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The Ghost in the City

Luo Ping and the Craft of Painting in Eighteenth-Century China
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In 1771 the artist Luo Ping (1733-99) left his native Yangzhou to relocate to the burgeoning hub of Beijing's Southern City. Over two decades, he became the favored artist of a cosmopolitan community of scholars and officials who were at the forefront of the cultural life of the Qing-dynasty (1644-1911). From his spectacular ghost paintings to his later work exploring the city's complex history, compressed spatial layout, and unique social rituals, Luo Ping captured the pleasures and concerns of a changing world at the end of the Qing's "Prosperous Age." This study takes the reader into the vibrant artistic and literary cultures of Beijing outside the court and to the networks of scholars, artists, and entertainers that turned the Southern City into a place like no other in the Qing empire. At the center of this narrative lie Luo Ping's layered reflections on the medium of painting and its histories and formal conventions. Close reading of the work of Luo Ping and his contemporaries reveals how this generation of experimental artists sought to reform ink painting, paving the way for further developments in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Drawing on a vast range of textual and visual sources, The Ghost in the City shares groundbreaking research that will transform our understanding of the evolution of modern ink painting.
Michele Matteini is assistant professor of art history at New York University and associate faculty at the Institute of Fine Arts.
"An elegant and erudite study of painting, social networking, and the politics of culture in late eighteenth-century Beijing. . . The multifaceted reach, superb research, and fine production values of Matteini's book will surely open Ghost in the City to a wide readership of scholars working on the Qing and, more broadly, on cultural approaches to Chinese history." (Journal of Chinese History) "The Ghost in the City is not just a monograph on Luo Ping. It is many things at once: a book about Luo Ping's career in Beijing; a book about the art historical role of Luo Ping and Yangzhou experimentalisms; a book about the art world in Qianlong-era Southern City; and a book about how artists operated in an age when painting was highly professionalized. Through his study of Luo Ping's late works, Matteini makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of painting in Qing dynasty China during the eighteenth century." (CAA Reviews) "A dynamic exploration that deftly weaves together art, history, literature, and culture against the vibrant backdrop of Beijing's Southern City." (CHOICE Reviews)
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