"Between Two Cultures, by Wen C. Fong, based on a selection of modern Chinese paintings from the Robert H. Ellsworth Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, explores the crucial period from the 1860s to about 1980, when Chinese painting was transformed into a modern expression of its classical heritage. Unlike classical Chinese painting dating from before 1860, which has commanded in-depth study from a learned and sophisticated audience in the West, modern Chinese painting has been little explored. The first comprehensive assemblage in the West of paintings on this subject, the Robert H. Ellsworth Collection comprises works in the classical Chinese medium of ink on paper and in the traditional formats of scrolls, album leaves, and fans."--BOOK JACKET.

Based on modern Chinese paintings from the Robert H. Ellsworth Collection at the Metropolitan, this book explores the period from the 1860s to about 1980, when Chinese painting was transformed into a modern expression of its classical heritage, and deals with both traditionalist and modernizing Chinese masters from the comparative perspectives of East and West. Dr. Fong begins his exploration with the last revival of traditional Chinese art and the rise of a populist art in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in Shanghai. His discussion continues with painters who absorbed the lessons of Western realism, which they viewed as part of Western science and technology. The work of traditionalist masters is also analyzed, followed by a discussion of painting by the second generation of artists and teachers, who developed their own schools of influence in their search for a new synthesis of Chinese and Western methods. -- Metropolitan Museum of Art website