奪天工 Growing and Knowing in the Gardens of China
“Growing and Knowing in the Gardens of China” asks: What is a garden, and what can you do with one? Focusing on the gardens of China’s literati during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368–1912), “Growing and Knowing” illuminates gardens as transformative spaces—spaces for growing and contemplating plants in order to better understand the world around us as well as our place in it.
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
The exhibition in the Studio for Lodging the Mind—a gallery within The Huntington’s Chinese Garden—brings together 24 hanging scrolls, hand scrolls, albums, and books from collections throughout the United States. It continues outside the gallery’s walls with a participatory exercise commissioned from Hong Kong–based artist Zheng Bo. Together, these artworks showcase Chinese gardens as sites in which scholars bred new varieties of plants, domesticated wild flora, and observed trees and grasses to make sense of the patterns of the cosmos. Ultimately, “Growing and Knowing” seeks to spur visitors to embrace their own gardens as spaces that can delight the senses, nourish the body, and inspire the mind.
Yu Zhiding 禹之鼎, Cleansing Medicinal Herbs in the Stream on a Spring Day (detail), Qing dynasty, 1703, handscroll, ink and color on silk, painting, 14 1/4 × 52 3/16 in. | The Cleveland Museum of Art.
Hu Zhengyan 胡正言, et al., Ten Bamboo Studio Manual of Calligraphy and Painting 十竹齋書畫譜, vol. 3, Ming dynasty, 1633, multicolor woodblock print on paper, 9 3/4 x 11 1/4 in. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Qiu Ying 仇英, Garden for Solitary Pleasure (detail), Ming dynasty, 16th century, handscroll, ink and light color on silk, painting, 11 × 204 1/8 in. | The Cleveland Museum of Art.
Formerly attributed to Xu Xi, Butterflies at Play during an Eternal Spring (detail), Qing dynasty, 18th–19th century, handscroll, ink and color on silk, 15 3/4 × 124 3/8 in. | Saint Louis Art Museum.
Ma Shouzhen 馬守真, Orchids, Bamboo, Fungus, and Rocks (detail), Ming dynasty, 1604, handscroll, ink and color on gold-flecked paper, image: 10 3/4 × 90 5/16 in. | Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields.
Formerly attributed to Qiu Ying 仇英, Pursuits of a Scholar, Qing dynasty, 18th century, album of eight leaves, ink on silk, 9 1/16 × 10 1/16 in. | The San Diego Museum of Art.
The Botanical Magazine, or, Flower-Garden Displayed, vol. 10, pl. 357, 1796, hand-colored copper engraving, approx. 9 in. x 5 1/2 in. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
“Garden of Flower Medicines,” Complete Collection of Medical Traditions Past and Present, Ming dynasty, ca. 1567–72, compiler: Xu Chunfu 徐春甫, woodblock printed book, ink on paper, 10 1/2 × 6 1/2 in. (per page). | Harvard-Yenching Library.
Revised Compendium of Materia Medica, Japanese, Edo period, ca. 1672. Revised edition of Chinese, Ming dynasty, 1640 edition, itself revised from a Chinese, Ming dynasty, 1596. Original compiler: Li Shizhen 李時珍. Woodblock printed book, ink on paper, 8 7/8 × 5 1/4 in. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Zheng Bo. | Photo: The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Fragrant Eight-Section Brocade is inspired by the traditional Chinese mind-body practice qigong 氣功. Building on exercises that date back nearly 900 years and remain widely practiced today, Zheng’s work includes eight exercises that combine simple full-body movements and deep breathing to activate the mind and body. Each exercise is meant to be practiced alongside the various fragrances of the surrounding landscape, encouraging participants to develop a connection to the natural environment.
Related Programming
Joy Fire (b. 1989), Bamboo Shears, 2024, steel, commissioned by The Huntington.
For this exhibition, artisans in Los Angeles reproduced a variety of garden tools from illustrations in historical Chinese books. The shears seen in this video were used to trim stems of bamboo. Watch the video to learn about the blacksmithing process that Joy Fire used to create them.
The exhibition catalog brings together 23 hanging scrolls, hand scrolls, albums, and books from collections throughout the United States. Together, these artworks showcase Chinese gardens as sites in which scholars hybridized plants, domesticated wild flora, and observed trees and grasses to make sense of the patterns of the cosmos.
The Huntington’s Center for East Asian Garden Studies promotes innovative scholarship on the traditions of garden-making in China, Japan, and Korea.
This exhibition is made possible with support from Getty through its PST ART: Art & Science Collide initiative.
“奪天工 Growing and Knowing in the Gardens of China” is among more than 70 exhibitions and programs presented as part of PST ART. Returning in September 2024 with its latest edition, PST ART: Art & Science Collide, this landmark regional event explores the intersections of art and science, both past and present. PST ART is presented by Getty. For more information, visit PST ART: Art & Science Collide
Generous support is provided by an anonymous foundation and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.