Wang Mansheng, Collection of Rotted Wood, Chinese ink on paper; mounted as an album, 11 × 7 7/8 inches (28 × 20 cm)
The 2019 series Collection of Rotten Wood by FQM represented artist, Wang Mansheng, is now on display on the third floor of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the Asian Art Gallery 334. Since the reopening of the Chinese Art Gallery, curator Hiromi Kinoshita has designed exhibits that display contemporary and traditional alongside each other. This juxtaposition also emphasizes the continuation of the tradition and its relevance to our lives today. Wang’s work is reminiscent of the literati tradition of collecting natural materials, such as stone or wood. The tradition was not limited to artistic creation, but was also a method of self-cultivation. Wang’s pieces capture a timeless appreciation of the natural world. He uses ink as a medium to capture the beauty of his Hudson River collection, and under his brush, the driftwood portraits become miniature mountains, referencing the style of ancient literati painters.
About Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at Eakins Oval. The museum administers collections containing over 240,000 objects including major holdings of European, American and Asian origin. The various classes of artwork include sculpture, paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, armor, and decorative arts.
Several special exhibitions are held in the museum every year, including touring exhibitions arranged with other museums in the United States and abroad. The museum had 437,348 visitors in 2021, ranking 65th on the List of most-visited art museums worldwide.
