About this item
Highlights
- Performing the Visual explores the practice of wall painting in China from a new perspective.
- About the Author: Sarah E. Fraser is Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Art History at Northwestern University.
- 400 Pages
- Art, History
Description
About the Book
This book provides an insightful new study, drawn from the largely unpublished Buddhist paintings at Dunhuang, of medieval Chinese wall painting, workshop production, and artistic performance in theory and practice.Book Synopsis
Performing the Visual explores the practice of wall painting in China from a new perspective. Relying on rare, virtually unpublished drawings on Buddhist themes from a long-hidden medieval library in western China, the author analyzes the painters' pictorial strategies. She also examines the financial accounting of Buddhist temples, providing practical information that ninth- and tenth-century critics ignored: how artists were paid and when, the temple's role as mediator between patrons and artists, and the way painters functioned outside the monastic system, working in guilds and secular academies affiliated with local government.
Based on the careful study of hundreds of inaccessible wall paintings at Dunhuang, arguably Asia's largest and most important Buddhist site, the author shows that although critics celebrated spontaneous feats with brush and ink, artists at Dunhuang were heavily dependent on concrete tools such as sketches in the preparation of wall painting.
From the Back Cover
"...students and scholars will find many observations and alayses both interesting and challenging, yet the neophyte too will find this a good starting place for further pursuits of their own special interests. Simply put, this book is among the most informative available..."--Choice"Performing the Visual is a fascinating study of the artistic process involved in the conception and rendering of wall paintings in the Mogao and Yulin Grottos at Dunhuang, Gansu province, one of China's most important groups of Buddhist cave temples."--Canadian Journal of History
Review Quotes
"...Fraser has provided us with a valuable and rich study of the religious, cultural, and visual world of Buddhist Inner Asia."--Journal of Asian History
"Working with previously unstudied manuscripts and drawings from Dunhuang, Sarah Fraser convincingly demonstrates their profound potential for understanding visual culture in medieval China, especially Chinese Buddhist culture."--History of Religions
"...students and scholars will find many observations and alayses both interesting and challenging, yet the neophyte too will find this a good starting place for further pursuits of their own special interests. Simply put, this book is among the most informative available..."--Choice
"Performing the Visual is a fascinating study of the artistic process involved in the conception and rendering of wall paintings in the Mogao and Yulin Grottos at Dunhuang, Gansu province, one of China's most important groups of Buddhist cave temples."--Canadian Journal of History
"Fraser's book contains a tremendous wealth of information on painters and their practice at Dunhuang, and for this it is invaluable."--Religious Studies Review
"This is an enthralling and essential read for all of those who are interested in Central Asian art, workshop practices and Chinese painting."--Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
About the Author
Sarah E. Fraser is Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Art History at Northwestern University.