Master in the Shadows by Jonathan D. Spence

[soryang]

A Master in the Shadows
April 5, 2012 New York Review of Books

The Chinese artist Fu Baoshi, who lived from 1904 to 1965 and is the subject of the elegantly structured and biographically rich exhibition and catalog now at the Metropolitan Museum, provides us with a range of entry points into the China of his time, many of which have been only partially explored. Yet the title of the show, “Chinese Art in an Age of Revolution,” though certainly broad, still does not quite catch the full richness and ambiguity of the materials presented here. Cumulatively, these details of Fu’s hopes and experiences provide us with nothing less than a variety of new perspectives through which to explore an unusual life in a time of opportunity and challenge.

http://www.chinafile.com/library/nyrb-china-archive/master-shadows

The life and work of artist Fu Baoshi during a time of revolution, war, and ideological turmoil; inspired by the contemporary US exhibitions of his work.

Jonathan Dermot Spence (born 11 August 1936) is an English-born American historian and public intellectual specialising in Chinese history. He was Sterling Professor of History at Yale University from 1993 to 2008. His most widely read book is The Search for Modern China, a survey of the last several hundred years of Chinese history based on his popular course at Yale.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Spence