Fu Baoshi Family Day

Our art museum is currently hosting an exhibit on the modern Chinese master Fu Baoshi.  It is an overview of his work from the 1920s to 1965.  To celebrate this exhibition, the museum put on a family day to celebrate Chinese art and culture with art-making workshops and gallery activities, including a scavenger hunt.

We headed over there to see what was what.  The first stop was to construct a miniature version of a Chinese scroll.  You could also try your hand at ink painting.  Amazing how they do what they do with those brushes!

 After that, we stopped by to look (and touch!) some authentic objects including a ceramic pillow (soo not comfortable) and a pair of shoes that a woman with bound feet would have worn (grotesquely amazing).

Next was the gallery exhibit which focused on Fu Baoshi's creations, partly which occurred during the rule of Chairman Mao Zedong.  I especially found this interesting since I recently finished Dreams of Joy by Lisa See and quite a bit of the book revolved around artists during this same time period.  Having a little more background helped me understand visually what I was experiencing.

Finally, as the day was winding down, we went to make a chop, which in China, is often used as a signature.  The benefit was that we pretty much had the room (and supplies) to ourselves by this time, so that was cool.  It was a fun day and another opportunity to teach the Noodle a little bit more about the country from which she came.