Publisher's Synopsis
In this exploration of Chinese paintings as both material products and pictorial representations, the author sets out to show how the collaboration and tension between these two aspects gives life to a painting. He undertakes a forensic investigation of the screen, which can be an object, an art medium, a pictorial motif, or all three at once. With its diverse roles, the screen has provided Chinese painters with endless opportunities to reinvent their art.;The book provides a non-Western perspective on issues from portraiture and pictorial narrative to voyeurism, masquerade and political rhetoric.
