WEST PALM BEACH, FL.- Masterworks of Chinese Painting: In Pursuit of Mists and Clouds is a remarkable exhibition drawing on the superlative collections made by world-renowned Chinese art historian James Cahill. For over 50 years, Professor Emeritus James Cahill acquired Chinese paintings for the University of California, Berkeley Museum and his own family collections. The exhibition includes 55 paintings in traditional Chinese formats-hanging scrolls, fan paintings, hand scrolls, and album leaves-dating from the 12th to the 20th century. Images of birds and flowers, figures from history and legend, and monumental landscapes testify to the extraordinary beauty and ancient traditions of Chinese painting. The exhibition will be on view at the Norton Museum of Art through January 9, 2005. To complement the exhibition, the Norton will be displaying its most important painting from the permanent collection, Tang Yin's (1470-1523) hanging scroll, The Nine Bends River (Purchase, the R.H. Norton Trust, 62.8).

John Finlay, the Norton's Elizabeth B. McGraw Curator of Chinese Art, comments, " This wonderful exhibition complements our own collection of Chinese art. Our founder, Ralph Norton concentrated on acquiring jades, bronzes, and Chinese ceramics. This exhibition is a rare occasion to be able to see the myriad forms of Chinese painting."

Professor Cahill's seminal work, "Chinese Painting," published in 1960, was the inspiration for John Finlay to enter the world of Chinese art. Finlay will give a lecture for Museum Members on Friday, October 15, 2004, entitled "Chinese Painting: The Basics. Charles Mason of the Harn Museum in Gainsville (a former student of Professor Cahill) will lecture on January 9, 2005. Family activities will include First Saturday Family Studios and Sunday Fundays featuring, Chinese painting Feng Shui, kite making and Chinese cooking.

Professor Cahill's Collecting Philosophy: "It is like clouds and mists passing before my eyes, or the songs of birds striking my ears. How could I help but derive joy from my contact with these things? But when they are gone, I think no more about them. In this way, these two things [painting and calligraphy] are a constant pleasure to me, but not an affliction." -Su Dongpo, eleventh-century statesman, poet, and connoisseur, on collecting. Translation by James Cahill.

Professor Cahill began collecting Chinese paintings in 1955 while on a Fulbright fellowship in Japan, where he was completing his dissertation on fourteenth-century (Yuan) painting. It was there that a noted Japanese scholar bestowed on him the name Ching Yüan Chai, which roughly translates as "Studio of One Who Is Looking Intently at the Yuan Dynasty." Throughout his long teaching career, James Cahill used these collections as a means of gaining a better personal understanding of art, as an opportunity to explore areas of connoisseurship, and as a tool for teaching others these same disciplines. For Cahill, collecting enriched the scope and depth of his comprehension of the intricacies of Chinese painting and culture. Cahill has remarked, "Collecting has deepened my understanding of Chinese painting-forcing me to make judgments of quality and authenticity."

The Berkeley Art Museum and Cahill family collections consist of works from the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, including major figure paintings and a selection of bird and flower subjects. The greatest strength, however, is landscape paintings. Considered the highest category of painting in China, the landscape embodies the ideals of the Confucian scholar. This is the area of Chinese art in which we find the most daring experiments, the greatest developments, and the most intense art historical scrutiny.

Norton Museum of Art Chinese Collection: The Norton has a distinguished collection of Chinese art. Many of the works in the collection were selected by the Museum's founder, R.H. Norton, with an eye to acquiring the best examples from the most important periods in China's long history. Highlights include bronze ritual vessels of the Shang (circa 1450-1100 bce) and Western Zhou (circa 1100-771 bce) dynasties.

An outstanding group of ancient jades dates from the Neolithic Liangzhu culture of the 3rd millennium bce to the Han dynasty (221 bce-206 ce). Chinese ceramics include models and figures for the tomb and burial as well as ceramic vessels from the Tang (618-906) to blue and white porcelains of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing dynasty (1644-1911).

The Chinese collection also features outstanding examples of Buddhist sculpture, including a head from a colossal Buddha of the 8th century and a seated limestone Bodhisattva from the Northern Wei, the brief period between 386 and 535. The most recent additions to the permanent collection include almost 100 examples of Chinese Export porcelain.

Masterworks of Chinese Painting: In Pursuit of Mists and Clouds is organized and circulated by The Berkeley Art Museum and is guest curated by Julia M.White, Curator of Asian Art at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. The exhibition is made possible by Dorothy Dunlap Cahill, Hsingyuan Tsao, and James Cahill, Nicholas Cahill, and Sarah Cahill, and by an anonymous donor. Major support is provided by United Commercial Bank, the Shenson Foundation, and Jane R. Lurie.

Local support is provided by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, John and Heidi Niblack, and Mr. and Mrs. William Aylward.