Page 29 - China, 5000 years : innovation and transformation in the arts

This catalogue, published by the Guggenheim's
Publications Department under the direction of
Anthony Calnek, Director of Publications, and
designed by Patrick Seymour, has in itself been an
impressive project. Coordinated by Howard Rogers,
with the perceptive and sensitive editorial support
of Naomi Richard and Sylvia Moss, the catalogue
reflects an extensive international collaboration
between some of the most distinguished scholars
in the field and will hopefully be a valuable
Wereference for years to come. are particularly
impressed that great scholars from both China and
the West embraced this historic occasion to develop
their ideas and communicate their Wescholarship.
firmly believe that the diversity of material and
commentary is one of the great strengths of this
project as a whole, and we have made no attempt
to bring into conformity the opinions expressed by
the authors. The production of this catalogue was
handled with great skill by Elizabeth Levy,
Managing Editor/Manager of Foreign Editions, and
Melissa Secondino, Production Assistant. Along
with related exhibition materials, it was also made
possible with the assistance of Edward Weisberger,
Editor; Jennifer Knox White, Associate Editor;
Carol Fitzgerald, Assistant Editor; and Domenick
Ammirati, Editorial Assistant, as well as Keith
Mayerson and Nicole Columbus.
An exhibition of this scale could never take place
without the generous support of our sponsors.
First, I would like to thank Lufthansa for the
ongoing commitment and leadership support it has
shown to the Guggenheim as a Global Partner.
In particular, I would like to thank Frederick W.
Reid, Lufthansa German Airlines's President and
Chief Operating Officer, and Josef Grendel.
Lufthansa's Vice President Corporate
Communications, for their enlightened generosity.
We are also very fortunate to have had the
opportunity to work with Nokia. Their
international vision and their skill at connecting
people and cultures are deeply impressive. For their Mysoul. friend then comments that the writing
support, I am particularly indebted to Jorma Ollila.
President and Chief Executive Officer; Lauri
Kivinen, Senior Vice President Corporate
Communications; Jim Bowman, Vice President
Corporate Communications, Nokia Americas; and
Micaela Tucker-Kinney, Manager. Corporate
Communications, Nokia Americas. We are also
most grateful to Alex Trotman, Chairman and Chiel
Executive Officer of Ford Motor Company, lor his
leadership and commitment to this project. At
Ford, we also wish to thank Wayne M. Booker, Vice
Chairman; Peter J. Pestillo, Executive Vice
President, Corporate Relations; Gary L. Nielsen,
Vice President, Ford Motor Company Fund; and
Mabel H. Cabot, Director, Corporate
Programming, for their creativity and their
dedication to tins landmark exhibition. Finally, we
INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
would like to thank M. Douglas Ivester. Chairman
of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of
The Coca-Cola Company, for his leadership in
supporting this important project. The collaboration
of Douglas N. Daft, President, Middle and Far East
Group at The Coca-Cola Company, was also vital
to its realization.
Significant additional support for this exhibition
was provided at an early stage by The Starr
Foundation and The W. L. S. Spencer Foundation.
Their generous help allowed us to move the project
forward during the critical processes of research and
development. Mori Building Company Limited has
also assisted substantially in the realization of the
exhibition. I would like to thank Minoru Mori,
President, for his inspired support. The exhibition
has also been made possible in part by a major
grant from the National Endowment of the
Humanities, who provided us with important earlv
endorsement and encouragement. The generous
support ofThe Li-Cheng Cultural and Educational
Foundation has assisted in the publication of the
two-volume catalogue accompanying the
exhibition.
As I complete these remarks in a Tokyo hotel
room, I look at the scroll of calligraphy that hangs
in the tokunoma alcove ot my room. A Japanese
mefriend tells that it was created by a nineteenth-
century Japanese artist whose style was based on
that of a seventeenth-century calligrapher named
Dong Qichang, whose work is included in China:
5, ooo Years. The text, "Peach Blossom Spring." by
the fourth-century Chinese poet Tao Yuanniing.
speaks of the peace and contentment that become
possible on removal from the temporal world, just
as the author himself achieved lasting renown by
giving up secular ambition in order to cultivate his
itself seems lacking the confidence expressed In the
verbal content, winch leads to this final observa-
tion: the boundaries between Easl and West,
between past and present, are truly falling. Artists
and poets today are no different from their prede-
cessors in their willingness to appropriate or reject
—what they need from their own history, from then
—contemporary context, from outside influences to
formulate a response to their dilemma. China: 5,000
Years will appeal to experts and scholars. But by far
the Ingest number of people to see the exhibition
will be those with only a limited understanding ot'
the culture of this extraordinary country, ["hey are
lice to approach this art from their own pels;-
rives, to hung themselves into the encounter and
challenge their preconceptions. The process will
challenge them to learn and grow, and the two
countries will move a little closer as a result. It is in
this potential thai < hina: $,oooYcars finds us ulti-
mate jusrjfii arion.