Gangbare naam: Clunas, Craig
Geboortedatum: 1954-12-01
Geslacht: male
Nationaliteit: UK
Scotland
Geboorteplaats: Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK
Woonplaatsen: Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK
Opleiding: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (Ph.D|1983)
University of Cambridge (BA|1977|MA|1980)
Peking Languages Institute (Dipl. 1975)
Aberdeen Grammar School
Beroepen: Professor
Art Historian
Curator
Organisaties: University of Oxford
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
University of Sussex
Victoria and Albert Museum
Prijzen en onderscheidingen: Academia Europaea (2013)
Fellow, British Academy (2004)
Iris Foundation Award (2001)
R.C. Hills Gold Medal (1999)
Korte biografie: Craig Clunas is Professor Emeritus of the History of Art at the University of Oxford, and an Honorary Fellow of Trinity College. He has published extensively on the art history and culture of China. Much of his work concentrates on the Ming period (1368-1644), with additional teaching and research interests in the art of 20th century and contemporary China. He has worked as a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and taught art history at the University of Sussex and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He was Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford in 2004, and in 2012 he delivered the 61st AW Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, under the title 'Chinese Painting and its Audiences'. In 2014 he co-curated the exhibition Ming: 50 Years that Changed China at the British Museum. He is a Fellow of the Academia Europaea and an Honorary Research Fellow of the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou.

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Chinese Carving door Craig Clunas

One of Clunas' early works but an excellent introduction to the craft of carving in China. Addresses the question of how to organise such a topic--by design, by material, by period--and manages to cover from all angles using both colour and black & white photographs to accompany and illustrate the text (although most are from the V&A's Collection). Includes information on signed and unsigned works and highlights acknowledged masters in each area, when known. I used while researching literati taste through the ages and found it very useful. Clunas has really specialised in the visual and material cultures of China and his newer books incorporating 20 years in the field are all excellent resources.… (meer)

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pbjwelch | Jul 25, 2017 |

Empire of Great Brightness: Visual and Material… door Craig Clunas

I am a huge fan of Craig Clunas and his wonderful books that examine Chinese culture from the point of view of its material artifacts (or at least those that have endured until today either physically or in literary references), and Empire of Brightness in my opinion is one of his best. Eight chapters examine eight different themes (such as time, space, direction, images, sex, categorizations, pleasure/play, violence, old age…) using the artifacts of the Ming to introduce hypotheses on what life in the Ming was 'really' like. His examples are always fascinating and broad-reaching, and in this volume focus on extracts from the famous late Ming novel Jin Ping Mei, the observations of a Korean traveller Ch'oe Pu (1454-1504), a textbook of spoken Ming Chinese, the diary of Li Rihua (1565-1635) and other diverse private letters, paintings, sculpture, etc.

The Ming, we discover, was more an age of 'do what I say, not what I do' as readers discover the gaps that Clunas excels at spotting--for example, Confucians may have insisted on the ability to reprimand an emperor, but the reality was that it could be costly to one's life (as in the case of Lian Zining who "volubly challenged the usurping Yongle emperor..and had his tongue ripped out as a punishment" (p. 187)--an event that Shih-Shan Henry Tsai covers in less than one line in [b:Perpetual Happiness|993311|Perpetual Happiness|Shih-Shan Henry Tsai|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347502892s/993311.jpg|978805], p. 90. (These are two excellent volumes to read side-by-side as Clunas' cultural forensics add real depth to Tsai's excellent descriptive history of the dynasty's second emperor, Yongle.)

A word must be added about the excellent illustrations. Amongst the best features of this work are the many excellent illustrations that accompany the text ('seeing is believing'). Many publishers/authors cannot afford the fees some museums charge for use of their collections' photos, but Clunas has been the recipient of financial support from SOAS' Humanities Research Funds and SOAS Central Research Funds, which enabled him to acquire the book's illustrations from which we readers so greatly benefit. If only institutions would understand the importance of sharing their collections freely with the public (as the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has newly done, to accolades from students everywhere). But the point is--another feature of this excellent text is its richness in appropriate and diverse illustrations. An excellent index (that includes important Chinese characters) and bibliography are the frosting on the cake.… (meer)

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pbjwelch | Jul 25, 2017 |

Ming: 50 Years That Changed China door Craig Clunas

This book is a superb catalogue and lasting souvenir of the current exhibition, Ming , 50 years that changed China, taking place at the new Sainsbury gallery at the British Museum , It's on until early 2015 . the exhibition is proving to be hugely popular with prebooking required . The premise of this exhibition is that Chins's moment was between 1400 and 1450 when China was the largest and most powerful state in the world and run by one family , the Ming Family . Chinese seamen ventured to Africa , the Middle
East and Asia and went on voyages of discovery . ideas and commodities flowed between countries . It was the era when scholars were at work compiling thousands of literary volumes and Beijing became the capital . The Forbidden City was built and artists and craftsmen flourished in creating stunning objects in rare , precious and ordinary materials .... Jade , lacquer, porcelain, gold , enameling , bronzes , textiles , silks, fine paper . The book captures the best of the exhibition and is a fine quality production with chapters mirroring the organization of the exhibits, such as the arts of war, the arts of peace, beliefs, miracles and salvation , commerce and trade. More than 10 principal Chinese museums have contributed objects as well as museums in Korea , the UK , France, Germany and the USA . hence the exhibition and this book is a distillation of 15th and 16 th C treasures… (meer)

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Africansky1 | Oct 17, 2014 |

Art in China (Oxford History of Art) door Craig Clunas

A detailed and interesting overview of Chines art from prehistory to the modern day. Highly accessible for all types of readers, and written in a lively manner.

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xuebi | May 30, 2014 |

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