Foreword and Acknowledgments

Munroe, Alexandra

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Foreword and Acknowledgments

Alexandra Munroe (Editor)

The Art of Mu Xin: Landscape Paintings and Prison Notes

~Mu Xin is an extraordinary writer-artist of the twentieth century. Born in China in 1927, he has witnessed the full turmoil of twentieth-century Chinese history, from the war with Japan to the founding of the People’s Republic, from the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution to the death of Mao Zedong. In 1982 he moved to New York and...

Author

Alexandra Munroe (Editor)

PublisherYale University Art Gallery

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00127.002

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-18244

Foreword and Acknowledgments

Mu Xin is an extraordinary writer-artist of the twentieth century. Born in China in 1927, he has witnessed the full turmoil of twentieth-century Chinese history, from the war with Japan to the founding of the People’s Republic, from the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution to the death of Mao Zedong. In 1982 he moved to New York and has lived there ever since. The thirty-three landscape paintings in The Art of Mu Xin: Landscape Paintings and Prison Notes were created when he was under house arrest in China during the late 1970s. They are images that fuse together in exceptional fashion the literary and artistic sensibilities of East and West. The Prison Notes were written earlier, when he was in solitary confinement during the Cultural Revolution. Both reveal Mu Xin’s will to survive his imprisonment through the life of the mind, which allows him to commune as easily with great figures of Chinese culture as with those of the West.

The Art of Mu Xin: Landscape Paintings and Prison Notes is co-organized by the David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, and the Yale University Art Gallery. This project has brought together the talents of two distinguished curators: Alexandra Munroe, Director of the Japan Society Gallery, New York, and Wu Hung, Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor in Chinese Art History at the University of Chicago. Professor Wu was the initial supporter of Mu Xin in America, organizing an exhibition of the artist’s landscape paintings at Adams House, Harvard University, in 1984. Alexandra Munroe was first introduced to Mu Xin in the early 1990s and has been the driving force behind the present exhibition. Along with Alexandra Munroe and Professor Wu, Richard M. Barnhart, the John M. Schiff Professor Emeritus of the History of Art, Yale University, and Jonathan Hay, Associate Professor at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, have contributed insightful essays to this catalogue. Toming Jun Liu, Associate Professor of English, California State University, Los Angeles, generously enriched the publication with his translations of passages from the Prison Notes and through his dialogue with the artist.

At the Yale University Art Gallery, the Department of Asian Art has overseen the production of the catalogue and the installation of the exhibition. David A. Sensabaugh, Curator of Asian Art, and Sadako Ohki, Assistant Curator of Asian Art, supported by Megan Doyon, Museum Assistant, have coordinated the scholarly essays and myriad details of this collaborative production. Clark Crolius and the Gallery’s installations department have brought the exhibition to life in a beautiful visual presentation.

We are especially indebted to Joseph Cho and Stefanie Lew of Binocular in New York, whose long patience and exceptional talents brought forth the exquisite design of this publication. Judith G. Smith provided strong editorial skills and advice throughout the long preparation of manuscripts, as did Ray Furse, who worked closely with our scholars to help make their essays clear and consistent. Typists Angela Darling and Mary Loo Mak produced the publication’s text in its final form. Jeffrey Schier of Yale University Press proofread the manuscript. John Bigelow Taylor and Diane Dubler photographed the landscape paintings and the Prison Notes, while architects Celia Imrey and Tim Culbert provided the elegant design concept for the exhibition’s installation. The painter Liu Dan, who created the portrait of Mu Xin that concludes the catalogue, continues to be personally instrumental in introducing the artist’s work to a wider public audience.

To all of these talented individuals we extend our very warm thanks.

At the David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, we thank Brian Ferriso, former Assistant Director, and Stephanie Smith, Associate Curator, who handled all aspects of the exhibition there. Graduate intern Kris Ercums also provided invaluable assistance. The Smart Museum has also been responsible for arranging the exhibition’s tour.

Above all we wish to thank Mu Xin for creating this magnificent and moving work, and The Rosenkranz Foundation for its very generous support of this collaborative project. Without the abiding patronage and vision of Robert Rosenkranz, a graduate of Yale College, Class of 1962, this lavish publication and jewel-like exhibition would not have been possible. His strong belief in Mu Xin’s art and the important role that university museums can play in fostering cultural and artistic understanding has sustained this undertaking from beginning to end.

Kimerly Rorschach	Jock Reynolds
Dana Feitler Director	The Henry J. Heinz II Director
David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art University of Chicago	Yale University Art Gallery

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