Customer Reviews

Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting (The Culture & Civilization of China)

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I was looking for a book on Chinese painting with plenty of illustrations. In the Amazon reviews this book was praised for it's ample examples of paintings. I ordered this book and the pictures did not let me down.
But the essays written by five experts were a surprising bonus of enjoyable informative commentaries providing concise but comprehensive introductions to painters and their works. This is just the book for a new comer to Chinese painting.
One book hasn't made me an authority, but I now know about the southern and northern schools, recognize some Daoist and Buddhist influences on painting, and I've seen an example of Guanxiu's distorted visages, have wondered at Gou Xi's 'Early Spring', have seen Fan Kuan's massive mountain reduce humans to paltry piddling beings verging on non-entities, have appreciated bird, animal, and delicate plant portraits and Liang Kai's distinct images as well as many other worthies.
Some of the most fascinating and aestheticly moving paintings to me are Wang Shen's 'Serried Hills Over a Misty River', Ma Lin's 'Sunset Landscape' and Xia Gui's 'Twelve Landscapes'; all paintings that elevate emptiness to an integral part of the scene giving outlined forms a vulnerable lonliness. These paintings take Miles Davis's advice a thousand years before he spoke it "Don't play[paint] what's there, play[paint] what's not there.
After being introduced to some of the artists and their works, I wish more of their art had been included, but then what better accolade can an introductory book receive than it leaves you wanting more.

With one exception, the essays in this compilation suffer from a problem that seems to crop up in many books on art history, namely the essays move from fact to fact saying little in between about the ideas behind the art. The exception is the last chapter which is on Chinese painting in the 20th century. I greatly enjoyed this essay as its author talked about the ideas and techniques behind the art as well as giving a fact based history of Chinese painting in the 20th century. I recommend this book for the last essay and also for the stunning full color reproductions of the Chinese painting that populate the book.

This book cannot be avoided if you are studying Chinese art history, however, since each section is written by a different author, the result is not homogeneous in quality, readability, or helpfulness. It's a nice resource for images of Chinese painting you might not otherwise find elsewhere. Which chapter you prefer will vary according to which author's style you prefer. The book does provide a sort of timeline of Chinese painting from its origins until the Qing dynasty, however since each chapter is whole unto itself, there is a gap in continuity from one section to the next.

I can only recommend this book. There is described the whole chinese painting history, about all artists, their paintings and so on. In addition to the descriptions, there are many illustrations, many famous works related to the painters so that you can connect the written facts with the paintings. They are wonderful big and colored pictures.
In the beginning of the book there is even a choronology, a list of all the emperors and a map of China; as in the back of the book there is a list of the artists assorted by period, the names displayed in pinyin, Gade-Wales, other transciptions and even with the chinese characters.
For me this was one of the best purchases I ever made, to get such a great book is nearly priceless. Right now I use it for my studies, but I will use it forever.

If you want to have an academic book of the chinese painting or just now more about them, then buy it!

This work is chronologically done that covers a comprehensive history of the development of Chinese painting from prehistoric age to modern times. The writings in the book are derived from several renowned scholars from both China and the Western scholarship, therefore, it offers balanced analysis and viewpoints. It is worth reading for both the general readers or for specialists.

This book is a premier collection of Chinese paintings from over the ages. It is a big book (i.e. "oversize") and has copious color illustrations along with copious explanatory text. For lovers of Chinese art, this book is a must-have in my opinion. I just bought it and am very impressed with the quality over-all.

Chinese painting is full of wonders. While three thousand years in one volume seems quite ambitious, this book provides an useful introduction to the subject with clear historical outlines and good selection of images. I would think that the texts sometimes might appear lacking of details and thorough researches to students and scholars of Chinese art, but they would still appreciate large and good quality color reproductions and well-organized structure of the book.

A wonderful addition to my library...a real "keeper" although I originally purchased this book to augment the required reading for my Asian Art class.

THE BOOK IS VERY DETAILED WITH LARGE LITERATURE, VERY USEFULL ALSO FOR COLLECTORS, BUT THE CRONOLOGICAL INDEX I ONLY ORDERED
BY CHINESE DYNASTY AND NOT ALFABETIC.

Painting is always important in CHinaes culture.Based on different ideology of paiting, this bookcan provide audience fresh view to the CHinese culture. 3000 years also give a evolution view of the culture. GO, get it! Right now!