NOV/DEC 2005

VOLUME 36 - NUMBER 8

This special issue focuses on 'China: The Three Emperors, 1662-1795', an exhibition opening at the Royal Academy fo Arts on 12 November. As a foreign dynasty and China's last, the Manchu Qing have been misunderstood and much maligned through most of the 20th century. In the last decade, research into imperial archives has cast more positive light on the dynasty's achievements; with the opening up of China's museums, material culture has shown that the Qing court at its height was a dazzling spectable that probably eclipsed its European counterpart at Versailles. This exhibition features loans from the Palace Museum in Beijing, many of them on view overseas for the first time. Lead curator Jessiva Rawson introduces the show's highlights. Alfreda Murck provides a poignant counterpoint by exploring how Chinese literati responded to Manchu invastion; while Regina Krahl explores the neglected artistic contributions of the Yongzheng emperor. Interviews with the academy's Exhibitions Secretary Norman Rosenthal and the show's designer Ivor Heal provide insight into how large-scale exhibitions like this are organized.

Maxwell Hearn and John Vollmer discuss more treasures of the Qing period as they write about Sandy and Cécile Mactaggart's gift of paintings and textiles to the University of Alberta.

We introduce two art fairs that are to be held in Hong Kong next year. A letter from New Orleans gives an update on the survival of art collections in teh devastated city. Our commentary celebrates a gift to the Sackler Gallery that represents a mile-stone in international cultural cooperation.

FEATURES
Sylvan Barnet and William Burto. Finial for a Monk's Staff
John E. Vollmer. An Evening with Sandy and Cecile Mactaggart, Discussing Their Chinese Textile Collection
Maxwell K. Hearn. A Collection of Chinese Painting Comes to Canada
Regina Krahl. Art in the Yongzheng Period: Legacy of an Eccentric Art Lover
Alfreda Murck. Responses to the Manchu Conquest: Wu Hong and Kong Shangren
Jessica Rawson. 'China: The Three Emperors, 1662-1795': An Exhibition from The Palace Museum, Beijing
PREVIEWS & REVIEWS
Hong Kong's Art Fairs
Helen Ibbitson Jessup. Book Review: Ann R. Kinney with Marijke J. Klokke and Lydia Kieven: Worshiping Siva and Buddha: The Temple Art of East Java, Photography by Rio Helmi, University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 2003
INTERVIEWS
Interview with Gisele Croes
Meri Arichi and Hwang Yin. Interviews with Norman Rosenthal and Ivor Heal
COMMENTARY
Kate Fitz Gibbon. Commentary: Art as Ambassador