Establishing Authenticity in Traditional Chinese Painting

How does one determine an authentic Chinese painting from a copy or forgery, and what determines the difference between the latter two? These questions have confounded collectors and connoisseurs for centuries. This talk will examine some of the key issues and techniques involved in the connoisseurship of Chinese painting. Among considerations are artist’s materials and styles, the formation of artistic lineages, the traditional Chinese literature on connoisseurship, the theoretical and technical relationship of painting and calligraphy, and a case study of copies and forgeries in the work of the Ming dynasty painter Qiu Ying (c. 1494–1552).

Stephen Little is the Florence and Harry Sloan Curator of Chinese Art and Department Head, Chinese and Korean Art Departments at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). He has held curatorial positions at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago, and was director of the Honolulu Academy of Arts before joining LACMA’s staff in 2011. His publications include Taoism and the Arts of China (2000), New Songs on Ancient Tunes: 19th–20th Century Chinese Painting and Calligraphy from the Richard Fabian Collection (2007), View of the Pinnacle: Japanese Lacquer Writing Boxes – The Lewis Collection of Suzuribako (2012), and Chinese Paintings from Japanese Collections (2014). 

To register, call (612) 870-6323 or reserve online.