RAS Art Focus

China's Art & Aesthetics of the Past:

New Discoveries of Sanxingdui

Sunday, 27 October 2024

3:45 pm Registration

4:00 pm to 6:00 pm

Please note this will be a hybrid in-person and Zoom Session

Curated and moderated by RAS Art Focus Convener and Art Historian Julie Chun, we return our gaze to art's history with the 2024-2025 series China's Art and Aesthetics of the Past. Please join us for this insightful series as we delve into the material culture of the recent and distant history to assess how objects ranging from imperial patronage to utilitarian handicrafts have shaped China's aesthetics through the ages.

This month, we turn our attention to the ancient bronze culture of Sanxingdui that arose in the plains of Sichuan Province. Closely tied to the kingdom of Shu, dating from about 3,000 years ago, the production of intricate bronze artifacts alludes to a sophisticated ancient civilization despite the lack of written records. The numerous bronze masks unearthed in 1986 from what are believed to be ceremonial pits, have mystified and raised more questions than answers for archaeologists, historians and art historians. In recent years from 2020-2022, further archaeological excavations have produced additional objects that open up wider assessment and updated scholarship on this important ancient civilization in China.

In September 2023, the Hong Kong Palace Museum held an exhibition featuring 120 objects that were newly excavated, including bronzes, jade, gold and ceramic objects. Dr. Shengyu Wang, Associate Curator at the Hong Kong Palace Museum, worked closely on the exhibition and the publication of the catalogue. Using the Sanxingdui exhibition as a point of departure, Dr. Wang will present an in-depth talk of the recently excavated objects that formed the core of the Sanxingdui exhibition and share with us the findings of renewed scholarship uncovered by the researchers from the Sanxingdui Museum, the Jinsha Site Museum, the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Chengdu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. Please join us on this historical quest to gain a deeper understanding of China's ancient bronze culture.

Art Labor has generously offered the use of their gallery space for this lecture. We will be meeting in the charming historic home located in the heart of the Former French Concession.