With John's permission, I forward his (slightly edited) excellent response. PPB -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [ARLIS-L] Catalogues raisonnes -- Chinese artists? Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2010 10:13:38 -0800 From: John Stucky <[log in to unmask]> To: Peter Blank <[log in to unmask]> Hi Peter-- I can give you a partial answer, but, I think, a pretty good one. There has never been a precedent in China or among scholars of Chinese culture, to create catalog raisonne for a particular artist. This is a purely Western and relatively modern construct. I do think that in a few years, as the major post-Tiananmen artists mature, you will begin to see more such comprehensive studies. Most of these artists are still a bit too early in their careers, though, to warrant a comprehensive examination or review. Some of course, will need such attention eventually. There have been excellent studies on such major figures as Ai Weiwei or Xu Bing, Gu Wenda, Cai Guoqiang, Zhan Wang and others, though these are certainly not comprehensive overviews. Of course, the older 20th century masters like Qi Baishi, Wu Changshuo, Pan Tianshou, Huang Binhong and Zhang Daqian are well overdue for such studies, though major and fairly comprehensive works have been done on them, there is still no catalog raisonne. One possible cause of this may be that their work is so scattered, and largely in relatively inaccessible collections....but I suspect tradition has a lot more to do with it. ... Traditionally artists, scholar painters especially, as befitting Confucian custom, were only discussed in the context of other painters, history and tradition, and, especially past masters. Your library has several wonderful 17th to early 19th century texts on painting and painters that are typical of this traditional type of Confucian approach to art history that emerged at the end of the Ming. ... ... John Stucky, MA, MLIS Museum Librarian C. Laan Chun Library Center, Asian Art Museum 200 Larkin Street San Francisco, California 94102 415.581.3692 (Fax) 415.861.2388 [log in to unmask] www.asianart.org/library.htm "PEOPLE WHO ARE WITHOUT CREATIVITY BUILD DEAD INSTITUTIONS." ----J. Krishnamurti NOW on view: BEYOND GOLDEN CLOUDS: JAPANESE SCREENS FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO AND THE SAINT LOUIS ART MUSEUM October 15, 2010 - January 16, 2011 COLLECTOR'S CHOICE/COLLECTOR'S VOICE October 15, 2010 - March 13, 2011 Coming next: BALI: ART, RITUAL, PERFORMANCE February 25 - September 11, 2011 Peter Blank <[log in to unmask] > To Sent by: ARLIS/NA [log in to unmask] List cc <[log in to unmask] SNA.ORG> Subject [ARLIS-L] Catalogues raisonnes -- Chinese artists? 11/17/2010 08:29 AM Please respond to Peter Blank <[log in to unmask] > Greetings Smart People, Can anyone explain why the LCSH convention of "catalogues raisonnes" does not apply to Chinese artists? In WorldCat, "Catalogues raisonnes" as a subject search, limited by language "Chinese" yields minimal results (19). But the same search, limiting to English, French, or German brings back thousands of hits. What gives? Is there a vernacular term (e.g., Werkverzeichnis) that corresponds and can be used when searching? Many thanks for any insight/tips. Cheers, Peter ----------------------------- Peter P. Blank Head Librarian Art& Architecture Library 102 Cummings Art Bldg. Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-2018 [log in to unmask] Voice (650) 725-1038 FAX (650) 725-0140 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/join.html Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.arlisna.org Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/join.html Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.arlisna.org Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~