The Architectural Review November 1935 [antikvár]

Chinese ArtBy Nicolette GrayThe Cliint-se Exhibition (o bo opoiied tliis montli ill Burlington House, sboulil bo an ovent of far greater imiwrtanco llian any of tho previous ex-liibitions. All the others, even tlio Persian, were only revelations of more or less known arts, all of thorn kindred with our own and therefore the object of simple enjoyment. The Chinese exhibition will be that of a civilization entirely antagonistic to our own. and one which expresses itself with singulariompleteness in its art. Now, wlien for the first time, wo are beginning to doubt the direction of our own humasiistic civilization, aji exposifin], of the only oth.'r human tradition of tbinldug an.l living Jnay have infinite repercussions. Once the Ijlock is carved, there will bo jianu'S. and as soon as there are names, know that it is time to stop." "Without leaving his door ho knows everything under heaven. Without looking out of his window he knows all the ways of heaven. I'or the further one travels tlio less one knows." These precepts of the Tao To Thing, the Taoist scripture, are exasperating to Western thought and method. If there is to be no delinition and no experiment, there can i)e no dialectic philosophy and no science, thi> foundations of the search for truth, concrete and particular, which is the whole motive force of our civilization, are removed. There was, of course, both dolhiition and experiment in China. In tlio fourth century b.c. a school of "discriminators" discussed tho relation between words and realities, but the controverey ended in practical issues of the writing of characters and the delinition of crimes. Any experiments were equally practical, directed always to the perfection of the art of living, whether as an ascetic in the mountains, or as a decorous member of a well regulated comnnuiily. " All Chinese philosophy is essentially the .study of how men can best be lielped to live together in harmony and good order."16.5Hut if truth is only to be enjoyed intuitively, and speculation is confined to practical particulars, the two can never meet ; the absolute and the relative are separated for ever, the attempt to know the one, through the other, is abandoned, and with it tho aspiration towards cunudative knowledge. To the Western mind this acquiescence in permanent incompletion is a betrayal ofego Ilature. W an accumulation' of already far beyond1 conti ndati. vledg, idatictlChand we go o removing its 6 comiected kn means the fc lives, so that o for compI ti,m disruption. Th( stead has prodm It is the sam italiility because, wli greatest art fail instant return t of abstract art. of abstract art necessary unity greatest Chinese a perfect unity, i physical expressio [paralleled : upressior For us demands sortendlessly building up knowledge which is ir capacity to digest, ra.illy attacking and us, and since we have induct, this individual ising search if continual l])!vith c of oil impron 'ocessthe first i repulsiv OBsthetii body-i paintingsunity and stability, ith their art. There hen the inspiration there is always tho extreme particulai And because tho tradit lever fails, and implies : ithin each example, in III.paintings there remain! and the content and it m coincide with a perfec in tlio West. But, again n of Cliinoso art isnatnrall; s the two most immédiat' s are those of colour am .f substance. CIityoseare thirely grey lines and1 thimuddy coloured washes and lack familiar definition of a frame or the rigidity of panel or stretched canvas ; their pots and jades are indeed exquisite ill colour, hut it is colour refined anil restricted, not loved for its own sake, for its brightness and exuberance, but used as a complement to shape and textme. Out of all Chinese art it is only, I thinii, in the early bronzi>s that one gets a direct, primi-tive, physical pleasure. The reason for this is simply the medium. We are familiar with bronze, and have some understanding of its technical processes, and it is a substance that is heavy and strong, and yet ono which is not too solid for the Chinese conception ; for in stone and marble, except for tho colossal fabulous monsters at the Han tombs, their achievement is always second-ratethey have, in fact, no plastic aptitude. To the Chinese, however, their bronzes are far more important than their sculpture. Sculpture is not ono of the fine arts, while bronzes are enormously prized and to regard them, as is natural to us, as mere examples of applied art, is entirely to misiindoi-stand their significance. The finest bronzes are those of the Chou perioil (112'2-2.13 U.C.). The period is very obscure. China consisted of a fairly largo number of feudal nobles grouped under the nominal sovereignty of a king. Its area was comparatively small, and surrounding it were the barbarian countries. It was an age of continual warfare, bloodshed and superstition and, at the same time, one which produced the greatest sages. The bronzes, which are its chief artistic production, are classified by their shape, of which, according to the simplest computation, there are 24 varieties. Perhaps originally designed for domestic purposes, they had become of enormous ceremonial importance already at tho beginning of the Chou period. Tiie shapes themselves lack all harmony or grace, and are not beautiful in the simple sense in which some of the majestic Han pots are lieautiful. But they have a hfo and a power which is infinitely more memorable. What is the nature of this life which, according to our tradition, is so much beyond the sort of life which a pot should possess ? The answer, of course, lies in tho intention, conscious or subconscious, of tho artist. Tho typical Chou pattern whicli covers all these bronzes is an irregular