As The China Collectors is historical and biographical, we have not attempted to cover in depth the many facets of Chinese art. For our readers who wish to pursue further study, we suggest the following books.
Still considered the classic text, Laurence Sickman and Alexander Soper’s The Art and Architecture of China has been often reprinted (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, third paperback edition, 1968). Many of the artworks cited in our text are described in more detail in this volume.
Sherman Lee’s A History of Far Eastern Art (New York: Abrams, revised edition, 1982) is much wider in scope then other books mentioned—it covers India, Indonesia, and southeast Asia as well as China—and is written for the layman. Organized chronologically, it is particularly good on Buddhism and its spread to China from India.
Two other American scholars, Robert Thorp and Richard Ellis Vinograd, have written Chinese Art and Culture (New York: Abrams, 2001). They provide a useful annotated bibliography on topics such as painting, ceramics, etc. A classroom favorite, Michael Sullivan’s The Arts of China (Berkeley: University of California Press, revised fifth edition, 2009) is a comprehensive overview with a welcome section on modern artists.
For the reader interested in a more contemporary offering, Craig Clunas has provided a splendid if somewhat unorthodox guide to Chinese culture in Art in China (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), structured around themes “Art in the Tomb,” “Art at Court,” “Art in the Temple,” “Art in the Life of the Elite,” and “Art in the Market Place.”
For an introductory guide to Chinese painting, we recommend the late James Cahill’s Chinese Painting (New York: Rizzoli, 1990), written by one of the great experts on the subject. His later take on the same subject is available on YouTube in a series entitled “A Pure and Remote View.” A more daunting volume featuring essays on all the principal periods is Richard M. Barnhart, Yan Xin, Nie Chongzheng, James Cahill, Lang Shaojun, and Wu Hung’s Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002). They provide a valuable appendix listing all the important Chinese artists as well as an extensive bibliography. Also, for a closer look at two of the great American collections of Chinese painting, see S. W. Goodfellow, ed., Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and the Cleveland Museum of Art (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980). Finally, a worthy testament to the great collection of Chinese painting housed in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts is Tung Wu’s Tales from the Land of Dragons: 1,000 Years of Chinese Painting published by the MFA (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1997).
Of the many amply illustrated volumes associated with specific exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum, we especially recommend James C. Y. Watt, et al., China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200–750 AD (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004), which focuses on the formative origins of the longest and richest of art traditions. On Chinese furniture another useful catalogue is Nancy Berliner, et al., Beyond the Screen: Chinese Furniture of the 16th and 17th Centuries (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1996).