Page 31 - Jindezhen Porcelain Production of the 19th C. by Ellen Huang, Univ. San Diego 2008

1. Guo Baochang, Porcelain Objects, and the First International Exhibitions of
Chinese Art, 1935-1936

The London International Exhibition of Chinese Art, held from November 28,

1935 to March 7, 1936, at London’s Burlington House of the Royal Academy of Art, was

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a landmark event in the exhibition history of Chinese art. As the largest exhibition of

Chinese art ever to be organized - the total number of exhibited objects amounted to

3,080 objects - its worldwide significance lies in the fact that it was the first exhibition to

showcase objects outside China from collections of the former imperial palaces, then

already reconfigured as the Palace Museum (Gugong ݂ࢗ) in Beijing. Of the three

thousand objects lent to the exhibition, approximately a third of the artwork came from

China’s various art institutions. Of the 984 objects on loan from China, 735 objects

originated from the Palace Museum’s imperial collection. The majority of the artwork

came from three sources: the Chinese government, the British Museum’s Eumorfopoulos

Collection, and Percival David’s collection of Chinese art.

It was also the first exhibition of Chinese art to have garnered international

cooperation - the galleries included items from public institutions and private collections

in the United States, Germany, India, Russia, France, Holland, Belgium, and, after some

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prodding and convincing, Japan. During its three-month duration, the exhibition
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attracted a viewership of 420,048 people and earned over 47,000 English pounds. Major

print media publications in the English and Chinese languages, such as London’s The

Times and Tianjin’s Da Gongbao (L’Impartial), covered the event, even publishing

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special issues devoted to the exhibition. Observers declared it a success for opening the

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