Senses and Sensibilities

For thousands of years Chinese painters have translated the sights, sounds, scents, tastes and textures of Chinese life into paintings.

On view in the Chinese painting gallery will be 24 objects selected from the Museum’s collection that demonstrate the mastery of Chinese artistic expression.

Through ink and color on paper or silk the paintings explore the full range of how the painter expressed and evoked the five senses of Chinese landscapes, sounds, music, sights and smells. Through their work we can enter their world.

Marc Wilson, Menefee D. and Mary Louise Blackwell Director/CEO of the Museum, worked with ten University of Kansas art history graduate students and their professor, Marsha Haufler, to select objects and write labels for this exhibition.