Mynah Birds, Old Tree Branch, and Rocks
Mount: 106 1/4 × 27 1/4 inches (269.88 × 69.22 cm)
Chinescische Malerei .Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, October, 1949- January 1950.
Ausstellung, Kunstsammlungen der Stadt Dusseldor, 1950: Speiser and Contag ( Dusseldorf, 1950).
Fantastics and Eccentrics in Chinese Painting, Asia House Gallery, New York, March 23-May 28, 1967; M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, August 28-November 1, 1967.
Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting, Nelson-Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, November 7, 1980 – January 4, 1981; The Cleveland Museum of Art, February 7 – April 5, 1981; The Asia Society, December 3, 1981 – February 28, 1982; Tokyo National Museum, October 4 – November 17, 1982, no. 237.
Master of the Lotus Garden: The Art of Bada Shanren, Yale University Art Gallery, Asian Art Museum, August 22-October 28, 1990; Yale University Art Gallery, January 25-March 24, 1991.
Discarding the Brush-Gao Quipei and the Chinese Art of Fingerpainting, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, December 12, 1992-February 28, 1993.
Chinese Ming Painting, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, May 12 – August 29, 1993.
Tides of Chaos, Fervor Within: Chinese Painters of the 17th Century Respond to Dynastic Upheaval, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, September 23, 2004- February 12, 2008.
Expressions of Brush and Ink: Literati and Chan (Zen) Painting in China and Japan, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, January 13 – August 8, 2010.
Early Chan (Zen) Buddhist masters, who favored ordinary subjects, often depicted mynah birds because of their subtle appearance. Bada Shanren became a monk when his imperial family fell to the Qing dynasty. Following Chan tradition, Bada captured the essence of the scene with robust brushwork and minimal detail. For instance, the swift strokes above the birds give the painting a slight sense of unease.
Dr. Victoria Contag von Winterfeldt (1906-1973), by April 1952-1967 [1];
Purchased from Dr. Victoria Contag von Winterfeldt by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1967.
NOTES:
[1] This object was on loan from von Winterfeldt to the Nelson-Atkins from April 1952 until its purchase in 1967.
Victoria Contag, Chinesische Malerei der letzeten vir Jahrhunderte [Chinese painting of the last four centuries],exh. Cat. , Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, October, 1949-January, 1950 (Hamburg, 1949), nos. 89-90, pl. 4.
Werner Speiser, and Victoria Contag, Austellung Chinsische Malerei 15-20 Jahrhundert [Exhibition of Chiness painting of the 15th – 20th century] (exhibition catalogue Kunstasammlungen der Stadt Dusseldorf), (1950), no. 94-95, 46, pl. 8.
Speiser and Contag, Ausstellung, Kunstsammlungen der Stadt Dusseldor, 1950: (Dusseldorf, 1950), nos. 94-95, 28, 46, pl. 8.
Hsio-yen Shih, “Mad Monks and Eccentric Styles”, Art News, vol. LXVI/3 (April, 1967): 38, 72, pl. 6.
James Cahill, Fantasics and Eccentrics in Chinese Painting, exh. cat., Asia House Gallery (New York: 1967), no. 26, 76-77,117.
“Revolutionary Art in 17th Century China”, Art in America, vol. 55, no. 2 (March/ April, 1967), 111.
Archives of Asian Art, vol. xxii, (New York: The Asia Society, 1968-1969), 118, fig. 39.
Ross E. Taggart, George L. McKenna, and Marc F. Wilson, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. II, Art of the Orient. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 69.
Marc F. Wilson, “ The Chinese Painter and his Vision”, Apollo, special issue for the Asian art collection in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Vol. XCVII, no. 133 (March 1973):238-239,pl. 12-13.
Wai-Kam Ho, et al., Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and The Cleveland Museum of Art. (The Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, c1980), 320-321, no. 237.
Yi yuan duo ying( Gems of Chinese Fine Arts), no. 17. Special issue on Ba Da Shan Ren,(Shangahi: 1982): 19.
Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 330.
Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 370, fig. 268.
