The Chinese Artist Grows Old: Aging and Creativity

Huang Pin-hung (1865-1955) occupies a very special position in the history of modern Chinese art. The art of Huang Pin-hung demonstrates the persistence of tradition and the limits of continuities as well as changes in modern Chinese culture. The period during which he lived and worked was marked by turbulent changes in China's cultural and political landscape. Like many intellectuals of his generation, he was deeply concerned with the question of "old" versus "new," and his voluminous writings on art frequently discuss the relationship between tradition and innovation. This concern is reflected throughout his long career as an artist, as he constantly sought to break new ground and to explore new creative territory within the parameters of the Chinese ink-painting language.

One of the most outstanding aspects of Huang's career is his late maturity as an artist. While he began his training at an early age, his immense talent only came to full bloom during the last fifteen years of his life. Yet, because of this late maturing, his late paintings are imbued with the concentrated power of a lifetime of artistic creation, and possess an internal richness and complexity that is truly inimitable. Through a discussion of his transformation of tradition, in particular his late work, this book hopes to suggest how his late work embodies the vitality and potentiality for renewal of the Chinese cultural tradition.

This is a revised and updated version of the first edition (April 2004), which includes research based on essential new materials: the proceedings of an international conference on Huang Pin-hung organized by the China Academy of Art Research in Beijing, the correspondence between Huang Pin-hung and his contemporaries (publisged in 2005), and the catalog of the major exhibition of Huang Pin-hung's works at the Che-chiang Museum in July of 2004.