural art even in the absence of the actual works of art and to experience the spaces of cave temples. The digital displays will allow visitors to to survey the Tianlongshan caves site environment and observe the art and architecture of the Buddhist caves in various ways. It will show the caves in their current condition and reconstruct their former appearance with the digital restoration of the missing sculptures in the caves. The exhibition can digitally transport the sculptures from their current museum locations and reunite them with their former groups of religious images in cave contexts. This will enable visitors to understand the historical appearance and religious meaning of Tianlongshan as well as the consequences of the destruction of the caves in recent history.
大都會藝術博物館
Science and Art: The Colors of East Asian Paintings
East Asian painters and printmakers have achieved a rich visual language within the constraints of a very simple, almost minimalist technique. A relatively narrow range of pigments thinly bound in hide glue or dispersed in starch paste afforded artists in China, Korea, Japan, and the Himalayan plateau surprisingly evocative possibilities in scrolls, screens, album drawings and prints.
The complexity of painterly effects achieved by East Asian artists has often been overlooked in the West, and the extent to which color and gloss are manipulated through pigment selection, shading, and overlying with transparent or colored glazes has only been brought to light in recent studies. Much in the same way, the variety of natural and synthetic inorganic and organic pigments, and their history of mining, manufacture, and trade over China and the neighboring regions is not sufficiently known.
Despite the enormous importance of Chinese art over the centuries, the pigments of Chinese, paintings have not been studied in the West to the same extent as those of Japanese paintings or Himalayan thangkas. This situation should clearly be addressed, as China played a key role in developing and disseminating most of the traditional East Asian pictorial forms, as well as painting materials. In fact, the development of painting techniques in the regions around China cannot be understood without looking in detail at the material evidence presented by Chinese paintings.
This talk will attempt to stimulate discussion and new research in Chinese painting materials by presenting the results of scientific examinations of paintings and prints in private and public collections in the United States carried out over the last fifteen years. Case studies presented will range from the identification of lac dye on a Qing painting by Qian Wicheng, to the manipulation of gloss in a 15th century Tibetan thangka, from Kōrin’s technical choices in Irises at Yatsuhashi, to Hokusai’s experiments with Prussian blue in his paintings, from the sophisticate use of indigo and Prussian blue mixtures in the Nishimuraya printed Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji, to the synthetic dye revolution in Meiji prints.
The results presented were obtained by using a combination of non-destructive and microanalytical techniques such as fiber optics reflectance spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, hyperspectral imaging, Raman spectroscopy, and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.
It is hoped that this project will start a much needed dialogue between Chinese and US scientists to share analytical results and compare respective findings, in the interest of enriching the art historical and conservation fields with the latest scientific developments.
維多利亞與艾爾伯特博物館
Science, History and Craft: A Trinity in Support of Conservation
It has been said that a good conservator needs to possess three key skills; an understanding of science, an appreciation of art history and the context of material culture within history and the artistic ability to make skilful conservation repairs. Using examples from various sections of the V&A conservation department as illustrations, this presentation will explore how science supports the work of the conservator in understanding how artworks are made, what they are made from, how they degrade and how best to conserve them for the future. The first example will describe how the analysis of the pigments used to manufacture painted Chinese export silks determined the appropriate adhesive technique to use to repair splits in two eighteenth-century English dresses. The second example will examine the effectiveness of a collaboration between the conservation science department of the V&A, the School of Science and Technology at Nottingham Trent University and the Royal Horticultural Society in a survey of Chinese export paintings that helped our understanding of early trade in painter’s materials between China and Europe. The presentation will also cover aspects of the V&A’s extensive and ongoing research into East Asian lacquer, focusing on the technical examination of a seventeenth-century kuan cai (Coromandel) screen which resulted in the identification of a previously unknown pigment and helped to inform which course of conservation was appropriate for the screen.
Finally, the presentation will address the various ways that scientific analysis can be presented to the public in order to enrich their understanding of the art on view in the museum.
哈佛大學藝術博物館
Art Meets Science at the Harvard Art Museums: Case Studies from the Chinese Collections
The Sackler Museum, part of the Harvard Art Museums, contains a rich and varied collection of Chinese art, ranging from Neolithic ceramics and jades to modern and contemporary paintings. Multidisciplinary study with close collaboration among scientists, conservators, curators and art historians is crucial for the preservation, understanding, interpretation and presentation of the collections. The Chinese collections have been an area of active research ever since 1928 when Rutherford John Gettens was appointed as the first scientist in an American art museum. In this presentation, I will highlight some recent projects from these collections undertaken in the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies.
A new study of the museums’ Chinese jades by renowned art historian Dr Jenny So involves close collaboration with conservators and scientists. Many art works preserve clear pseudomorphs or impressions of organic materials such as textiles and wood which were wrapped around the artefacts or came into contact with them during burial. These provide rare information about the nature and use of ancient Chinese textiles. Detailed study and measurement of tool marks helps to understand original manufacturing and decorating techniques and identify later alterations. Together with non-destructive analysis and x-radiography, this revealed that some key objects are pastiches of ancient components combined in the late 19th or early 20th century. The analytical and technical information will be fully incorporated into the catalog.
The art museums have a strong commitment to training and each year conservation fellows undertake a detailed analytical research project on works in the collections. Recent projects drawn from the Sackler Museum collections include Erlitou to Shang period bronzes inlaid with turquoise, studied by Ariel O’Connor, and, most recently, pottery from the Qijia culture of northwestern China, studied by Elizabeth LaDuc. Understanding of the ceramics was greatly enhanced by Elizabeth’s replication of the Qijia vessels and their decoration at the Harvard Ceramics Studio. The exhibition “Prehistoric Pottery from Northwest China” included an online feature with a large illustrated section on the conservation research. Hosted on the main art museums website, this is accessible to the general public as well as to specialists and scholars.
Replication is also an important aspect in an ongoing study of Jun ware flowerpots for an exhibition in summer 2017 organized by curator Melissa Moy. Kathy King, director of the Harvard Ceramics Studio, has created a number of replica vessels using different manufacturing techniques to aid interpretation of the x-radiographs and provide better understanding of production methods. The results will be incorporated into the online feature accompanying the exhibition.
The juxtaposition of art and science in these projects has greatly enhanced our understanding of the art works and our presentation of these to a diverse audience. We are confident that these and future collaborations will continue to strengthen our knowledge of the Chinese collections at the Harvard Art Museums.
主持:柳揚博士(明尼阿波利斯藝術博物館)
維多利亞與艾爾伯特博物館及故宮博物院
貢品與賞物︰馬戛爾尼訪華的實物見證
In 1792 Lord George Macartney led a British embassy to Beijing, ostensibly to offer gifts to Emperor Qianlong for his birthday. Citing the high value, the fragility and bulkiness of the gifts as excuses, the embassy did not follow the standard procedure of landing in Guangzhou, but sailed direct to Tianjin instead. They submitted a “tribute list”, which is now preserved in the China First Historical Archive.
Emperor Qianlong in return gave the King of England and members of the embassy numerous artefacts, called shangwu (bestowal). The original bestowal list is still extant in England, its copy in China.
The two speakers, Ming Wilson from the V&A and Go Fuxiang from the Palace Museum, will discuss what happened to the gifts in both England and China after this historic Sino-British encounter.
布朗大學
Teaching without Masterpieces
The concept of the teaching museum is undergoing a Renaissance at major universities in the United States. Since their inception over a century ago, teaching museums have endeavored to mobilize their collections and intellectual resources to advance the research and educational programs of their universities. In recent years, this long-standing mission has been reinvigorated with large-scale museum renovations featuring state-of-the-art study centers, a new generation of research-oriented curators, and surging interest across the academy in object-oriented inquiry. The scale of these endeavors presents a challenge for smaller teaching museums without the financial resources and world-class collections of major institutions like Harvard and Yale. Faculty and curatorial staff at smaller institutions recognize the importance of museum-based education, but frequently find their collections and in-house curatorial expertise insufficient for their pedagogical ambitions.
Using my own participation in the “Assemblages” pilot program at Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) as a case study, this paper explores ways in which novel partnerships between institutions can overcome some of the challenges of limited resources. With support from the Mellon Foundation, I am leading a team of students in developing the RISD Museum of Art’s small collection of Chinese paintings into a resource for introducing students and museum audiences to the art of connoisseurship. Like many collections of its kind, the majority of the works in the RISD Museum’s Chinese painting collection are problematic in one way or another: anonymous works of uncertain date, later paintings incorrectly attributed to earlier masters, and even at least one outright forgery. By gathering the material, visual, and textual documentation necessary to elucidate the problems with each work’s attribution, we aim to reveal connoisseurial process. The results of our work will provide raw material for the undergraduate students in my annual Chinese painting seminar, who will work with our team to develop an exhibition of our findings and to archive our data and process for future scholars to access, elaborate, critique, and revise.
Museums everywhere recognize the desirability of making the complex work of their curators and conservators more accessible to visitors. By treating the RISD collection of Chinese paintings as a resource for explaining connoisseurial process, we are transforming what might otherwise be dismissed as an undistinguished and problematic collection into an engaging learning experience. By working across institutions, we are enlisting energy and expertise that the museum could not generate in isolation, and by engaging students throughout our process, we are ensuring that the making of the exhibit is every bit as educational as the exhibit itself. All of this was made possible through a modest, focused grant from the Mellon Foundation, which can serve as a model for other organizations seeking to advance the model of the teaching museum into new institutional settings.
維也納大學
Exhibiting Qingzhou Buddhist Sculpture in Museums
In 1996 workers levelling a playground in Qingzhou, Shandong, came across a pit filled with Buddhist sculptures. Staff of the local museum recovered fragments of about 320 figures most of which were dating to the 6th century AD. Already in the following year the find was presented to the public, during an exhibition at the National Museum of China. In 2000 the Hong Kong Museum of Fine Arts staged a special show. In 2001 a large-scale special exhibition was created at the Museum Rietberg in Zurich, and was shown at the Alte Museum in Berlin, the Royal Academy in London, and the Sackler Gallery in Washington. In each venue visitor numbers reached record levels. Over the following years more exhibitions followed in Sydney, Singapore, Paris and other places. Even though found only a few years before and even if their context was still little understood, the Qingzhou Buddhist sculptures soon became some of the most frequently exhibited artworks from China.
The paper will summarise what is known to date about the find, and will raise the question: Why did these sculptures provoke such an extraordinary interest equally among a Chinese and a foreign audience? Why did these objects of Buddhist worship appeal equally to Buddhist and non-Buddhist viewers? What made them attractive to visitors even when removed from their original context and presented in Museums? The talk will try and explain the exceptional appeal of these art works for a modern audience.
皇家安大略博物館
Objects in Art and Archaeology and Objectivizing Early History of China in Museums
Subjects of museums’ exhibitions and galleries are objects. In most art museums, objects are treated naturally as arts. Defining arts within the context of ancient history sometimes could be problematic and challenging. This paper explores practices in museums of art and history of how early history of China can be objectivized, in addition to being contextualized. Objects can be, and should be, classified and viewed both as artworks and as functional utensils that were created in times of ancient civilizations. However, interpretations of ancient objects do not necessarily contextualize ancient history when those objects in exhibitions and galleries were simply displayed in historic chronologies with labels of archaeological contents. This paper argues for objectification of early creations in art and archaeology while displaying and interpreting objects in museums.
The purpose of re-thinking ancient objects in displays is public engagement, a current trend in museum practices. When objects in art and archaeology are interpreted in very different, sometimes obscured, ways with tools of social media, museum curators should utilize exhibits and programs to provide a multi-faceted and multi-layered meanings of objects linked to early history that might be in the process of being objectivized. Three integral processes of presenting ancient objects of early history appealing to general audiences can be re-considered: 1) objects in visual arts following principles of archaeological content; 2) objects in archaeological contexts following design principles; and 3) objects in art designs and archaeological contexts following needs and interests of the public. Therefore, the foundation for this new approach of museums’ displaying ancient objects is to identify public interests (especially in non-Chinese communities) in early Chinese history.
主持:孫淼博士(故宮博物院)
NC Agency
Exhibition Design and Culture Interpretation
When people nowadays come to visit a museum, they do not only expect to be amazed, surprised or questioned by the art pieces but they are now also very sensitive to how the pieces are presented and how the arrangement of space brings them a very special mood to look at and understand the exhibition.
The work of the designer is to bring visitors into this world taking into account that the art pieces are the purpose and not the design scenography.
Studio Adrien Gardere
Designing Contents
The presentation will focus on Studio Adrien Gardère’s expertise in translating curatorial visions into spatial, visual and intuitive display, making the artifacts and what they convey accessible to all. Working hand in hand with renowned institutions, curators and architects around the world, and breaking with traditional exhibition design while fully addressing curatorial vision, Studio Adrien Gardère creates unique visual and physical engagement, sensitive and innovative display, poetic and subtle interpretative installations.
The presentation will illustrate such approaches through the Studio’s most recent projects:
The Giacometti Retrospective – Yuz Museum – Shanghai (2016)
The Roman Antiquities Museum – Narbonne, France (arch. Foster+Partners) to open in 2018
The Aga Khan Museum – Toronto, Canada (arch. Fumihiko Maki) opened 2014
Le Musée du Louvre-Lens – Lens, France (arch. SANAA) opened 2012
The Islamic Art Museum – Cairo, Egypt (renovation led by Studio AG.) opened 2010
The presentation will focus on the Studio’s design process, and its specific responses to the curator’s narrative, to artifacts’ collection and the architecture. Each commission is approached by the Studio uniquely, looking for specific solutions within the artifacts, curatorial vision and spirit of the building, architectural and historical context, never reproducing past models. Being able to fully comprehend the dynamics involved, the museum’s mission and objectives, and the subtleties of the curatorial vision, is key to the Studio’s philosophy and projects’ success.
In this regard, Adrien Gardere’s presentation will concentrate on its capacity to adapt to different cultures and professional approaches and to establish fertile dialogues with all the actors involved in a Museum project, and on the Studio’s philosophy to look for design solutions at the heart of the content and its context.
柏林國立亞洲藝術博物館
Starting from the King: Berlin’s New Chinese Art Galleries
In Berlin a new, large museum and center for the arts and cultures of Asia, Africa, the Americas and Oceania is being built, the Humboldt Forum, to open at the end of 2019. The museum galleries measure 18,000 square meters, of which Asian Art covers 5000 square meters. Chinese art (including ancient Xinjiang) is about 2000 square meters. We moved the Chinese art collection of about 5000 objects and the Xinjiang ancient Buddhist Art collection of about 15,000 objects from the current Asian Art Museum in the suburbs into the Humboldt Forum in the middle of town. With our splendid collections, we will tell new stories, which will have more context, more transcultural focus, and more contemporary relevance than in the old museum. This is a museum for the globalized world of the 21st century, that welcomes visitors from all over the world and shows them art and cultural objects also from their own country in ways that make them rethink their own culture. Of course, we don’t forget tradition: we start the Chinese galleries with a magnificent Shang-Dynasty Yue-Axe that symbolizes kingship.
主持:林苗苗女士(中華世紀壇藝術館)
廣東省博物館
與考古館長的合作:「牽星過洋」展中的教育推廣專案
The biggest challenge Guangdong Museum is facing involves several aspects, such as how to build a new type of partnership with visitors, how to enhance their educational experience, how will education become the core mission of a traditional museum, and how to persuade a museum curator with an archaeological background to support educational activities at the museum? The speech today will, therefore, take the exhibition “Sailing the Seven Seas – Legend of Ming Maritime Trade during Wanli Era” as an example, showing how educational activities on underwater archaeology, marine archaeological relics and the history background were planned and designed, as well as the ways in which student exhibition planners were engaged in the preparation of the exhibition. It also reveals insider secrets such as how the curator was convinced to add educational activities and readable information for an exhibition, and how “Curator’s coming” became an institutionalized branding program. Finally, it explores how Guangdong Museum, with a limited budget, successfully invited social institutions to collaborate in the exhibition “Maritime Silk Road ” in both Canton Tower and the Guangzhou subway, bringing museum exhibitions out of the building and closer to the general public.
萊斯特大學
Working Collaboratively: Education and Engagement at the Creative Frontiers of the Art Museum
In this session participants will examine how museums can become inclusive sites for learning and understanding about ‘Others’ and ‘Ourselves’ through museum collections. We will consider the nature of learning from material culture and the intangible heritage – the stories, songs and dances – from which such culture emerges. Delegates should come ready to engage in some interactive experiences.
I specifically want to share with you my collaborative work with Professor Joan Anim-Addo of Goldsmiths College London and the Caribbean Women Writers’ Alliance (CWWA), which I outline in chapter two of my 2009 monograph Learning at the Museum Frontiers: Identity, Race and Power. This collaboration is international and longstanding, now spanning over several decades, most recently with Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC 2011-13) funding on a ‘Translating Cultures’ theme and that I reference in my 2013 paper ‘Museums, Poetics Affect’ for the journal Feminist Review. My focus, which is highly relevant to the conference in China, will be on building new theoretical frameworks from outside of the Western world to inform museum practice, which I employed by collaborating with the CWWA community and the AHRC network. I shall consider together with delegates the revaluing of traditional knowledge(s) and the sensory ways of knowing that emphasize creativity in terms of process and outputs, as well as issues of agency and authority that can be contested at certain frontier zones such as the museum.
Overall, I will pose a series of questions for delegates, which highlight the complexity of the issues. I ask. How, if at all, might individuals come to deeper understandings of self and other in museums? To what extent might a respectful attention to the material culture and intangible heritage of diverse communities promote intercultural dialogue? Who owns cultural heritage in museums; where are the boundaries of power and control?
To interrogate these ideas our audience will be invited to engage in some active learning experiences to explore embodied knowledge construction, specifically the interconnections with objects and the 5 senses we commonly count on in the west that are challenged by CWWA. Then delegates will be able to hear some Caribbean sounds, the poet’s wonderful strong voices and the demotic languages that helped to raise new voices and visibilities in the context of the Horniman Museum, in London UK. Finally, a creative writing exercise will be offered to delegates before some tentative conclusions drawn.
史密森尼博物院學習與數位資源研究中心
Engaging the Public Using Digital Museum Collections
The Smithsonian Institution is the national museum of the United States and includes nineteen museums, a zoo, and nine research centers. The Smithsonian has 138 million artifacts, works of art, and specimens. As a national museum, one of its greatest challenges is to make these collections accessible to everyone, no matter where they live.
One of the strategies for addressing this challenge is the digitization of our collections. The Smithsonian Institution published, Creating a Digital Smithsonian: Digitization Strategic Plan 2010 to 2015. Staff representing all of the museums collaborated to set goals and establish priorities. Using new technology and an assembly line efficiency, the Smithsonian is able to digitize objects at a rate of one every six seconds. As a result, some museums have digitized their entire collection in high resolution. Most recently, the Freer / Sackler, Smithsonian Museums of Asian Art and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum completed this work. While digitization is valuable for all aspects of museum work, it is particularly valuable in supporting education.
The Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access (SCLDA) is a central office of education at the Smithsonian that focuses on teachers and students as its primary audience. The Center built the Smithsonian Learning Lab, a web-based platform for accessing all of the Smithsonian’s digital collections. Teachers and students who visit the Lab are able to:
• Search for and create sets of digital objects: Educators identify “favorite” objects, recordings, images, and learning resources and save them in their personal profile. They also are able to link to or upload digital objects from other sites or their own work such as handouts or discussion guides.
• Use tools to customize: Educators find and organize digital objects for teaching, customize them using editing and annotation tools, and add instructional features such as assessments and discussion prompts.
• Share within networks: Educators share what they create within self-selected communities (a classroom of their students, for example) and publish widely to anyone using the platform.
• Collaborate within communities of practice: Educators may provide feedback, reuse, or adapt Smithsonian- or teacher-created sets to meet the needs of their own students.
The Center conducts ongoing research to understand how teachers and students discover, navigate, and use museum digital collections. (See a summae Carnegiry of findings). With a grant from the Corporation of New York, independent researchers are interviewing teachers and conducting classroom observations to understand how teachers and students use museum digital resources and the impact on their teaching and learning. Preliminary findings suggest the following:
• Teachers use digital collections to introduce new ideas, teach concepts, and analyze source material.
• Students are highly engaged when digital collections are used in the classroom.
• The central barrier is the difficulty in finding appropriate digital resources and the time required to build teaching collections.
• Many digital objects do not have adequate metadata (support information) essential for effective use in the classroom.
• Teachers need training on how to use these resources effectively.
The presentation will focus on how digital images of Chinese collections are being used by teachers to enhance classroom instruction in world history and art courses and plans for refining and enhancing the Lab based on research results.
主持:
高美慶教授(北山堂基金)
嵇若昕教授(香港中文大學文物館)
香港中文大學文物館
瓷韻逐波︰葡萄牙博物館藏的中國瓷器
作為2014/2015利榮森紀念訪問學人,講者將重點分享其於葡萄牙科英布拉舊聖克拉拉修道院遺址博物館(Museum of Mosteiro Santa Clara-a-Velha)交流訪問的經歷。
報告主要分三部分:首先,講者會對遺址博物館的概況及其重要性進行介紹,並說明選擇交流訪問的具體原因。舊聖克拉拉修道院遺址博物館是一所以考古揭示遺址為基礎而建立的文博機構,這一遺址的特殊之處在於大量十六世紀中國精美外銷瓷器的集中發現。這批瓷器是最早入口歐洲的中國瓷器之一,在此之前,此時期的中國瓷器多為收藏於各地博物館的傳世器物,罕有經系統考古發掘所揭示的實物資料。其次,講者將對其在交流訪問期間的主要學術活動進行回顧,包括對修道院遺址出土的中國瓷器的集中研究,策劃有關中葡早期航海與瓷器貿易的專題展覽,對葡萄牙本地及其他歐洲國家藏瓷的實地考察等過程中的收穫,遇到的問題及解決方案等。最後,講者會致謝利榮森紀念交流計劃,並根據對自己交流經歷的反思,提出一些對於未來學人,以及計劃未來發展或為有益的建議。
巴德裝飾藝術研究院
紡織品與現代早期的全球交流:清宮中的歐洲絲綢和掛毯
本篇報告將圍繞大都會博物館的兩個特展──《交織的地球:全球紡織品貿易,1500-1800》(2013)和《中國:鏡花水月》(2015)──深入探討近年來織品與服飾展覽中的全球文化交流主題。我本人曾參與這兩個展覽的研究工作,對此有充分的了解。紡織品和服飾在綜合性博物館的陳列中和藝術史的學術領域都比較邊緣化。這兩個里程碑式的展覽反映了紡織服飾史最新的研究動態,並代表著新穎的策展思路。
本篇報告在介紹策展、展品、展覽設計、觀眾互動等方面的同時,將討論一系列的問題,例如:這些展覽如何拓展了傳統的策展思路,引進跨學科和跨文化的視角?為何這種視角與紡織服飾史特別相關?中國在這些展覽中是如何被呈現的?全球視野對探討中國藝術提供了什麼新的分析角度?紡織、服飾史的展覽設計如何在文物保護、凸顯展品的藝術性和工藝、以及理論陳述三者之間達到平衡?在報告的最後,我將簡要討論針對跨文化織品、服飾展的一些批評和分歧,尤其在美國的文化語境下,引發大家思考博物館如何處理敏感性文化主題這一問題。
香港科技大學
閒情與日常:從清代仕女畫管窺女性形象
本文以仕女畫中描繪的器物、服飾和建築空間為切入點,探討畫中女性的日常生活與其社會身分的關係。以《紅妝麗影:中國清代美人圖》(加州大學伯克利分校美術館和太平洋電影文獻庫,2013)的展品為例,本文著重探討女性在閨閣和庭院的日常生活和文化熏陶。本文旨在指出日常生活,尤其是女性的閒情雅趣,可作為性別研究的進路。畫中女性作為男性凝視的對象,亦同時是畫作的觀者,從中可窺見女性的日常生活,進而討論其與明清時期文人風尚如何相互對照。
浙江大學藝術與考古博物館
大學博物館的教育功能之探討 ─ 以浙江大學與考古博物館和耶魯大學美術館為例
浙江大學藝術與考古博物館於2009年由浙江大學校方決議成立,至今已籌建七年。落成後的博物館,將是一座功能完備、設施設備達國際標準的藝術史教學博物館。我館自創設和規劃之初,一直與來自美國、歐洲、亞洲各地和國內同行的專家密切合作,以期既能汲取海內外博物館界的成熟經驗,又能適合於當下中國大學的現實需求。
耶魯大學美術館是美國最古老的大學藝術博物館,它有170年歷史,不僅以豐富館藏聞名,更以其卓具成效的博物館教育工作,成為耶魯大學重要的藝術史通識教育基地。2014年,我以利榮森訪問學人的身份赴美八個月,在該館亞洲部主任江文葦博士指導下,參與教育處的工作,學習其博物館教育、策展的經驗;同時走訪美國數十家大學博物館和公私博物館,瞭解其建築設施、收藏展覽、教育項目等內容。
本次講座將結合我在美經歷,以及我自2011年參與浙江大學藝術與考古博物館教育處的籌建工作,對國內高校博物館如何借鑑國際經驗作一定介紹,以期求教於國內外同行,更好地服務於大學博物館,使其成為藝術史通識教育的基地。
北山堂基金
Shifted Perspectives: Interpretive Planning of Chinese Art Exhibitions at the ROM
This presentation will be on the way my perspectives shifted through my intensive museum practice at the Royal Ontario Museum. I offer 2 case studies, drawn from the planning of 2 exhibitions I was involved in at the ROM. The ROM is an encyclopedia museum with one of the largest Asian collections outside Asia and an important cultural agency of Canada. Working there is a social practice, not just an intellectual or public practice, and it requires one to learn how to inspire critical dialogue through art from a place of expression and experience, imagination and reality, conception and creation.
My museum practice at ROM broadened my understanding of the field. As a coordinator of the exhibition “The Forbidden City: Inside the Court of China’s Last Emperors”, hosted by ROM and The Palace Museum, I worked with project management teams from the initial conceptualisation stage through the final design. To explore the issue of cross-cultural understanding in traveling exhibitions, I also conducted in-depth interviews with the ROM’s creative team, interpretive planner, 2D and 3D designers, project manager, as well as colleagues in marketing, programming, media relations, museum volunteers departments, and the Institute for Contemporary Culture. With this experience, I took up the role of a curatorial lead for the Chinese Export Art exhibition, a show that reflected the universal cultural phenomenon of gazing and embracing differences among different countries. More importantly, it has fueled in me the desire to thoroughly rethink how to help a Western community to gain a sensibility about the arts and archaeology of Asia, preparing me for my next step – establishing Chinese art and culture initiatives. Everything Foucault and everybody else say about “disciplinary boundaries” is contained in this shift and more.
主持:
蘇芳淑教授(北山堂基金)
司美茵女士(佛利爾與賽克勒藝術館,美國)
Museum professionals in North America and Europe often raise the questions: How can museums engage the visitor? What should museum displays look like in the 21st century? How do we stay relevant? These questions are a focus of directors, curators, educators, designers, public affairs specialists, and the like, all of whom play important roles in the success of the modern museum. The same questions apply equally whether an institution is an encyclopedic museum holding a collection that represents a wide breadth of human civilization, or is more specialized, holding a collection dedicated to a specific culture or time period, such as a museum of Asian art or a contemporary art museum. In all cases, museum professionals have similar goals, protocols, and needs — that is to attract and serve their audiences, including offering enjoyment and education, and also to develop a sustainable plan to support the staffing needs and infrastructure of the museum building at a level to physically preserve the collection and extend the objects’ lifecycle into the far distant future.
While care and preservation of the collection is the core responsibility of a museum, its heart lies in the power to use the collections to reach people, and hopefully to sometimes profoundly touch them. As the museum scholar, Stephen Weil puts it, “Museums matter only to the extent that they are perceived to provide communities they serve with something of value beyond their mere existence.” (Stephen E. Weil. Making Museums Matter (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Press, 2002), pp. 4, 5, 41). This paper will look at some of the implications of this view of museums. How do museums provide for a community, and specifically how do they do this in the context of holding collections of Chinese art, and how do museum staff work together to accomplish this large goal? The paper will in particular address the curatorial role with some specificity.
At the outset, it is worth noting that Weil’s comment is widely accepted and represents a prevailing view in museum communities, but it is also worthwhile to point out there may be a danger in his use of the words “matter only” if they provide beyond the importance of their physical existence, because this points to a shifting balance towards prioritizing community service over preserving the collections themselves — a view I find untenable. Preserving, and also researching the collections, are time consuming, expensive, and mostly behind-the-scenes endeavors that have enormous gravitas, but which are losing position to other concerns of the museum world. The hidden nature of preservation and research has perhaps made it hard for museum directors to champion these aspects, but we must keep these as an unwavering goal of institutions. This paper explores the role of museum staff in upholding Weil’s broader perspective for museums, but aims to also emphasize the importance of staff, primarily curators, who can serve as an active interface between the two sides of the museum — collection care and research and people-to-people engagement.
It is laudable, and in fact, obligatory, for museums to want to share their collections in ways to inspire interest and appreciation for the objects they hold and expand viewers’ understanding of them, as well as to find new ways to engage visitors and make them feel actively engaged in the museum experience. Displays should connect and communicate with the viewer, and when a museum is successful at doing this, it builds its viewer base, which is necessary for income generation and sustainability. More visitors streaming through the door translates into greater profits from tickets and merchandise sales; and for museums with free admission, more visitors can translate into greater private or government support. In Western museums that have important collections of Chinese art, there is almost universal agreement among staff that the greatest wish is for visitors to leave the museum (or end a website visit) feeling enriched, finding themselves more interested or thoughtful about Chinese art, and possibly even thinking differently about China itself.
Using art to connect people with a better understanding of China in general is a goal that most museums today see as part of their relevance to modern society. This sounds good, and even obvious, but tensions can arise, since there are differences in opinion about what achieving relevance means. There are different points of view about whether historic art collections, or even contemporary art, should be used as a direct means to understand the modern political and cultural entity of China. For example, can a presentation of Ming/Qing imperial art be used to inform visitors about China today? The answer is perhaps a very guarded “yes”, in the sense that when visitors who previously had no knowledge about historic China learn through seeing Chinese artefacts of the 15th and 18th century that have stylistic connections to Middle Eastern, Himalayan, or European cultures, they gain a greater understanding that China was not historically insular. This knowledge may be enlightening for them when looking at modern China’s international position. But the danger is that increasingly some museum staff members are trying to use historic art to make direct connections to modern politics and life. Museums seem to be walking a tightrope — should they host programmes with political commentators, or is this perhaps an arena in which they should collaborate with other academic institutions, such as a college or think-tank like the Brookings Institutions? This paper will examine some of the approaches that museums are taking today to ensure that visitors in a Western society will feel attracted to displays of Chinese art.
What are some of the practicalities of how museums can accomplish this? Museums have always been, and are increasingly, reliant on teamwork to accomplish these goals as their mandate becomes broader. Therefore, there are inevitably questions about which individuals and which departments should be represented on which teams and who (if anyone) should lead each team, and how to communicate internally and externally. Different museums have different approaches to this complex question and a few prototypes will be examined.
One of the questions that always comes up in this type of discussion is what is the role of a curator, and can/should a curator be a project/team manager. Decades ago, curators were likely to be the person-in-charge, beholden only to the Director’s higher judgment, but today they are usually placed as just one of many highly regarded staff members. Institutional structures are nobly trying to nurture all types of staff and thus benefit from diverse and disparate talents. It has become common to talk about curators as “content providers,” and value them in exhibition, and other, teams the same as the members of other departments. Much is gained by being certain to avoid a monopoly by curators, but it is worth questioning the validity of a now not uncommon view that holds that curators are generally removed from the public they serve, and are mostly ivory tower academics or even prima donna. While there may be the occasional curator of that nature, I would suggest that this a largely unfounded view that has spuriously come into play, perhaps partly as a kind imaginary foil to give other newer roles in the museum, such as interpretation officers, more validity and urgency. I propose the newer job roles are critically important to the success of the modern museum, but this in no way diminishes the key importance of the curator, nor should we collectively buy into the myth that curators are disconnected and disinterested in the public. Curators are invaluable not only in providing and shaping content and fact-checking content generated by others, but it often remains unsaid that curatorial passion (which is also knowledge-based) for the objects they study and care for can make the curators the most informed and energetic team leaders.
Without knowledge and passion, it is easy for museum objects to become just “things”. This paper takes a look at what curators can provide in the modern museum setting. Keeping in mind the comment by the famous Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw, who said “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place,” I will also address the practicalities of how curators can improve their communication with other museum staff, and will review the scenario in which a curator as team leader is paired with a project manager, whose role in entirely administrative, and can assist in team management. I will also address the issue of the size of committees, since there is a trend to increase the membership of committees, disregarding what many business leaders note that the smallest reasonable membership is strongly advised. Art collections are brought to life by the collective expertise and imagination of museum staff, as well as by close coordination with collaborators, who may include the museum visitors themselves, living artists, performance centers and academic institutions. In all this, the curator plays a critical role worth examining in some detail.
** 以專題講座先後排序
本論壇探討國内外博物館之展覽交流與合作,並深入討論國際展覽及借展相關之政策、程序、困難以及方案。
主辦機構:大英博物館
日期:2014年12月5 – 7日
主持:司美茵女士(史密森尼學會佛利爾及賽克勒美術館)
上海博物館
Organizing International Traveling Painting and Calligraphy Exhibitions at the Shanghai Museum: Three Case Studies
Since the organization of Chinese National Treasures of Painting and Calligraphy from the Jin, Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties exhibition in 2002, the Shanghai Museum has organized several similar exhibitions, with painting and calligraphy works borrowed from several leading museums in the country. All these exhibitions have turned out to be huge successes. The exhibitions provoked the audiences’ interests towards the classics of traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy, received high attention and acceptance locally and internationally, and built a good foundation for lending its own collections for exhibitions abroad.
In the past ten years or so, the Shanghai Museum has attached great importance to its international travelling exhibitions. It accumulated substantial experience from several previous exhibitions of this kind by first cooperating with Japanese colleagues for two exhibitions: “Masterpieces of Ancient Chinese and Japanese Calligraphy” in 2006 and “Masterpieces of Ancient and Chinese Paintings in Japan” in 2010. It then cooperated with five prestigious museums in the US for the “Masterpieces of Early Chinese Painting and Calligraphy in American Collections” exhibition in 2012. All these were big successes.
While it has learnt quite a lot from its own past experiences, the Shanghai Museum has also learnt from experiences and concepts of its colleagues both home and abroad. This is quite helpful to the Shanghai Museum to diversify its ways of organizing exhibitions strategically. For example, selection exhibitions can be one of the successful forms; however, the Shanghai Museum has explored new forms such as theme exhibitions. As a matter of fact, it has been preparing the exhibition, “How the Wu School of Painting Originated” 《吳門前淵》 since 2012, which is scheduled to be on view in 2016. In this exhibition, it is planned to display 120 items of three modules, to be borrowed from around 20 museums and institutions. This exhibition aims to present the results of scholarly research, focusing on academic aspects but also appealing to the general audience. It is well expected that this exhibition will promote academic research and general interest. The research findings will surely inspire the artists of the contemporary and future generations.
大英博物館
Lending MFA Paintings to Shanghai Museum’s Exhibition in October 2012: Masterpieces of Early Chinese Painting and Calligraphy in American Collections
In this presentation, I will outline the process by which four US museums lent Song and Yuan Dynasty paintings to Shanghai Museum in October 2012. I will also include our experience of lending ceramics to the Yuan Blue and White exhibition at Shanghai Museum in 2012.
I will go through the collaborative process at the US end and at the Chinese end. This will include details of preliminary meetings between the four US institutions, hosting Shanghai Museum representatives in the US to choose the works, getting loans approved by museum Boards, getting works valued, arranging couriers/transportation and application for a US government indemnity.
At the Chinese end, I will describe some of the challenges facing Western museums when arranging loans to China, in particular Chinese works of art to Chinese museums. These include the situation at customs, storage at the airport, transportation and installation requirements. Not least is the challenge of obtaining immunity from seizure of Chinese works in foreign collections from the Cultural Heritage Bureau.
My presentation will be illustrated by slides showing elements of the process and I will conclude by suggesting some ways to meet the challenges in the future.
大都會藝術博物館
Opportunities and Challenges: Sending Exhibitions to China
The last decade or so has witnessed a rapid increase in collaborations between the Metropolitan Museum and its Chinese counterparts. The Met has hosted several exhibitions from China, including “China: Dawn of a Golden Age 200-750 AD (2004)”, “The World of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty (2010)”, and “The Emperor’s Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City” (2011), to name only a few. At the same time, the Met has lent a number of artworks to Chinese museums, either as part of Met-curated shows or by participating in Chinese-organized exhibitions. Two recent Met-organized exhibitions are “Earth, Sea and Sky – Nature in Western Art: Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art”, which opened at the National Museum of China in January, 2013 and “The American West in Bronze: 1850-1925”, which opened at the Nanjing Museum this September.
During the last two years the Met has twice lent works to the Shanghai Museum: Twenty-nine Song and Yuan paintings in 2013 and a prized set of ancient Chinese bronze ritual vessels this November. While these exchanges have augmented mutual understanding and created exciting opportunities, they have also brought unprecedented challenges. This paper aims to examine and share the Metropolitan’s experiences with colleagues at the conference.
大英博物館
The British Museum’s Touring Exhibitions in China
Background:
The British Museum is committed to sharing it’s collections with a global audience. Whether through welcoming international travellers through our doors in London, loaning objects, continuing to expand our online collections, or touring exhibitions, the objectives of access and engagement remain constant.
Since 2006 the British Museum has toured 11 exhibitions to China, two of these were in collaboration with the V&A. They have been displayed in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. The exhibitions have been diverse in their subject matter, including iconic Greek statues, Indian temple art, Assyrian wall reliefs and highlights from our renowned collection of ceramics. It is our hope that in the years ahead we can build on this foundation, touring an even broader array of objects to an even wider Chinese audience.
The museum-building boom within China means that many cities across the country now benefit from modern museums that have the facilities to host international touring exhibitions. It is hoped this will bring opportunities for the British Museum’s collections to be shared with new audiences throughout the country.
Future opportunities
Recently the British Museum has been exploring opportunities for touring exhibitions to travel to a number of major museums outside of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. During several trips to cities across China we have engaged in discussions about the types of exhibition that could be desirable; this includes the size of exhibitions, the themes and the types of objects that Chinese audiences would wish to see.
It is our hope that there will be opportunities in the coming years to bring British Museum touring exhibitions to Chinese museums with whom we have not worked in the past. It is recognised that some Chinese museums have different budgets to the major museums in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. This poses a challenge because of the high costs of transport and insurance associated with large exhibitions, and so creative solutions will need to be found.
Multi-venue tours of international touring exhibitions appear to be favoured by many Chinese museums. There are distinct advantages to multi-venue tours in terms of costs. In addition they have benefits for the profile of an exhibition in China, and bring exhibitions to a wider audience. It is therefore a model that the British Museum is interested in exploring further. It may be that the future lies in creating multi-venue tours to upwards of four venues, thereby allowing significant cost-sharing.
The museum appreciates the value of face-to-face meetings for helping to clarify complex issues relating to exhibition projects. Meetings have consistently helped to bridge gaps in understanding by providing us with a forum in which to discuss different working practices and contexts.
Despite certain challenges there is a clear will on both sides to work together and possible solutions are being identified. It is hoped that, with the links we now have, we can continue to work with Chinese counterparts to bring British Museum exhibitions to wider parts of China in the coming years. In addition the museum will continue building on the strong and valuable relationships we have in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong to tour exhibitions there in the future.
主持:
陳克倫先生(上海博物館)
劉明倩女士(維多利亞與艾爾伯特博物館)
中國文物交流中心
Chinese Cultural Relics Exhibitions – An Approach to Beauty of China
Chinese cultural relics exhibition opens a new prospect of cultural relics exchanges and cooperation with other countries. It serves as a window to show Chinese culture to the world and plays a prominent and efficient role in facilitating Chinese diplomatic relations.
General Information of Chinese Outbound and Inbound Exhibitions
From 2005 to 2013, Chinese museums held 492 outbound exhibitions in 48 countries and regions. The number of exhibitions held in Asia was 276, or 56% of the total. 198 shows or 40% of the total were in Europe and America, with the remaining 4% in Africa and Oceania, where exhibitions were lacking. It can be indicated from the above figures that Chinese cultural relics exhibitions have become hot topics and distinguished business cards and earned great prestige in the world.
Adjustments in Legislation on Outbound and Inbound Cultural Relics Exhibitions
To have a better international perspective, the Chinese government keeps adopting and optimizing legislation on outbound and inbound cultural exhibitions. The focus has been shifted to cultural exchange, scientific research, and cultural relics protection.
Key Cases of Inbound and Outbound Exhibitions
According to statistics, in 2013, there were 67 inbound and outbound exhibitions, with duration ranging from 5 days to 14 months. 49 domestic and 61 international museums were involved. 6199 pieces of exhibits were presented to the audience, among which 328 pieces were Grade-A. In particular, the exhibitions “Early China”, “Treasures of China”, “Tea Culture” and “Buddhism on the Silk Road” were very well received.
Trends of Outbound and Inbound Exhibitions
Audiences are fascinated by cultural diversity or mysterious beauty in the flow of rich and colorful exhibitions all around the world. In the future, exhibitions themed “National Treasure”, “Cultural Memory”, “Vivid Chinese Life”, “Etiquette and Ceremony”, “Archives Treasure”, “Glory Land and Talented People”, “Cultural Heritage”, and “Contemporary China” will be presented to show the past and the present of China. It is believed that with the development of international museum and exhibition exchanges, Chinese cultural relics exhibitions will become more dynamic and attractive.
上海博物館
Issues in Antiquities Loans
Nowadays, loans between museums for exhibitions have become a common practice worldwide. In the last 5 years, the Shanghai Museum participated in over 30 loan exhibitions abroad, and held 25 loan exhibitions at home and abroad. To assure successful loans, curators and organizers should pay special attention to a number of key issues.
When applying for loans from China, the borrower should notice the regulation issued by the SACH that the total number and proportion of top-grade pieces of a loan is strictly limited. Endangered species require additional approval which takes about two months to obtain. A provenance certificate is required for the pieces shown together with the loans from China. When an exhibition requests loans from more than two Chinese museums, the application should be made by an appointed coordinator on behalf of all the participants in China. Loan application documents include an exhibition proposal or invitation, exhibition outline and exhibition venue facilities report in addition to the agreement between the lender and borrower.
For loans to China, all Chinese antiquities loans to China for exhibition require a provenance certificate. There is no free of capture and seizure clause in our State Law so far. A Letter of Guarantee signed by the SACH can be provided if it can be accepted.
From our experience, medium-sized thematic exhibitions on a mutual exchange basis between museums is a good way to minimise cost while making an impact.
東京國立博物館
Collaborative Chinese Art Exhibitions at the Tokyo National Museum, 2012-2014
From January 2012 to September 2014, the Tokyo National Museum held the following five exhibitions of Chinese Art:
I. Two Hundred Selected Masterpieces from the Palace Museum, Beijing (2 Jan-19 Feb, 2012)
II. The Twentieth Century for Chinese Landscape Painting: Selected Masterpieces from the National Art Museum of China (31 Jul-26 Aug, 2012)
III. Wang Xizhi: Master Calligrapher (22 Jan-3 Mar, 2013)
IV. Treasures of Chinese Painting from the Shanghai Museum (1 Oct-24 Nov, 2013)
V. Treasured Masterpieces from the National Palace Museum, Taipei (24 Jun-15 Sep, 2014)
The number of international loans were: 200 items for I, 50 for II, 4 for III, 40 for IV, and 186 for V (including 231 loans to the Kyushu National Museum). I, III, and V were large-scale exhibitions held in the galleries on the second floor of the Heiseikan building, which has 2,900 square meters of exhibition space. Most of these exhibitions materialised as a result of the long-term relationships of over 20 years that the Tokyo National museum has enjoyed with Chinese institutions.
Our museum had to give up certain loans immediately before the opening dates of the exhibitions due to the international political climate. In my presentation, I will discuss the exhibitions held between 2012 and 2014, including the processes leading up to their openings, our aims in holding these exhibitions, as well as the influence they had and the problems that arose both in and outside of Japan.
蘇格蘭國家博物館
Ming China in Contemporary Scotland
This presentation will look at the experiences and challenges of bringing an exhibition on the Ming (U.K.)dynasty (1368-1644) to the National Museum of Scotland (NMS) in Edinburgh. Ming: The Golden Empire was held at the NMS from 27 June to 19 October 2014. The exhibition was very well received by both the media and the public, and it brought unique and rare artefacts from the collections of the Nanjing Museum halfway across the world to a new audience in Scotland. The exhibition came to Edinburgh through an intermediary company – an exhibition and design company based in Edinburgh and Chengdu called Nomad. This company now works with a number of Chinese museums to develop and promote exhibitions internationally.
This presentation will examine some of the lessons learned from working through a third party exhibition company; the particular curatorial challenges of working with an exhibition developed on a commercial and not primarily on a curatorial or scholarly basis; as well as the challenges of marketing and making accessible the culture and history of a unique period of Chinese history to a non-specialist audience in a museum institution which is not an art museum or an Asian art museum. What in other words were the key challenges for an exhibition curator in soundly articulating and making accessible a culturally complex and nuanced historical period of Chinese history to a museum audience which may have had very little prior knowledge of or encounter with Chinese history, visual or material culture.
As a corollary of the experiences outlined above, this presentation will also seek to situate the experience of working on this exhibition project within a wider reflection on what it might mean for external museums hoping to work with Chinese museum and cultural institutions in a rapidly growing and transforming Chinese museum sector over the next five to ten years. This presentation will conclude by asking what the future might hold for external museum professionals hoping to work with and build links with Chinese colleagues, and what do Chinese museum professionals in turn hope to gain from working with external museum institutions and colleagues. And what might the future hold in developing exhibition projects with a China which now views culture as among other things a major strategic industry, and a powerful developmental force.
維多利亞與艾爾伯特博物館
From Policy to Practice: A Personal Reflection on Exhibition Collaboration
Collaboration between Chinese museums and museums outside China have been rapidly growing in recent years not only in terms of numbers but also in complexity. This paper takes the Masterpieces of Chinese Painting 700-1900 exhibition held at the V&A last year as an example to explore how collaborations between museums are practiced. It starts out by introducing this exhibition project and its major components, before moving to review the areas of collaboration that had taken place. The paper then considers ways of improvement and new possibilities.
大英博物館
The British Museum Collaboration with China: Research and Exhibitions
Early Ming China’s multiple courts were internationally engaged long before the arrival of Europeans who traded directly with China in the 1500s, Ming: 50 years that changed China, co-curated by Jessica Harrison-Hall of the BM and Craig Clunas of the University of Oxford explores multiple courts in the early Ming and their international connections. Through 280 objects and paintings, the show examines the contexts for the Forbidden City and explores the myths and realities of Chinese national hero Zheng He, the eunuch who led armadas across the Indian Ocean to Africa before Columbus was born.
Curating the exhibition involved working with 30 lenders (museums, libraries and private collections). This paper focuses on the relationships with Chinese museums particularly curators, directors and people responsible for cultural heritage in regional China. Organisations included Art Exhibitions China, the State Administration for Cultural Heritage, the Ministry of Culture of China, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This collaboration required close engagement with senior high officials in China as well as with the British Council, British Embassy in Beijing and the Chinese Embassy in London all of which played important roles.
Cultural diplomacy, big business and the growing emphasis on “soft” power generates interest in the Ming exhibition among UK politicians. Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, opened the exhibition on 16 September 2014 and said; “This event is a good example of a coalition between the BM and its exhibition sponsor, BP,” -as reported in the London Evening Standard. George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, mentioned the exhibition in a parliamentary speech on 12 September 2014. The Hon Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy on 23 September 2014 described it as “a stunning exhibition”. Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, cited the Ming exhibition as a major autumn blockbuster and one which brought tourists to London, delivering an important income stream. Within China, the Ming show has also been used as a vehicle for cultural diplomacy. Li Keqiang (now Premier of the People’s Republic of China and party secretary of the State Council) visited the BM in 2010 and discussed some of the BM’s Ming material, which is included in the exhibition. In 2014, his wife, Cheng Hong examined paintings and objects being conserved for the show.
As well as these successes my paper will address some of the difficulties involved in working with China on a project of this scale. There are different approaches to academic research in China and elsewhere. The sheer size of China and the time to travel and build relationships directly with core museums, libraries and individual lenders, whilst moving forward other parts of the project, was a real challenge. Perhaps digital technology will help as more Chinese museums start to put their collections online. Balancing the quid pro quo is a challenge. Can the BM lend treasures to Chinese museums on a similar scale? Chinese museums have much larger staff than the BM. This impacts the hospitality and care we can provide. The 7-hour time difference also impacts on communications. Linguistic challenges are ever present. Legal requirements are different in the two countries affecting contract negotiations. Chinese timescales are much shorter than English timescales for planning events and exhibitions. In addition to the Chinese relationships, we are balancing the needs of sponsors, lenders, politicians, art organisations, journalists and exhibition teams. Despite working in systems that are organised and function quite differently, the end result of the collaboration between China and the BM that produced the exhibition is one that has shown positive public, as well as scholarly benefit.
明尼阿波利斯美術館
Opportunities and Challenges of Traveling Exhibitions from China
In recent years, exhibition exchanges between US museums and their Chinese counterparts have thrived, which has the potential for great impact on cross-cultural understanding between the two countries. What are the opportunities and challenges of American museum curators attempting to organize exhibitions from China? This presentation will highlight how the ongoing and thriving archaeological activities in China provide great resources for American curators. The presentation will also elicit challenges in bringing travelling exhibitions from China and discuss the ways to rectify common practices that place unnecessary burdens on the exchange of exhibitions.
主持:項曉煒先生(中華人民共和國駐英國大使館文化處公使銜參贊)
盧布爾雅那大學
Chinese Art Objects and Other Materials in Slovenia: Identification, Registration and Digitization Project
The present paper will briefly introduce a newly begun research project at the Department of Asian and African Studies at University of Ljubljana, in Slovenia, which was planned in collaboration with Slovene Ethnographic Museum. The project will include Chinese art collections, together with other materials and resources, which are currently held in various museums and other institutions in Slovenia. While some collections and objects have been the subject of research in recent years, an overall survey and listing, i.e. identification, categorization, listing in catalogue format, and digitization, has yet to be undertaken. Many objects and materials are stored in depositories, and in some cases the existing categorization has proved to be incorrect. Due to this situation, a precise and comprehensive examination, analysis, study, identification and digitization of all Chinese art objects in institutional collections in Slovenia, will be performed.
The paper shall also briefly present two smaller projects, included within the aforesaid project, which are planned in collaboration with the Palace Museum in Beijing and the National Palace Museum in Taipei. The first project is the restoration of an original “model” of a Chinese house and decorative screens which were brought to Slovenia at the start of the 20th century. The second project instead concerns setting up a database of old photos, postcards and other documentary material from China with metadata, digital images and explanatory texts, that meet the most current international standards.
The paper will also briefly introduce the newly established EAAA, which has as its main aim encouraging and promoting academic and scholarly activities related to Asian art and archaeology in European countries. It will also discuss creating different forms of cooperation between European and Asian museums, in order to enhance the Chinese heritage and related researches in Europe. Such forms of collaboration can play an active role in today’s globalized society, which is characterized by ever-expanding currents of intellectual and material exchanges.
大英博物館
中國絲綢博物館
Researching Silk Road Textiles – An International Collaboration
Helen Wang and Zhao Feng will introduce their collaboration of almost ten years — starting with the “Textiles from Dunhuang” series — and show how these scholarly and specialist catalogues have opened up new avenues for collaborative research with scholars in other fields.
Zhao Feng would also like to suggest a new international collaboration proposal, the “Silk Mountings of Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy”.
南京博物院
International Museum Collaborations: More than Traveling Exhibitions
Exhibitions are a major channel for museums to conduct international collaborations. In the past, a quite usual approach for Chinese museums to conduct international exhibition collaboration was to loan objects. In this way, Chinese objects are interpreted in a western narrative, which sometimes may deprive them from the meanings, contexts, and discourse they originally contain. Another frequently adopted model was to loan an entire exhibition. In this way, the stories are often told in a way that has no appeal to the local audience.
Nanjing Museum has been exploring new approaches to conduct international exhibition collaboration. For example, the “Treasures of China” exhibition, which was held in Colchester Museum in the U.K. in 2012, invited ten students from the U.K. to China to pick their favorite objects from Nanjing Museum’s numerous collections. Based on their choices, museum curators added other objects to form the whole exhibition. This approach introduced an audience view in the exhibition curation. Moreover, the opportunity provided by this exhibition to travel to China to encounter with Chinese culture has become a great life experience for these students. Encouraged by this success, we are now extending the project – next February, a group of ten Chinese students will travel to Essex, UK to select their favorite artefacts from Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service’s collection to form an exhibition to be held in Nanjing Museum.
To get help from local media to warm up the local audience of an exhibition venue seems a good practice. Nanjing Museum loaned an exhibition on the Ming Dynasty to De Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam in 2013. The local audience had very little knowledge about Chinese history and culture. Except for the blue and white porcelain, they knew nothing about the Ming. Our solution was to have a group of journalists from local media companies come to Nanjing to see the collection, the museum, the city, and the culture with their own eyes. After their return, the local audience in Amsterdam was able to access the information and knowledge about the Ming dynasty, the theme of this exhibition, before the opening.
The ideal approach, but also a more challenging one, rather than to loan just objects or an entire exhibition, is co-curation. Curators from both sides work together on theme selection, exhibits picking, and exhibition development. An effective way to initiate such collaboration is to find a common ground of mutual interest such as similarities in collections or relevance in terms of the time period.
主持:馬熙樂教授(阿什莫爾藝術與考古學博物館)
利榮森紀念訪問學人
維多利亞與艾爾伯特博物館
Experiences at the Learning Department of Victoria and Albert Museum
This presentation shares the experience of a six-month attachment with the Learning Department at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) from June to November 2013. The Fellow set out to understand the learning needs of school groups and younger visitors and to explore how museum learning provides resources to children, making the programmes engaging and fun without ‘dumbing it down’ for our younger visitors. The main objective of the programme was therefore to develop educational resources with the Schools, Family and Young People team of the Learning Department. The development of resources was carried out with an emphasis on the V&A’s permanent Chinese collection and the special exhibition “Masterpieces of Chinese Painting 700-1900”, and covered different stages of the development from planning, content development to delivery.
The presentation begins with a description of the tasks and activities during the attachment, which included creating a new China Gallery back-pack, developing teachers’ resources for the China Gallery and the special exhibition “Masterpieces of Chinese Painting 700-1900”, preparing and delivering the October half-term programme, and assisting in the planning of the Chinese Festival programme. Illustrated by these tasks, The presentation goes on to discuss how colleagues at the V&A made use of the gallery space, which was seen not only as display space but also as a seminar room, lecture hall, theatre or story-telling stage. It reflects on how the V&A’s use of its gallery space offers food for thought in terms of encouraging in-gallery learning instead of separating the activities from the displays. Finally, the presentation concludes by pointing out that the key to a successful exchange programme lies in constant communication between fellows and host institutions. It suggests that discussions beforehand help both parties have a clearer picture of the arrangements during the attachment period and, particularly for Fellows, reduce anxiety of settling into a new environment. Equally important is to have regular communication with contact persons at the host institutions in order to reflect on the progress and to ensure necessary adjustments are made.
中華世紀壇世界藝術館
納爾遜阿特金斯藝術博物館
A 12-Month Fellowship in the Curatorial and Education Departments at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
This paper explores my experience as a 12-month J.S. Lee Fellow at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Unlike previous fellowships, which were primarily focused on art history/curatorial research, my goal as a museum educator was to understand the organizational structure of a Western museum, and the role that education plays in it, and to see what aspects of Western museum organization and museum processes could be usefully applied to China.
During my yearlong fellowship, I worked with the Chinese Art Curator, Dr. Colin Mackenzie, and the Director of Education Division, Mrs. Judith Koke. With their guidance, I contributed to the exhibitions “Journey through Mountains & Rivers: Chinese Landscapes Ancient and Modern”, and “Jade: China’s Immortal Soul,” and the educational programmes “Chinese New Year Events” and “Family Gallery Guide to Chinese Art”. Through my participation in a great number of museum practices, I finally figured out what our similarities and differences in education are, and what we could learn from American museums.
In this presentation I will discuss some of the areas in which I gained a better understanding of the complexity of museum work, particularly the organization of exhibitions in the U.S. One of the key insights I gained was how closely curatorial, education, and fundraising departments work together. In particular, the concept of keeping the audience as the focus and trying to see a potential exhibition, even from early discussions, from the point of view of the audience. I found that concepts like the “big idea” and the “takeaway message” were considered very important. I also learned much about the focus on audience evaluation both in terms of general demographics and surveys of visitors’ attitudes toward the museum prior to their visit as well as their experience during the visit.
As a museum educator working in a museum that exhibits primarily “foreign” (i.e., non-Chinese) art and therefore deals with challenges of interpreting it for a domestic (i.e., Chinese) audience, it was very useful to work with a non-European Department which faces similar challenges: how to engage audiences with something they can be totally unfamiliar with.
Although not all the practices in a US museum can be transferred wholesale to a Chinese museum, I believe that it is important for Chinese museums to understand the dialogue and changes that are taking place in Western museums and to adopt those elements that are suitable. Since returning to China, I have begun to discuss with my colleagues how we can use some of the new techniques and organizational structures that I encountered during my fellowship and we have begun devising an achievable and realistic plan for the next three years.
I believe that a successful exchange can contribute to both professional exchange and personal life exchange; it could even lead to the creation of future international joint programmes. I truly hope my fellowship experience can be a useful example for the J. S. Lee Memorial Fellowship Programme as well as future fellows.
故宮博物院
The Invisible Design of Museum
I spent four months working with my colleagues at the Freer Gallery: (1) attending weekly meetings of the Department of Design and Production and the Department of Exhibitions as well as all exhibit projects meetings; (2) visiting the collection storage and familiarizing myself with the galleries, as preparation for the design work for which I am responsible; (3) designing an exhibit project at the Freer Gallery 13, the Freer Corridor and the Sackler Gallery N8, titled “Gifts to the Collection: 1987-2012”; (4) visiting and interviewing staff members at various departments to better understand the ways in which the Freer and Sackler operates.
The knowledge and skills I garnered during my stay in the US are of immense value to the museums in China. I came to understand that design is not just a concept or a piece of paper. In fact, project management, production quality, and the idea of public service are the three important factors of museum design. That is called “Invisible Design”.
I wish to put them to use in my actual design work at The Palace Museum and to introduce them to other museum professionals in China. In respect of improving the quality of exhibitions at The Palace Museum, I plan to (1) standardize all the colors, fonts, measurements used in The Palace Museum, producing a detailed style guide and document each process of the exhibition; (2) set up an in-house workshop for exhibition construction jobs (mounts, stands, etc.) and a lab for developing technologies catering to the needs of The Palace Museum to solve such issues as lighting and earthquake proofing, so as to better protect the objects; (3) help to shift gradually to a new mode of exhibit projects managing, bringing in persons of various specialties that have been hitherto neglected yet much needed, including exhibition coordinator, graphics designer, writer, and exhibition conservator. I also plan to organize an exhibits group in Beijing. We can have some designers’ meetings regularly. The discussion will share the best practices, good examples, pitfalls to avoid, and address other questions.
主持:
馬麟博士(納爾遜阿特金斯藝術博物館)
霍吉淑女士(大英博物館)
大英博物館
Building Museum Sectors: The British Museum’s International Training Programme
The International Training Programme demonstrates the BM’s commitment to building a global network of colleagues crossing geographical and cultural boundaries. The Museum’s staff and collection provide a forum to disseminate museum best practice and to exchange specialist knowledge and professional skills. The Museum aims to provide the opportunity for mutual learning, discussion and collaboration among museum professionals from around the world from very diverse institutions and backgrounds but with one goal — to help drive and shape the museums of the future.
For almost ten years, the BM has been training museum professionals in collections management, storage and documentation; exhibitions and galleries; conservation and scientific research; national and international loans; learning, audiences and volunteers; fundraising, income generation and commercial programmes; leadership, strategy, museums management and communication. Participants also spend time in a department relevant to their specific interests, with tailored individual training and research time. Another key part of the programme is a 10-day period spent at another UK museum. This allows the participants to experience multi-site museums and different types of displays, and helps these museums develop international relationships.
In 2014, the programme took place from 3 August to 13 September and welcomed participants from Armenia, China, Cuba, Egypt, Greece, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Mexico, Pakistan, Palestine, Oman, Turkey, and Sudan.
迪美博物館
The Past and the Future of US-China Museum Collaboration at the Peabody Essex Museum
The PEM has a long history of engagement with China. Established in 1799, the Museum holds the very first American museum collection of Chinese art, which was formed in 1800. Highlights in our Chinese art collection include the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of Chinese export art and the largest American museum collection of nineteenth-century photographs of China. Since 2003 the museum has been home to Yin Yu Tang, a unique 200-year-old house from China and the only intact example of Chinese vernacular architecture in the U.S. Most recently, we worked with the Palace Museum, Beijing to organize a major traveling exhibition in the US featuring Emperor Qianlong’s garden Juanqinzhai.
Delving into the museum’s deep historical ties to China inspires new thinking about our future collaboration with China. This presentation shares information about collaboration opportunities at PEM and considers a number of new avenues to collaboration with Chinese colleagues in exhibition, publication and digital projects.
新南威爾士藝術館
A New Curator at a Changing Gallery
Cao Yin joined Sydney’s AGNSW just as the institution was about to embark on an evolutionary change. While she continues her role as a curator of Chinese art in the conventional sense, she faces fresh opportunities as well as new challenges. In this presentation, she will discuss these changes and their impact on her work at AGNSW.
The AGNSW is the leading museum in Australia in terms of its long history of collecting Chinese art and promoting Chinese culture. The Chinese programme was a particular area of interest over the past three decades when the gallery was under the leadership of Mr. Edmund Capon with his expertise and passion for traditional Chinese art.
In the past decade, AGNSW held several important exhibitions curated by Director Capon with the assistance of Dr. Liu Yang, then curator of Chinese Art, including The Lost Buddhas: Chinese Buddhist Sculpture from Qingzhou (29 Aug – 23 Nov 2008) and The First Emperor: China’s Entombed Warriors (2 Dec 2010 – 13 Mar 2011), the latter the gallery’s most popular exhibition to that point, attracting more 300,000 visitors.
The Chinese programme at AGNSW entered a new phase in 2012 with the retirement of Mr. Capon, who had been the gallery’s director for 33 years, and the departure of Dr. Liu who was the Chinese Curator for more than a decade. The new director, Dr. Michael Brand, is determined to continue the long tradition of a strong presence of Chinese culture at the gallery, and is also planning to develop a more comprehensive programme to engage with China.
The new strategic plan is a reflection of the gallery’s response to the larger social and political development in Australia, and to the ever closer ties between Australia and China in recent years. The renewal of the entire executive team has also brought new ideas and a different management style to the operation of the gallery. The institution’s planned “Sydney Modern” expansion now being under way will add further impetus to the transformation of the gallery to inspire audiences of the 21st century.
香港中文大學文物館
Collaborations with Long-term Impact
This presentation will be a summary of several initiatives undertaken by the Art Museum in recent months. I shall discuss some projects — such as the “Digitization of the Sheng Xuanhuai Archive”, the “Investigation of Ancient Chinese Gold Working Techniques” and “Preservation of Modern Chinese Ink Painting” — that involve institutions and individuals outside of the museum field, and show how these projects may engage and resonate with the community. As these projects are still in the planning stage, my discussion is also intended to be a brainstorming session with curators and colleagues who may help us to enrich the projects.
亞洲協會美術館
The Second US – China Museum Leaders Forum, Shanghai and Hangzhou 2014
From November 18 to 21, Asia Society (AS) and the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries will host the second US-China Museum Leaders Forum in China. The forum is an AS initiative that began in 2012 to develop tangible and actionable projects that museums in the US and China could execute to promote better collaboration and exchange. In 2012 the museum leaders identified various benefits of museum exchanges. Such programmes provide information and experiences to museum audiences; foster tolerance and understanding between nations; and enhance cultural competence in a globalized world. The directors also identified obstacles impeding museum collaborations, including disparities in resources and practices; cumbersome bureaucratic, legal, and regulatory systems; a lack of familiarity between museum professionals; and the absence of institutional and funding mechanisms to facilitate exchanges. The consensus view among those attending was that the expansion of museum collaborations will require new funding and organizational mechanisms to spur and conduct exchange activities. This presentation will be an overview of the Forum, which includes panel discussion on successful museum exchanges and on the state of art philanthropy in the US and China.
香港大學美術博物館
An Exceptional Traveling Exhibition: A Case Study of An Artistic Exchange Mechanism in a Cross-strait Four-region Artistic Exchange Project
This paper studies the Cross-Straits Four-Region Artistic Exchange Project 2014 which intends to present a new generation of artists and expand the horizons of young artists around the four regions: Hong Kong, Mainland China, Macao and Taiwan. The theme is “Conforming to Vicinity,” which requires artists to explore the new state of contemporary art in these four places and to understand how regional and city development influence their artistic creation. Their works are shown in museums of these four regions throughout the year including the University Museum & Art Gallery, He Xiangning Art Museum, Macao Art Museum and Pingtung Art Museum. This is an exceptional exhibition which is different from most traveling exhibitions which usually present the same set of exhibits throughout the tours. This project requires most participating artists to strive for change in their respective places to showcase their developing artworks which grow from one place to another until they reach their completed state at the final stop. In addition to its site-specific theme, this exhibition emphasizes the collaboration among multiple institutions and the process of curation and creation.
The paper will discuss this ambitious project from the point of view of the organizational strategies and practical issues that required coordinating the artists and running the project. It will also study the problems that the partners need to deal with issues such as the artist support, artwork display, transport and promotion of this challenging project.
Why do institutions as well as artists want to participate in such an artistic exchange project? Does this type of experience provide a deeper engagement with audiences and give institutions and artists an opportunity to learn from these experiences? What are we finding in the process?
** 以專題講座先後排序
本論壇探討藏品修復與保護、博物館合作與資源共享及博物館教育與推廣等議題。
主辦機構:上海博物館
日期:2013年4月17 – 19日
主持:蘇芳淑教授(香港中文大學)
費城藝術博物館
保護及修繕費城藝術博物館的建築內飾
One of the strengths of the PMA’s , a 17th century Reception Hall and an 18th century Scholar’s Study. Acquired in Beijing in the 1920s, the interiors followed the vision of the director Fiske Kimball who saw them not only as works of art but as settings in which to provide historical context for the display of Chinese objects. Today, the Reception Hall and the Temple Ceiling remain important examples of the official style architecture of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). After fifty years of display, the need to conserve and preserve the vibrantly painted roof beams and timbers of the Reception Hall initiated a study of the materials and techniques of Chinese architectural painting. This paper will present the research and conservation treatment carried out on the Ming Reception Hall and also on a Buddhist wall painting said to have come from a temple In Henan province. Similarities include the range of colors in the palette, raised gold ornamentation and binders. It is often assumed that architectural interiors were frequently repainted, however, analysis of the paint samples showed that the Reception Hall was repainted only once or twice during its three-hundred-year history.
浙江大學
現代科技在紙質文物保護中的應用研究
自兩千年前造紙技術發明後,紙張一直扮演著記錄歷史、傳遞延續文化的重要角色。收藏在博物館、圖書館、檔案館中的歷代遺存的書、畫、報刊、文獻等紙質文物,是研究中華民族歷史、政治、經濟、藝術、文化的珍貴資料,具有十分重要的歷史文化價值。
紙張屬於有機材料,主要化學成分是纖維素,由纖維素大分子中基團間的葡萄糖鍵連接而成。隨著歲月的流逝,在內在因素 (酸的作用和材質的變化) 與外在因素 (溫度、濕度、光照、酸性氣體侵蝕、蟲蛀、黴變及機械的磨損) 的影響下,導致酸化、發脆甚至粉化,紙張「自毀」正面臨著嚴峻的局面。
對已酸化的紙質文物、書刊、文獻而言,脫酸是延長紙張壽命的唯一途徑。自19世紀30年代以來,各國學者研究了各種脫酸方法,大體可歸納為:水溶液法、有機溶劑法、氣相法。這些方法為紙質文物、書刊、文獻的保護發揮了一定作用,但都不大理想。近幾年浙江大學、廣州工業大學、南京博物院等單位,在紙張脫酸研究方面取得了可喜進展,他們在總結、吸收以往方法基礎上,開展了創新性研究,如:浙江大學張溪文、奚三彩等,從低溫等離子體原理出發,對等離子脫酸技術在紙質文物、書刊保護中的應用進行了研究。
本文僅簡要介紹紙張酸化的原因及脫酸研究的進展。
中國文化遺產研究院
中國早期費昂斯和早期玻璃的科學分析
我的彙報內容主要是我在美國哈佛大學藝術博物館保護實驗室進行的部分研究成果。主要分為兩個部分:
西周弓魚國墓地出土費昂斯殘片的科學分析,研究的重點是採用ESM-EDX分析剖面樣品的元素分佈和組成。此次分析的費昂斯來自兩個墓葬,時代基本上都是西周中期,也是費昂斯產生或出現的時期。分析結果其中一個墓葬的樣品符合高鉀低鈉的特徵,這一結果和之前的一些研究資料是一致的,即西周至春秋時期的費昂斯玻璃相內高鉀低鈉,具有和埃及西亞地區不同的元素含量特徵。但另一墓葬的樣品具有不同的特點,其高鈉低鉀的特徵符合埃及西亞地區的特點,反映出這些料珠或生產技術源於外部,很有可能是由中亞傳入的。
第二部分內容是簡要介紹對多件藏于哈佛大學博物館的東周時期的重要玻璃器的科學分析,這也是首次對這些器物進行科學檢測。這些器物包括東周晚期和漢代的鑲有蜻蜓眼、玻璃條銅鏡和帶勾。通過對這些器物之上的玻璃部件的XRF元素分析,發現一些蜻蜓眼不同區域採用的原料成分差異很大,有些部位顯示出典型的鉛鋇玻璃特徵,有些部位顯示出含有鈣和鈉元素。這反映出當時玻璃在製作過程中的一些特點。東西方產的玻璃原料都在同一件器物上出現,這一發現有助於瞭解當時玻璃製作和使用的重要資訊,對於研究東西方交流也有很重要的借鑒作用。
上海博物館
學而知不足 思而得遠慮 – 在弗利爾和賽克勒藝術館學習交流回顧
中國古代陶瓷器不僅是藝術品,也飽含著豐富的技術內涵,科技研究的介入可以獲取更多的古代陶瓷工藝技術等方面的資訊,為工藝傳承、文物鑒定提供有價值的參考。早在19世紀,西方學者就開始應用先進的科學設備研究中國古代藝術品,美國史密森研究院的弗利爾和賽克勒藝術館 (FSG) 在中國文物研究方面積累了很多研究技術和經驗。受到「利榮森紀念交流計畫」的資助,在2011年2月至8月間,前往FSG進行學習交流,深有所獲。
交流專案主題為「中國古代鐵、銅呈色瓷釉的分析研究」。中國古代鐵、銅呈色的陶瓷器品種較多,選擇標準參考樣品、準確定量為難點,交流中,採用掃描電鏡、顯微分析儀、X螢光光譜儀和電子探針等設備,對52件具有代表性的中國歷代重要時期傳世或出土的瓷片進行測試,通過不同測試方法和標準樣品的選擇比較,篩選出12件適合的標準參考樣品,實現了對瓷釉化學組成的準確定量。最後,通過對資料的分類整理與分析,初步完成了對鐵、銅呈色瓷釉的釉料特點、施釉工藝特徵及影響釉呈色主要因素的討論,達到了預期效果。
史密森研究院對古代藝術品的收藏、研究有很長的歷史,涉及了世界上各個古代文明地區,通過庫房觀摩、資料查詢、與會討論,得以拓展視野和研究空間;收集的資料將在今後的研究中,直接起到至關重要的作用。交流工作期間,也體會到了美國同行嚴格執行操作規範和不斷探索新方法的工作態度。
本節討論了建築、紙張、費昂斯 (faiences) 及陶瓷四個截然不同的修復課題,各講者同時強調不同領域一起合作研究的重要性。各人亦探討策展人在參與科學研究中的角色應該是支持、促進、還是主導。
單一學科的研究或分析結果往往會造成錯誤的判斷,因此藝術史學者、考古學者及科學研究人員應增加討論和互相了解,結合學者的藝術史知識、登錄保存人員對文物的記錄、考古學者的發掘結果,以及科學研究人員對藝術品成份的分析,才能建構出對藝術品的全面認識。
主持:
高美慶教授(北山堂基金)
林業強教授(香港中文大學文物館)
科隆東亞藝術博物館
Imperial Splendour: Life and Art in the Forbidden City – an Exhibition Organized by the Museum of East Asian Art Cologne in Collaboration with The Palace Museum Beijing from 19 October 2012 to 20 January 2013
Themes and Topics Covered by the Exhibition – The Qing Dynasty in Focus
The Exhibition was the highlight of “China Year” in Germany, commemorating 25 years of city partnership between Beijing and Cologne as well as 40 years of diplomatic relations between the Peoples’ Republic and Germany. The idea was to contribute to a deeper understanding of modern China by focusing on the 17th and 18th centuries in which China developed into a vast colonial empire under the Mandchu rulers. The objects were arranged in the following groups:
1. The son of heaven as universal ruler and the concept of Confucian state ritual. This group comprised a throne ensemble, ancestor portraits, ceremonial robes and depictions of state rituals such as “10.000 States pay reverence to the Emperor of China”. Also included in this group were the Mandchurian ritual of hunting and its influence on military structure as well as the new development of the cult of military heroes.
2. The second group was focused on the different religious systems which were simultaneously supported by the Qing court, while Tibetan Buddhism was favoured as a political link to integrate the peoples at the fringes of the multi-ethnical realm. Also included in this group were objects related to the Jesuits, among them Adam Schall von Bell from Cologne, who received access to the court because of their scientific knowledge and skills in the arts and crafts.
3. The next group illustrated the role played by the emperors as scholars, poets, collectors, artists and fervent supporters of court art, pointing out the Mandchu emperors’ admiration for Confucian values and traditions on the one hand, and their fascination with realistic Western portrait painting on the other, which served to illustrate and propagate their virtues in a stunningly realistic manner which was unprecedented in former dynasties.
2. Imperial Art Objects from the Collection of the Cologne Museum Integrated in the Palace Show – A Dialogue on Provenance
Imperial Art Objects from the Collection of the Cologne Museum Integrated in the Palace Show – A Dialogue on Provenance
The exhibition also included objects from the collection of the Cologne museum which were published in the catalogue at the end by smaller images and with brief captions. The idea was to show these objects in their original context, in other words, to do justice to them, and to show them in a way that they normally cannot be seen in Cologne. Another aim was to start a dialogue on – and enter a new chapter – in the book of provenance history. The Cologne museum made a special pledge to be allowed to show these pieces together with the objects from Beijing. We handed in a list explaining the provenance of each individual object. After about three months the Ministry of Cultural Affairs agreed to the display of almost all of the pieces, but there was one Imperial jade seal which was not allowed to be shown. The reasons were not clearly stated but in my paper I will try to explain why I think this seal was refused.
The Question of Conservation – Varying Standards and Differing Ideas about how to Hang and Protect a Hanging Scroll in an Exhibition
While we were planning and discussing the exhibition architecture with our partners in Beijing, we realized that there exist many views on how to display objects safely. After the arrival of the exhibition team consisting of curators only, and not of professional restorers, we were confused because some of their views were influenced by Western ideas while other views were neither traditional, nor Western. It also seems worth noting that different from Western museums, the restorers of the Palace museum who are familiar with the craft of mounting paintings, do not seem to have much influence on the theory and practice of exhibiting objects. If there existed professional standards defined by those who are actually dealing with the practical art of restoration and conservation, it would probably be easier to find safe solutions.
國立故宮博物院
兩岸故宮書畫展覽與保存、應用之比較研究
北京故宮博物院與臺北國立故宮博物院的文物典藏,素有密不容分的鏈結關係。自2009年2至3月間,兩岸故宮的院長展開互訪以來,透過舉辦學術研討會與展覽交流等活動,已經使兩岸故宮研究人員以及文物展示的實質合作更為具體化。
本項研究,正是植基於上述基礎。2011年下半,我獲得香港「利榮森紀念交流計劃」的贊助,利用5個月的時間(8月1日至12月31日),針對本身工作中所涉及的領域,分別就北京故宮在書畫展覽規劃,以及書畫保存修復、數位影像建置、數位影像應用等項目的執行方式,進行通盤研習。期間訪談交流的對象,囊括了古書畫部、展覽部、文物管理處、科研處、文保科技部及資料信息中心、圖書館等七個部門,另外亦實地觀摩書畫換展、書畫修復與文物拍攝的情形,受益良深。
在2011年底研習結束前,和2012年初返回臺北之後,我曾分別將此行的經驗與北京故宮及臺北故宮的同仁分享,另外也著手撰寫《兩岸故宮書畫展覽與保存、應用之比較研究》一書。本次講座,即是擷取文稿中的三個要項,為論壇與會者介紹兩岸故宮在各自營運期間(指1949年迄今),所累積的豐碩成果,期能藉助兩院相同議題的比較研究,提供給博物館同業作為參考。
故宮博物院
英倫之行收獲及學術成果出版模式的探討
由於各種歷史原因,中華文物散落於世界各地公立、私立博物館和私人藏家中,隨著各個類別文物研究的推進與深入,我們逐步認識到,對於散落世界各地的中華文物的研究是不可或缺的重要組成部分之一。對這些文物的瞭解、研究與出版是今後研究各類文物極其重要的內容。台北故宮曾經出版《海外遺珍》,雖然掛一漏萬,但對瞭解和掌握海外藏中國文物起到了重要的橋樑作用。我們希望借此機會,呼籲對海外藏中國文物的研究與出版能夠得到重視並能夠一步一步地實現。
「利榮森紀念交流計畫」,為文物研究者瞭解、研究海外博物館藏中國文物搭建了一個非常好的平臺,我們建議,在此基礎上一方面繼續擴大博物館的範圍,一方面與各個博物館溝通,實現將研究成果出版,供更多的人欣賞與進一步研究。它既是每一個訪問學人的研究成果,也是「利榮森紀念交流計畫」的業績與成果。在出版運作中,主要涉及兩個難題,一是署名問題,二是文物照片版權與費用問題。第一個問題除了臺北故宮博物院存在一定的難度外,其它博物館均可妥善解決。第二個問題是需要有專門的部門、專門的人員負責協調解決,主要涉及到對方博物館的「情感」問題,是否願意由他人出版,如果涉及的文物量少,尚可理解和考慮,如果涉及的文物量大且沒有圖片或者對方博物館尚未出版,能否接受由中國研究人員、中國的出版社出版?
我們相信凡事都有解決的途徑與辦法,我們可以考慮由雙方的專家一起研究,一起署名,在版權上或在費用上適當給對方比較優惠的條件,目的只有一個,就是將博大精深的中華文物展現給世人。
香港教育學院
Wandering in and beyond Chinese Jade: A Research on the Sonnenschein Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago
The year of invaluable working experience at the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) offered me opportunities of participating in daily curatorial works, and close studies of the museum Chinese jade collection. In this presentation, I will briefly discuss my recent survey on Chinese glass plaques – one of the researches that I conceived and developed by studying the Edward and Louise B. Sonnenschein archaic Chinese jades Collection during the year at the AIC.
Most discussions about early Chinese glass to date have explored issues of origin and studied this material as an indication of China’s contacts with outside civilizations. This research, however, attempts to focus on the different subject of these glass plaques. By juxtaposing the AIC’s glass plaques with other collections’ pieces and those found from excavations, this study will explore the original function of the plaques, and in addition, review the long-standing perception that ancient Chinese glass (particularly in burial context) served as less precious simulations of those of jade.
香港中文大學
談更新克里夫蘭美術館中國繪畫資料經驗
更新中國繪畫網上資料是我在克裡夫蘭美術館的主要工作。此專案旨在改善現有網上圖文資料,促進公眾對館藏中國繪畫之興趣與認識。所更新之五百餘件作品,資料甚豐,由是可窺是藏之歷史與特色,以及中國繪畫藏品資料電子化之得失。
納爾遜阿特金斯藝術博物館
Towards a Goal of Long-term Collaboration between Chinese and American Museums
Over the past two decades, numerous exhibitions of Chinese art have been presented at American museums large and small. With few exceptions, however, these collaborations have generally been stand-alone projects rather than long-term partnerships. This paper explores whether it may be possible in future to create longer-term relationships and what form these partnerships might take. It begins by reviewing the recent exhibition Masterpieces of Early Chinese Painting and Calligraphy in American Collections at the Shanghai Museum and considers how this exhibition could become a model for future exchanges. The paper then explores a broad range of possible collaborations, including exhibitions, conservation, scholarly research, and audience outreach.
博物館合作及資源共享這課題激發起與會者的興趣,各人就國際合作出版、展覽及資源分享進行了熱烈討論。有學者建議西方博物館與亞洲學者合作進行研究及出版,同時亦可設立網上圖像分享平台,促進研究機會。透過網絡平台,博物館可上載藝術品圖像,並建構網上資料庫,推動藝術品的研究。
國際展覽合作方面,與會者認為由於中西方博物館策劃展覽時間的差異,藝術品運輸保險費用高昂,以及中國文物交流中心等組織的嚴謹政策等,令東西方博物館合辦展覽遇到一定困難。
主持:白珍女士(波士頓美術博物館)
波士頓美術博物館
Reaching the All Audiences: Education, Outreach and Programming at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and at Yin Yu Tang at the Peabody Essex Museum
Currently Curator of Chinese Art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and formerly Curator of Chinese Art at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, Nancy Berliner will give an introduction to the collections and missions of each of these two museums – including a discussion of the role of the Yin Yu Tang house project at the Peabody Essex Museum. Berliner spearheaded the re-location, re-erection and the curating of this 18th century house from Anhui Province which is now installed as it appeared when it was last occupied in the 1980’s. Presentations about the two museums will focus on the interaction between the curatorial departments and the education, programming and interpretation departments at each museum. These departments and sub-departments each have their own specific roles in the museum, and their own approaches and missions in reaching out to the many distinct communities that the museums serve. Effective museum experiences rely on the expertise of individuals from all of these departments working together to ensure all audiences (adults and children, specialists and general interest groups) enjoy and learn from their museum experiences.
湖南省博物館
博物館館員在教育中的作用 – 以湖南省博物館為例
對於作為教育場所的博物館,公眾往往更為關注藏品數量及品質、陳列展覽、參觀人數、可提供的教育項目等顯性因素,而往往不甚瞭解聯繫溝通藏品與公眾之間的隱性因素–博物館館員。儘管教育功能與生俱來,但博物館曾一度被看做是精英文化的代表,館員們當中除了專門從事教育工作或公眾服務的成員,更多的是為教育提供宏觀的指導或主題意義的選擇,均較少的通過陳列展覽與公眾產生直接的聯繫。隨著時代的衍進,社會思潮的變化,特別是博物館社會角色和功能的發展,博物館不再是居高臨下的教導者,而是傳播者與引導者。教育的內容和意義不再僅僅由博物館研究人員所主導,更加入了熟悉藏品的保管人員,善於詮釋藏品的專職教育人員,瞭解公眾需要的公共關係人員以及嫺熟當代各種科技發展與媒體創新的展示設計人員,輔之以藏品展示過程中所必須的開放管理、安防、行政人員,由他們形成一個「博物館館員」團隊,明確職權,使得博物館藏品和展示得以平衡的照顧到博物館專業和公眾的需要,在博物館「大教育」的背景下中產生積極的作用。報告將結合湖南省博物館近年來的工作發展情況與陳列展覽實例,探討博物館館員的身份界定與職權劃分,表述博物館館員在教育中的協作及效果,闡述博物館館員綜合素養水準對教育成效的影響,分析博物館教育物件針對館員在教育中的作用的回饋與評估。以期對博物館館員在教育中的重要作用列出證據並作出說明,對博物館教育的未來發展提供「館員」人力資源支撐的實例借鑒。
皇家安大略博物館
新世紀博物館館藏學術研究的轉型問題與思考
21世紀以來,公眾對博物館藏品研究及展示的興趣驟變,隨之而來的是對博物館提供更多公眾項目、展廳互動和社交網路互動的期待和要求。如今,眾多博物館開始重新檢視自身的辦館總旨,並通過策略性的改變來重新定義和解釋這一類面向公眾的學術文化機構。在這次報告中,我將通過集中討論藏品研究和藏品管理方面的改變,扼要地介紹皇家安大略博物館現正施行的一系列策略性改變。皇家安大略博物館是一所包涵眾多學科的研究型博物館。作為加拿大最大的世界性博物館,它研究並收藏涵蓋世界各地的文化和自然歷史。然而,博物館的學術研究部門面臨的挑戰基於這樣一個事實,即公眾對博物館研究人員的前沿性研究成果知之甚少,而正因如此,公眾對博物館展出的藏品的獨特歷史內涵無法進行更深入的瞭解,遑論那些博物館庫房中另外90%的收藏品。皇家安大略博物館新推八個「發現研究中心」(Centres of Discoveries),旨在強調基於博物館藏品的研究,在公眾項目和教育方面鼓勵積極的參與和互動。隨著博物館展覽中移動設備和社交網路技術的應用日漸頻繁,我們需要自問:甚麼是博物館研究館員積極的職責所在?在多元的博物館拓展專案中,研究人員如何能同時保持自身的研究興趣、研究品質、學術自由和學術尊嚴?在當今日益面向公眾開放的博物館中,藏品研究的轉型並非意味著館員必須為了迎合公眾的趣味而拋棄或轉變其擅長的研究興趣和才能。相反,只要能在與社會變遷之時事與問題的相關性情境中呈現研究人員的學術研究,那麼,受到全球範圍內學界認可的基於博物館藏品的研究必將享有更深遠的聲譽。最終,恰恰是藏品研究和館藏文物將博物館轉型為一個極富創造性的重要目的地(destination),而這一場所同時又是參觀、學習和教育過程中不可或缺的指向性環節,使得公眾能夠藉此瞭解和認識當前瞬息萬變的自然世界和文化世界。
阿什莫林藝術與考古博物館
Curators and Outreach: Recent Experience in the Ashmolean Museum
This presentation will look at the importance of educational and outreach programmes in the Ashmolean Museum. The development of educational activities for all ages was a key factor in securing a major grant from the UK Heritage Lottery Fund for the 2006-9 redevelopment of the Ashmolean, and remains a priority. Since 2012 new programmes have also been introduced to increase the use of the collections in teaching throughout the university.
In addition, it will include an account of outreach activities relating to the Chinese collections over the last nine months, with particular reference to projects during my J S Lee Fellowship at the Capital museum. The Fellowship greatly enriched two museum exhibition projects as well as affording opportunities for me to take part in outreach activities at museums and galleries in Beijing. The presentation will conclude with an introduction to the innovative use of technology in the Ashmolean’s current main exhibition Xu Bing: Landscape Landscript (28 February – 19 May).
加利福尼亞大學柏克萊美術館與太平洋電影資料庫
大學在藝術教育中所扮演的角色
Institutional Direction
The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive is the fine arts center on the University of California, Berkeley campus. With a broad collection of historic and contemporary arts, as well as film from around the world, the museum plays a central role in the arts education of the campus and the community.
A recent strategic plan initiative at the museum led to some conclusions about its role in arts education:
• A core value of the museum is the belief that art and film contribute powerfully to learning and that we must strive to fulfill this educational potential for diverse audiences.
• We believe that art and film should play a central role in the learning experience of every Cal student, especially undergraduates.
• We know that exposure to the arts increases cultural awareness, develops sense of self, improves cognitive capacities, and fosters greater sociability, all of which contribute to improved classroom learning in diverse disciplines.
Curators’ Role
The Curators’ role within the University museum setting is not unlike that in city, county or private museums; we are the creative voice of the institution through initiation of original exhibitions, as well as development of collections and programs. In gallery printed labels and interpretative content rests solely with the curator. Collaboration with the Education department is essential to the development of relevant programs and we serve as the “expert” voice on selection of outside speakers and interpretive programs.
The tight bond between the university and the museum creates opportunities for curators to be directly involved with the academic community. A few of these include formal roles in classroom teaching (guest lecturers), participation in campus wide initiatives (Townsend Fellows), gallery talks (student docent training and alumni groups), and student mentoring and internships for post-graduate and graduate students in the arts (Mellon, J.S. Lee, W.T. Chan, ACHIEVE, PFA Film Curating Internship).
Our curators also serve as supervisors for work-study students whose long-term academic and professional interest may or may not be in the arts, but whose family’s financial situation allows for on-campus employment. The program introduces undergraduates to the arts in a very direct way and opens the door to life-long involvement in the arts. Examples of student projects include work in conservation, collections management, and art and film research.
As the museum prepares to move to a new site in downtown Berkeley new initiatives for enhanced community learning have begun including programs for teens, K-12 in-gallery interactive exhibitions, art-making classes, and greater exchange between artists and community. Live programming of dance, performance, and music are new programs involving guest curators from specific disciplines. The size and scope of the museum as well as its long-standing commitment to higher education encourages experimentation in all facets of our programing.
本節討論的博物館教育活動具有兩個共同原素︰趣味性及與觀眾的關聯性。結合教育原素於博物館展覽規劃中已成為趨勢,博物館教育亦不再局限為教育部門的工作。關注觀眾的需要為展覽策劃帶來以藝術為主導,抑或以觀眾為主導的考慮。與會者認為藝術品或展品仍然是展覽的基礎,但如何平衡觀眾的需要將值得繼續探討。
主持: 陳克倫先生(上海博物館)
除了是探索、啟迪及學習的場地外,博物館亦是世界藝術品及文物的守護者。它其中一項使命,是透過研究來獲取及傳播知識。因此,在考慮策劃博物館學術研究及教育時,對藝術品及觀眾的關注缺一不可。
在探討加強中西博物館合作方面,增加彼此的深入了解將至為重要。特別在籌辦國際展覽,財務運作、展覽模式,以至展覽內容,均應就不同展覽地點及場地進行討論及調整。與會者亦建議設立長期的博物館館員交流計劃,促進雙方的了解,令合作關係持之以恆。
** 以專題講座先後排序
論壇涵蓋博物館藏品、當代藝術品的展示與交流、博物館館際的合作及展覽預告。
主辦機構:西雅圖藝術博物館
日期: 2011年7月27 – 29日
主持: 蘇芳淑教授(香港中文大學)
香港中文大學文物館
萬壽貢珍:康熙青花缸新考察
The Vase
Preliminary Studies
2011 New Discoveries
舊金山亞洲藝術博物館
Calligraphy, Painting, and Seal: An Initial Survey of the Permanent Collections of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
My talk presents an important group of paintings, in the permanent collections of the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, by painters who were active in Nanjing in the 17th century China. Landscape paintings by Gong Xian (龔賢 1618 – 1689), Fan Qi (樊圻 1611 –?), Zou Zhe (鄒? act. 1640s – 1670s), and Ye Xin (葉欣 act. 1640s – 1670s) of the Eight Masters of Jinling 金陵八家 and those by Xiao Yuncong (蕭雲從 1596 – 1673), Cheng Sui (程邃 1607 –1692), Kuncan (髡殘1612 – 1673), and Cha Shibiao (查士標 1615 – 1697) will also be presented. Unusual landscapes by Xiao Yuncong, Fan Qi, Ye Xin, and Cheng Sui will be included in further discussions, with a focus on the painting “My Teacher Cheng Yuanji by Cheng Sui”.
An undated fan by the Anhui painter Xiao Yuncong could be an early work from the early 1640s when he spent years in retreat at the Qixia Temple in Nanjing before the fall of Ming dynasty, an early, perhaps the earliest, landscape handscroll by Fan Qi dated 1645, and another rare large hanging scroll by Ye Xin are all little known works of interest to scholars and students alike in the field of Chinese painting. More discussion will be devoted to Cheng Sui’s My Teacher Cheng Yuanji, which is stylistically related to that of Kuncan, on which an interesting seal by Cha Shibiao appears on the join between the painting and the long inscription above reveals a close circle, who were Ming loyalists such as Ji Yingzhong (紀映鍾1609 – 1681) and Zhou Liaoxu (周蓼卹) in addition to Cheng and Cha, active in Nanjing in the early Qing dynasty.
Finally, a brief note on the painting Bamboo, Rock, and Cymbidium by the modern scholar, diplomat, and artist Ye Gongchao (葉公超 1904 – 1981), who was better known as George Ye. The landscape elements of rocks and waterfall were actually added by another younger painter Fan Po-Hung (范伯洪 1937 – 1988). Ye and Fan co-painted many works in the 1970s and most of which bear only Yeh’s signature and seals, a little known fact in the history of modern Chinese painting.
故宮博物院
A Reconsideration of Several Jades in The Palace Museum Collection
This presentation introduces five jades at The Palace Museum in Beijing. They are all from the Qing imperial family collection and were suggested as Tang or Ming pieces, but never published so far, maybe due to the fact that no one is quite sure about their unusual shapes, dates and places of origins. When and where were they made? This presentation suggests other possibilities while taking the opportunity to ask for more suggestions and advice from all the participants of this conference.
波士頓美術博物館
Material Study and Dating of Inlaid Mother-of-Pearl Lacquers
Chinese lacquer in the MFA is not as well-researched or published as other areas of its collection. In my presentation, I will give a brief survey of some of our less well-known lacquers and discuss recent material studies carried out on a group of mother-of-pearl inlaid lacquers.
The majority of the MFA’s collection is made up of later Qing mother-of-pearl inlaid lacquers. Associated with poorer quality workmanship and export wares, Qing mother-of-pearl inlaid lacquers have never been as popular or seriously studied as lacquer from the earlier periods. Researching the collection has revealed several interesting things. One is that some pieces, originally catalogued as Chinese, may in fact be from the Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa). The remaining group of dishes and boxes, which number 180, appear to have been used by the middle and upper class as everyday utensils. The pieces are fascinating to study as they encompass many different subject matters – famous landmarks, poems and idioms – and also vary in the quality of their workmanship. Furthermore, examining the elemental composition of metal foil inlay has revealed much about later mother-of-pearl inlaid lacquer process and also clarified certain techniques.
Dating these lacquers is challenging. Usually, dating is reliant upon stylistic analysis and comparisons with similar designs on other contemporary media including woodblock prints, paintings, porcelains, and textiles. The MFA has a presentation box with a cyclical date with designs and motifs that also appear on other smaller pieces. If a date for this box can be established using Carbon-14 or radiocarbon dating, then it may be used as a yardstick in which to date other pieces. As the box was made less than 300 years ago, obtaining a deterministic date is impossible, however, preliminary analysis shows that it is most likely to have been made in 1668 or 1788.
上海博物館
上博藏王原祁、董其昌作品研究的啟示
王原祁(1642-1715)《題畫稿墨蹟》冊發現後,對近百年來學界所熟知的《麓台題畫稿》、《王司農書畫錄》二書予以重新審視,得出如下結論:上述諸本中,《司農本》內容最為齊全,共收214則,其中第1則的標題為《墨蹟冊》所無,而第31則、33則、34則為諸書皆無收;但該書存在諸多脫漏誤識,以及標題小注遺漏甚多且未忠實於原著等問題。《麓臺本》內容雖不全(共收56則),脫漏字亦夥,但該書將源於《墨蹟冊》全本的《前刻本》中為諸書所無的另外48則畫論予以刊刻存世,且著錄方式較之《司農本》更忠實於原著,其重要性不言而喻。而《墨蹟冊》共收畫論32則,是王原祁題畫稿部分原著墨蹟,其中的24則畫論為《麓臺本》無收,並可替代《司農本》,另外8則畫論可校正《麓臺本》之舛誤,第25則為諸本所無;且該冊較之《司農本》之輾轉編輯,對王原祁??畫論的確切內容、形成過程、書法風格、畫論貢獻的研究之價值和意義,尤顯重要而彌足珍貴。且對《墨蹟冊》、《麓臺本》、《司農本》與傳世尚能獲觀的作品四者關係的梳理,在鑒定王原祁作品真偽時是不無啟示的。本案的介紹,是博物館藏品研究,對促進中國美術史得以進一步深入研究的佳例。
維多利亞與艾爾伯特博物館
款彩屏風仔細看
There are two Coromandel screens in the V&A. It would be incorrect to call them new discoveries. Afterall they are large objects, not something that got tucked away in a corner and forgotten by curators. Yet it is exactly their large size that makes them difficult to study close-up.
Both screens were acquired by the V&A in the 19th century. This one was bought in 1885, from the well-known Paris dealer Siegfried Bing (1838 – 1905). The Museum paid an enormous sum for it – £1000. I went through all the purchases of the same year. There were only two objects more expensive, and they came from the Fountaine collection which was supposed to be very famous. I did not have time to check records further back, but I would not be at all surprised if that sum was the highest paid for a Chinese object since 1852. Then, for some unknown reasons the Museum bought another screen four years later, at the still very expensive price of £700.
The Far Eastern gallery came into existence only in 1952, where the two screens were displayed at the far end of the gallery. The problem with screens is we usually just see the front but not the back. Also anything above eye level tends to escape the viewer’s attention. Photographs are not much help either. Because the screens are heavy and difficult to handle they were photographed in the early 20th century and not again until the 1980s. The photographer did take a few shots of the back, but the height of the screen made it impossible for the details of the design to show up clearly on the photos.
Then in 2000 one of the screens was chosen to be displayed in the British Galleries. Conservators set it up in the tapestry gallery and new photography was taken – that’s why there is part of a tapestry behind the screen. Thanks to modern technology the curator can now examine all the details from her own computer screen. The first thing I noticed is the attempt to reproduce the calligraphy of renowned scholars. They come in different scripts, with names attached to them such as Tang Yin and Chen Jiru. The combination of poetry and picture reminds me of the ink cake books such as the Fangshi mopu 方氏墨譜 and Chengshi moyuan 程氏墨苑. The individual patterns on the borders, known generally as bogu 博古patterns, also have their parallels in the ink cake books.
Yang Ming 楊明, one of the authors of Xiu shi lu 髹飾錄, describes the kuancai technique as ‘the design engraved in intaglio, like that of a printing block’ 陰刻文圖,如打本之印版. Looking at the details of the screen I would say that not only is the technique similar to woodblock cutting, but the overall design was probably inspired by illustrated books of the day. A great deal of labour would have been required in the production. The selling price, even for a country with no shortage of labour, would have been high. Consequently, old screens in Europe were not discarded but were turned into some other form of furniture. The boy servant on the side panel of this chest has part of his head chopped off – a clear sign of the recycling of wood.
My colleagues in the European departments often asked me where in China were Coromandel screens made. So far I have not been able to answer with certainty. In view of the similarity between woodblock and kuancai lacquer I am inclined to say Huizhou, also known as Xin-an. Huizhou was a major centre for printing and publishing in Ming and early Qing times. It was also the hometown of Huang Cheng 黃成, one of the two authors of Xiu shi lu and himself a lacquerer.
Most Coromandel screens are dated to Kangxi. We know some were intended for Chinese customers and some were sold to Europe. Some screens bear long inscriptions, usually celebrating the birthday of a state official, for example the one now in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, with a date of Kangxi 9th year, equivalent to 1670. Of those sold to Europe the best documented examples are three screens used as wall panelling, installed in the Palace of the Frisian stadholders in Leeuwarden in about 1694, and moved to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam in 1880.
Sarah Medlam, my colleague in the European Furniture Section, has done a survey of European furniture that incorporates Coromandel lacquer. Her survey reveals that the Coromandel screens were not used as a free-standing screen in 17th century Europe. They were either used to line walls – as panelling, or the individual panels were cut up to decorate cabinets. Some European furniture can be dated quite precisely, because an invoice exists, or an inventory, or some other records. This cabinet from Ham House was made in circa 1675. You can see the right door is made of two pieces of wood, not one. Some scholars think it results from an old screen being re-used. But in the 1670s newly made Coromandel screens were still arriving in Europe so the cabinet-maker did not necessarily have to use recycled screens.
Thus it would seem logical to assume that the screens made for export would have an undecorated back. I cannot imagine a European merchant spending money unnecessarily on a screen with decoration on both sides, when all he needed was the decoration on the front. However, the majority of Coromandel screens, including those with inscriptions, and those with beautiful calligraphies on the back, are in western collections today. The Zhongguo qiqi quanji, published in 1995, features only one kuancai screen, now in the Anhui Museum.
It seems China stopped making Coromandel screens after the Kangxi period, but in Europe the use of Coromandel lacquer continued into the 1780s. That probably was the reason why more Coromandel screens ended up in the West than in China today. We do not have time to look into that half of the story now. What I would like to hear is that there are other kuancai lacquer pieces in Chinese collections that I don’t know about. It is through information sharing that we can gain a better understanding of this remarkable product which is unique to China.
芝加哥藝術學院
Drafting New Biographies of Ancient Jades
Ancient Chinese jades, like many other antiquities, are silent repositories of information about their age, provenance, function, context, and at the deepest level, the mindset of their craftsmen and patrons. Reconstructing the lives of these jades-from their creation to collection-is an ongoing challenge of archaeologists, scientists, curators, and collectors alike. All are critically dependent on archaeological data and on archaeological interpretations of that data.
The jades seen here represent a small number of the almost 650 Neolithic and Bronze Age jades bequeathed to The Art Institute of Chicago in 1950. All had been collected by Edward Sonnenschein and his wife Louise between 1915 and Edward’s death in late 1935. Those two decades bridged the transition from antiquarian studies-epitomized in Chicago by Berthold Laufer and in China by his mentor, Wu Dacheng- to archaeology, when speculations of date and burial context had yet to be corroborated by many well-documented finds outside Anyang. Today, we face the daunting need to gather, absorb, synthesize, and interpret a floodtide of evidence-intact assemblages as well as chance finds-whose provenance may or may not be known or reliably recorded. The Sonnenschein’s frequently published demonic plaque exemplifies a type for which new discoveries associated with the Shijiahe culture continue to pose new questions as they clarify others. Jenny So has carefully illuminated issues surrounding this site, and I will not attempt to summarize them here. Instead, I sincerely thank the Lee Foundation for bringing her former student Eileen Lam to Chicago. Eileen has focused on other jades for which we have scattered clues but few in-depth stylistic and archaeological studies. Insights on the first two forms described here are hers.
Long before the profusion of archaeological reports, many of the most elegant jades in the Sonnenschein and other Western collections-particularly the perforated examples among them-had been identified as components of stunning pendant sets. Finds datable from the Western Zhou through Western Han dynasties increasingly reveal that the original visual impact of individual pendants such as a pair of arc- shaped pieces derived from their combination in larger assemblages. But the form, placement, and function of trapezoidal plaques perforated above and below had confounded scholars until about 1990, when discoveries in north and central China revealed similar forms that were found together with colorful beads of materials including agate, jade, and faience that had been strung together so as to splay out from both edges. Such pendant sets discovered in situ and on the very few remains identifiable by sex suggest that women may have worn them over or near their shoulders. A more curious example from Pingdingshan incorporates so-called “handle- shaped” jades of a type now recognized in very diverse forms that span roughly one thousand years, from the 18th through 8th centuries BCE. Some of the most intriguing of these so-called “handles” bear inscriptions in crimson red that suggest their ritual use; others have been found together with bits of turquoise and jade that appear to have been inlaid into a perishable and yet unknown material. Indicative of their analytical curiosity, the Sonnenscheins- who purported no scholarly expertise but are said to have perceived their jade room as a “laboratory”-collected thirty-two such handles for which intact finds may someday offer substantial insights. Meanwhile, we are always reminded that isolated reconstructions need be critically considered in any attempt to visualize a jade in its original burial context.
Turning from comparative research to close physical examination, recent Art Institute studies focused on types of surface alteration and on and our means to determine and describe them. One study focused on conspicuous remains of organic materials on several jades clearly analogous to Bronze Age finds in both the Sonnenschein collection and the Sackler collection in Washington DC. This study aimed to describe and develop a visual vocabulary for types of surface alteration that incorporate vestiges of textiles-that is, to distinguish and classify remnant images or “impressions” from textile “ghosts” or pseudomorphs-the latter a phenomenon in which minerals from the burial environment replace and duplicate biodeteriorated fibers. When possible, we also attempted to identify the nature of those fibers. The particular twist in the weave visible on the tip of one blade in the Art Institute, for example, identifies it as the ghost of a silk fabric that had been created by reeling rather than spinning. This study was a collaborative project between the Art Institute’s conservation scientist Francesca Casadio, the Freer-Sackler’s geologist Janet Douglas, curators in the Art Institute’s Asian and Textile departments, and chemists at Northwestern University.
Another collaborative study including these three institutions, as well as Jing Zhijun, a geologist at the University of British Columbia, focused on a Sonnenschein piece that is neither Chinese nor jade, but has been incorporated in studies of both. Although it was then already owned by the Sonnenscheins, Osvald Siren initially published this kneeling figure in 1943 as belonging to private collection in Peking. As seen here in three views, the figure’s hands are bound behind him with two rounds of thick rope. His hair is sharply parted down the middle, and a long double braid runs down his back. His face is defined by raised eyebrows, high cheekbones, an incised mouth, and large pierced ears. This sculpture had no known counterpart until 1984, when roughly similar but larger pieces datable to the late second millennium BCE were first unearthed in and near Chengdu, Sichuan-discoveries with which many here are undoubtedly familiar. At least twelve of these figures discovered since 2001 at the remarkable site of Jinsha in Chengdu are virtually identical in scale and style to the Sonnenscheins.’ But whereas the Jinsha figures are carved of roughly textured stones-serpentinite and tremolite-some of which bear traces of pigment-the Sonnenschein piece is cholorite, and distinguished by a plain and unusually dark, glossy surface. The primary goal of this study was to shed light on the nature of that surface.
The figure’s mineral composition and structure were determined by non-destructive technologies-most notably, x-ray diffraction, which to the uninformed like me looks like dental surgery. Following up on a proposal by Wen Guang of the Institute of Geology in Beijing that the figure may have been heated, samples of chlorite were then burned at incrementally high temperatures; that at 600 degrees centigrade producing a distinctively deep black. This explained the color but not the smooth, shiny texture. Further studies proved that this piece had been impregnated with Japan wax, a byproduct of lacquer that was first developed in the mid-19th century. Together, these features led us to speculate that a craftsmen likely made the Sonnenschein figure near or at Jinsha workshop but sourced his stone from a different site than that of the Jinsha figures revealed thus far, that the figure had been burned (possibly during a ritual ceremony), and that a later dealer or collector-perhaps attempting to disguise the surface damage or simply enhance the figure’s texture-coated it with Japan wax. Burning, polishing and impregnation with waxes would have combined to darken and smooth the figure’s surface. Here, close visual examination, scientific analysis, and archaeological research combined to enhance our understanding of a fascinating and hitherto enigmatic work of art.
主持:高美慶教授(香港中文大學)
克里夫蘭藝術博物館
Contemporary Challenges: The Cleveland Experience
A general discussion of how The Cleveland Museum of Art as an encyclopedic museum — which collects and exhibits works of art across cultures and time — approaches the field of contemporary Chinese art, especially with the museum expansion project that presents an exceptional opportunity for looking to the future. The discussion focuses on establishing links between the past and the present as well as collaboration of professionals across disciplines. It addresses the implications of the new development on our museum practice (e.g. displaying the collection, curator’s role, art collecting, and exhibition programs). Finally, the presentation stresses a simultaneous need to promote modern Chinese art, especially here in the West, as the newly hot contemporary Chinese art scene calls for a broad and deep understanding of China’s modern art, without which the sight of unfolding historical processes will be lost.
哈佛大學藝術博物館
Contemporary Chinese Ink Paintings at the Harvard Art Museums: Exhibitions and Collections
This presentation is not a research report. Rather, it is a simple statement of what types of contemporary Chinese art are collected and exhibited at the Harvard Art Museums. The presentation will touch on the following points:
主持人: 馬麟博士(納爾遜阿特金斯藝術博物館)
國立故宮博物院
陳設檔案中的國立故宮博物院藏品舉隅
從2009年底開始至2010年上半年,承「利榮森紀念交流計畫」贊助,於北京故宮博物院(以下簡稱「北京故宮」)進行為期五個月的考察與研究,主要是對於國立故宮博物院(以下簡稱「台北故宮」)的藏品溯源。
北京故宮圖書館所藏內廷陳設檔案有數百種,居停期間就台北故宮藏品內容與個人研究偏好,查閱了近百種的陳設檔,最早的有康熙三十三年(1694)正月建立的《(坤寧宮)陳設帳》,最晚的是宣統十六年(民國十三年,1924)八月(農曆)建立的《王、羅大人提出古銅冊》,同年陽曆十一月五日末代皇帝溥儀就被請出宮了。
除了收購與接受捐贈的新增文物外,台北故宮藏品主要承繼原(北平)故宮博物院與原(南京)國立中央博物院籌備處的文物,後者有一大部分是原來貯存於瀋陽奉天行宮與承德熱河行宮的文物,前者則是原來收藏在清朝宮廷內院的文物。前者也是台北故宮收藏品的主要來源,幾占院藏品的九成。因此,北京故宮所保管的清代內廷陳設檔案中所列文物,有不少目前貯存於台北故宮。藉由這些陳設檔案,可進一步瞭解台北故宮藏品貯存於清宮的情形,本文僅舉二例論述,即康熙朝玻璃胎畫琺瑯牡丹藍地膽瓶(故瓷17588)與養心殿後殿竹絲小格百式件(故雜1284)。清代中後期至(北平)故宮博物院成立之初,前者貯存於乾清宮的庫房-端凝殿,後者則陳設於清世宗雍正皇帝及以後諸帝的寢宮-養心殿。
從北京故宮現存六本乾清宮庫收琺瑯器陳設檔案可知,康熙朝玻璃胎畫琺瑯牡丹藍地膽瓶是清朝唯一一件收貯在乾清宮庫房-端凝殿的康熙朝玻璃胎琺瑯器,或即意味著清帝認為它是康熙朝玻璃胎畫琺瑯製作工藝的最高成就。
因為養心殿長期做為清帝的寢宮,皇帝居停於紫禁城內時,置身養心殿的時間最多,遂處處可見供皇帝幾暇怡情的百什件。其中「清 竹絲纏枝番蓮多寶格圓盒」外型相對輕巧又多變,可呈圓筒形,可呈一字形屏風式,又可呈正方柱體!拉開小抽屜,或見小畫卷,或見小冊頁,還有可360°轉動的立柱形屜格。一一比對內貯文物可知,「清 竹絲纏枝番蓮多寶格圓盒」就是陳設檔所指稱的「竹絲小格百式件」,清季收存於養心殿。在現存廿六種養心殿百什件陳設檔冊中,僅《養心殿後殿竹絲小格百式件》的封面黃簽顯示出其於道光十九年建立檔冊時陳設於養心殿後殿,後卻移置於東暖閣,顯示出其與眾不同的地位!
香港中文大學
中國玉器的西方內容,從兩個例子說起
陳麗碧,首屆「利榮森紀念交流計劃」訪問學人之一,去年曾到美國華盛頓 Smithsonian Institution Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery作為期一年的展覽策劃與博士後訪問學人。是次報告題為 “中國玉器的西方內容,從兩個例子說起(Chinese Jades in the Western Context: Two Case Studies)”。報告的第一部份,陳氏介紹了她曾參與的兩個計劃 ── Freer Gallery of Art的中國玉器與青銅器展廳的重新佈展,她所提供的專業中國早期玉器知識,以及展覽的靈感來源。第二部分,陳氏探討一件造型特殊、被認為是中國玉器的小玉瓶。據她分析,此小型玉瓶具強烈的波斯容器特色,造型比例上卻與波斯容器存在差異,應和後來的壁厚圓圈足的中亞回部玉器風格有近似之處。她推測其造型應來自十至十二世紀期間,波斯地區流行的金屬或玻璃製容器造型;然而,產地應位於絲綢之路的東西交匯點 ── 盛產玉器的崑崙地區。
故宮博物院
Was Malachite the Most Popular Green Pigment?
Based on an investigation of recent pigment analyses of many dated caves and murals, as well as some historical records and scripts in China, the most popular green pigment for wall painting and architecture might be copper trihydroxychlorides since North Dynasty (386-581 CE) until late Qing Dynasty (1840 -1911 CE), rather than malachite. Furthermore, the synthetic technology of making bronze corrosion artificially probably began to dominate the green pigments supply in Five Dynasties (907-960 CE) or Song Dynasty (960-1279 CE).
It is well known that Blue and Green Landscape Painting (“Qing Lv Shan Shui” in Chinese) is one of the dominant Chinese landscape painting trends. It illustrates the important roles that blue and green pigments play in Chinese arts. It is also well accepted among normal Chinese artists that the most popular traditional green and blue pigments in China are malachite and azurite.
However, based on recent Chinese mural and architectural painting analytical research, copper trihydroxychlorides (Cu2(OH)3Cl) might have played a more important role than malachite in Chinese paintings. However, this research doesn’t cover Chinese painting scroll due to the difficulties of nondestructive analytical requirement.
Some Chinese historical scripts might document copper trihydroxychloride. “Salt green” or “green salt” (“Yan Lv” or “Lv Yan”in Chinese) was mentioned in both the Weishu and Suishu as one of local products of Qiuci or Persian Capital.
Based on the documents above, the imported “green salt” or “Salt green” in China might be mineral copper trihydroxychlorides. The assumption matches a recent geological discovery of some copper trihydroxychlorides both in Shanshan and Qiuci.
Some scripts of Tang Dynasty (618-907) found in Turfan mentioned the prices of both Malachite and copper green (Tong Lv in Chinese). If copper green was synthetic copper trihydroxychlorides, it should be easier and cheaper to obtain than mineral malachite. But the much cheaper price of malachite in Turfan scripts provided contradictory evidence. Then, the “copper green” here should be the rare mineral copper trihydroxychloride, which had a higher price than malachite.
Wang Jinyu and Li Zuixiong’s research in Duhuang and Yulin Grottos suggested the copper trihydroxychlorides were the most popular green pigment before the Five Dynasties or Song Dynasty. Furthermore, malachite sometimes was always found together with it. The copper trihydroxychlorides and malachite can exist together in nature geologically. Therefore, mineral copper trihydroxychlorides was the most popular green pigment from the Northern Dynasty to the Five Dynasties.
It is very interesting that the most popular green pigment in Dunhuang and Yulin Grottoes was pure copper trihydroxychlorides without malachite since the Five Dynasties or Song Dynasty. This evidence indicates that the synthetic technology of copper trihydroxychlorides began to be popular since the Five Dynasties.
There are several documents mentioning the recipes of making copper green, especially in the Song and Yuan Dynasties.
For example, the recipe in Song Dynasty: Firstly, vinegar added with sodium chloride was heated on a fire for a long time; secondly, the hot vinegar was poured onto copper boards in a big copper pot; thirdly, some green powder was peeled off from the boards after 4 hours. Then repeat those steps.
Based on David Scott’s research, we know the final product of those recipes is copper trihydroxychlorides rather than copper acetate, especially since the treatments of heating prevented making copper acetate.
Research on a wall painting of the Yuan Dyansty (1206-1368 AD) in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Arts has shown that the most widely used original green pigment was copper trihydroxychlorides. Another achievement of this research is that it also found tin in the green pigment, which might be derived from tin bronze.
Similar unpublished research was done by conservation microscopist, Inge Fiedler. She found minor to trace amounts of both tin and lead in the green pigment of a polychrome seated Guanyin (11-13th century) in the Art Institute of Chicago.
Another large mural painting of the Yuan Dynasty, Seven Buddha Sermon Illustrations, is now preserved in The Palace Museum, Beijing. By Polarizing Microscope (PLM), I found green and spherical Cu2(OH)3Cl particles with dark spots in the centre, which are one proof of artificially making.
In addition, an unpublished research on another large mural painting of the Yuan Dynasty preserved in the Royal Ontario Museum also found copper trihydroxychlorides, but without synthetic or natural identification. In addition, the similar murals preserved in Metropolitan Museum of Art, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology didn’t receive any pigment analyses.
I was involved in a mural painting research of several Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD) temples in Yong Deng, Gansu Provence. Most of the green pigments particles were found to be spherical with dark spots in the centre, which is a proof of synthetic making, too. Similar evidence was also found on architectural paintings in The Palace Museum, Beijing.
In summary, based on a number of artifact analyses and historical scripts, for Chinese mural and architectural painting, the most popular green pigment may be copper trihydroxychlorides rather than malachite since the Northern Dynasty until late Qing Dynasty. Then synthetic technology probably began to dominate green pigments production in the Five Dynasties or Song Dynasty. Bronze might be more popular than pure copper when synthesizing copper trihydroxychlorides. Therefore, the green pigments supply for historical Chinese mural making was supported by the synthetic technology of copper trihydroxychlorides in a great deal rather than the mineral malachite’s exploration.
香港公營博物館
大英博物館藏中國外銷畫研究
Lau has been conducting research on Chinese export art for years and she has once been the curator of the Historical Pictures collection of the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Meanwhile, she is a J. S. Lee Memorial Fellow at The British Museum and is studying the Museum’s collection of Chinese export paintings. Lau’s research focuses on the idea of “Trade-port culture” of the South China area during the 18th and 19th C and with a special emphasis on Canton (present-day Guangzhou). Canton was a “great and popular city” in the western’s eyes and the most prosperous Chinese city for foreign trade. Playing the role as the gateway to China during the past hundreds of years, Canton had been contributing to imperial China to enter the modern era. Chinese export art objects were brought back to Europe and the US by the western merchants and seamen who did China trade business. Chinese export art was a unique art genre – produced in large quantities mainly in Canton of China during the heyday of China trade, could only be seen in the western world now, seldom mentioned by the Chinese art history… Nevertheless, many invaluable and untold information have been enclosed in these paintings. These visual records may help us understand more in-depth of the past. Lau will make use of several themed albums of The British Museum, with cross reference to the contemporary English and Chinese texts, to show you her findings and views.
故宮博物院
遷台清宮善本初識
這是「利榮森紀念交流計劃(2010/211)」資助項目之一,由於正處於實施之中(2011年4月26日 – 10月26日),因此只能匯報前半段調研工作。
陳述分為三部分:第一部分介紹清宮藏書背景,包括文獻種類、功用,在清宮的收藏狀況,故宮博物院圖書館成立後的典藏沿革,以及目前清宮藏書在海內外圖書館的分佈狀況;第二部分介紹遷台善本的數量、文獻種類和特色,如北京故宮所沒有的「天祿琳瑯」、「宛委別藏」、寫經等宋、元、明本,清代乾隆時期兩大精寫本叢書《四庫全書》、《四庫全書薈要》等;第三部分結合本人的研究興趣,精選了上述難得一見的國寶級文物或重要文物中的少量影像,如清藍線繡本《無量壽佛百福莊嚴繡相頌》、黑線緙絲本《佛說阿彌陀經》等,展示它們在圖繪、裝潢材質、紋飾或工藝等方面的成就,這些內容往往在文獻記載中極少或付闕;結合《真禪內印頓證虛凝法界金剛智經》等善本的著錄實例,說明所進行的基礎性的資訊調研工作,有助於確定版本時代、責任者、裝潢時間、遞藏源流等。兩岸故宮所開展的不同研究也有著相得益彰的作用,這些對於日後「拼碎成全」等研究工作至關重要。
大英博物館
Studying Conservation of Chinese Heritage Paintings: Placement at the Shanghai Museum
The extraordinary experience of working in direct contact with probably last generation of highly trained masters in the conservation of Chinese paintings national heritage at the Shanghai Museum; the description of the hard training that is necessary in order to reach the mastership and the unique opportunity to be transferred the authenticity of this century-long knowledge in the purpose of looking after the preservation of Chinese paintings collection held in Western Museums following the respect of the same tradition. This is the inauguration of international collaboration between institutions in the care of important treasures.
主持:司美茵女士(大英博物館)
史密森尼學會 佛利爾美術館及賽克勒美術館
Lessons from the Xiangtangshan Project
I would like to speak about our current special exhibition “Echoes of the Past: The Buddhist Cave Temples of Xiangtangshan”. It will be closing in Washington on Sunday July 31 and moving on to Dallas and then San Diego. The show has gotten a lot of attention lately (Wall Street Journal review and an upcoming piece of the PBS Newshour, etc.). There are many interesting aspects to this project including:
西雅圖藝術博物館
Celebrating Chine e Painting and Calligraphy at SAM—An Exhibition without Labels
In summer 2013, the Seattle Asian Art Museum will devote three galleries to feature 18 Chinese painting and calligraphy works, and the exhibition will have minimum labels. Visitors will be directed to the computers in the galleries to find out more information about the works through the newly launched online catalogue, which is sponsored by the J. Paul Getty Foundation. The presentation will feature the prototype of the online catalogue, and emphasize its interactive aspect, so that the voice of the users will be given more prominence. To facilitate online discussion, each entry includes the section ‘Questions for Experts/Researchers’, and I conclude the presentation with one such question on a Shitao painting in SAM, which bears a possible Bada Shanren seal.
皇家安大略博物館
Exhibiting Archaeology: Ancient Artworks in Context
Many artworks were preserved and recovered from archaeological sites and burials of ancient time. Therefore, archaeological context and historical information of ancient arts to be displayed in museum galleries are always challenged by design installations and visual impacts on visitor experiences. This talk introduces the recent exhibition “Warrior Emperor and China’s Terracotta Army” at the Royal Ontario Museum and the Montreal Museum of Fine Art in Canada. The two museums take different approaches to exhibiting one of the greatest archaeological discoveries from China. The successful venues demonstrate both historic perspective and visual design / media are equally important in exhibiting ancient artworks in a cultural context.
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首届中國藝術博物館論壇由香港中文大學文物館舉辦,由屈志仁教授及陳克倫先生進行主題演講。
主辦機構:香港中文大學文物館
日期:2009年9月4日
大都會藝術博物館
博古與考古
屈志仁教授先就中國收藏歷史作出介紹,他提到收藏家早在宋代出現,他們收藏文物的目的,一方面為研究,另一方面為賞玩。元、明兩代,中國藝術發展出雅俗觀念,認為工匠藝術庸俗,文人藝術高雅,它也成為了收藏家的審美觀。至清代乾嘉時期,金石學家收藏書畫、文物作學術研究之用,再次強調收藏與研究均同樣重要。
發展至現代,我們可以把中國收藏與博物館歸納為三類:第一類是近代金石學家和書畫收藏家的私人收藏;第二類是宮廷收藏,即故宮舊藏,這類藏品主要反映乾隆的個人愛好;第三類是地方博物館,主要靠考古出土文物為藏品。
同時,現代博物館面對兩個主要問題。首先,現在大部分博物館與考古分開。考古成為了一門獨立的學科,輔以人類學、社會學等學科理論來詮釋,但卻與歷史、典章、名物制度及藝術等研究文物學科脫節。另一方面,藝術史學者只重視和鑽研理論,忽視研究博物館收藏的重要性。面對考古學家及藝術史學家的忽視,甚至批評與挑戰,博物館應如何面對?
上海博物館
亦師亦友︰博物館與收藏家
上海博物館(「上博」)創立初期,收藏家除了作為主要捐贈者,亦擔任博物館的重要顧問。九十年代上博籌建新館,是博物館成長發展的關鍵時刻,私人收藏家無論在文物捐贈、資金贊助上均提供了極大幫助,因此上博與收藏家的關係更加密切。陳副館長介紹多位與上博有深厚淵源的收藏家,如胡惠春、劉體智、譚敬、杜維善、吳湖帆、龐萊臣、潘達予、李蔭軒、劉靖基、顧公雄、華篤安、施嘉幹等,讓大家了解上博與這些收藏家之間的互信互助、亦師亦友的關係。上博一直努力維繫與收藏家和他們家人這份一輩子的情誼,而這些均是讓上博成為藏品質量首屈一指的博物館的關鍵所在。
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