Каталог лондонской выставки 1935 года как источник по истории коллекционирования китайского искусства

Abstract

From November 1935 to March 1936, the International Exhibition of Chinese Art took place in the halls of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. In 16 halls of the Burlington House, about 4,000 objects were exhibited. More than a dozen of countries and more than 200 private collectors participated in its organisation and lent objects for the exhibition. Besides, a third of the items were lent by the Chinese government. The exhibition was attended by over 400,000 visitors and every fourth person bought its catalogue. In terms of number of items and participated persons and institutions, the London Exhibition remains unprecedented to this day. It is difficult to overestimate its importance for the development of art historian studies in Chinese art. The Catalogue of International Exhibition of Chinese Art, 1935–1936, (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1935) remains one of the key sources of information about the exhibition. Even though mentions of the catalogue could be found in numeral sources that in one way or another write about the exhibition or the objects exhibited there, no analysis of the structure and content of the catalogue has been carried out. Meanwhile, understanding of the type and specifics of information presented in the catalogue could allow not only to enrich our knowledge about different aspects of exhibitions organization during the 1930s but also to understand better some features of the different processes associated with collecting of Chinese art in the middle of the 20th century.