News Release - Chinese Garden’s New Art Gallery to Feature Contemporary Calligraphy in Inaugural Exhibition Focused on Illuminating the Art Form

"A Garden of Words: The Calligraphy of Liu Fang Yuan"

Scheduled to open in May 2020 [updated]

SAN MARINO, Calif.—Timed to coincide with the grand opening in May 2020 of the final phase of its Chinese Garden, The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens will present an exhibition of Chinese calligraphy as the inaugural installation in the garden's new art gallery. "A Garden of Words: The Calligraphy of Liu Fang Yuan" 書苑——流芳園所藏書法作品 opens May 30, 2020, in the Studio for Lodging the Mind 寓意齋. The exhibition will be presented in two 16-week rotations of 20 works each. The first installation continues through Sept. 7, 2020, and the second runs from Sept. 12, 2020, through Jan. 4, 2021.

The exhibition will take place during The Huntington’s yearlong Centennial Celebration, which gets underway this fall. The expansion of the Chinese Garden is one of the keystone Centennial projects.

Among the key elements of the Chinese Garden are graceful inscriptions of Chinese calligraphy, located throughout the landscape. Mounted on placards or carved into rock, they convey poetic names for the garden’s various features or bear evocative couplets inspired by particular spaces. Their purpose is to enhance the visitor’s experience of the garden through the lenses of literature and art. “Calligraphy is fundamental to a Chinese garden, but it’s a subtle feature that may often go overlooked,” said Phillip E. Bloom, the June and Simon K.C. Li Curator of the Chinese Garden and Director of the Center for East Asian Garden Studies. “This exhibition fosters deeper appreciation for the expressive artistry behind these inscriptions by introducing visitors to the content, materials, forms, and futures of the calligraphic art form.”

The work of 21 contemporary ink artists will be featured, including Qianshen Bai, Michael Cherney, Fu Shen, Lo Ch’ing, Lui Tai, Tang Qingnian, Wang Mansheng, Wan-go Weng, and Terry Yuan.

The new Studio for Lodging the Mind, located at the north end of Liu Fang Yuan (the Garden of Flowing Fragrance), is a 1,720-sq.-ft., light- and climate-controlled gallery space suitable for the display of works of art on paper or silk—including the original calligraphic scrolls on paper that served as the models for the garden’s inscriptions. To complement the show, a series of calligraphy demonstrations by featured artists will be offered during the run of the exhibition inside an adjacent structure known as the Flowery Brush Library 筆花書房. This pavilion, which will be making its debut as well, is designed in the style of a Chinese scholar’s studio—a garden retreat traditionally used for painting, poetry, and calligraphy. Its name is inspired by the tale of a scholar who dreamed that a flower grew from the tip of his writing brush, a metaphor for literary and artistic talent.