The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is presenting an extensive exhibition featuring Chinese paintings and calligraphy from its world-renowned collection, which began with the museum's first Chinese painting acquisition in 1902. The exhibition, titled "Chinese Painting and Calligraphy: Selections from the Collection," will run from November 22, 2025, through May 31, 2026, at The Met Fifth Avenue in Galleries 210-216.
Since that initial acquisition more than a century ago, The Met has expanded its collection to include over 2,000 works of Chinese painting and calligraphy, establishing one of the most comprehensive collections of its kind worldwide. The museum's collection spans fifteen hundred years of Chinese cultural production and encompasses a diverse range of genres, artistic techniques, and stylistic approaches that have evolved throughout Chinese history. This extensive collection has become an invaluable resource for scholars and researchers studying Chinese painting and calligraphy traditions.
The current exhibition presents a carefully curated selection of works arranged in a predominantly chronological format, allowing visitors to trace the development of Chinese artistic expression through the centuries. The chronological arrangement provides viewers with a comprehensive understanding of how Chinese painting and calligraphy techniques, themes, and styles have evolved over time, reflecting broader cultural and historical changes in Chinese society.
A particularly significant portion of the exhibition is dedicated to telling the story of Wen C. Fong (1930-2018), who served as chairman of The Met's Department of Asian Art from 1971 to 2000, and his mentor Li Jian (1881-1956). The final gallery focuses on this meaningful teacher-student relationship that played a crucial role in preserving and transmitting traditional Chinese artistic knowledge to the Western world. During the 1940s in Shanghai, Fong studied the traditional brush arts under Li's guidance while still a young calligraphy prodigy.
The centerpiece of this special gallery features a remarkable collection of fans that were painted and inscribed by Li Jian specifically to pass down the canonical models of classical Chinese artistic tradition from teacher to student. These instructional works served as both artistic masterpieces and educational tools, embodying centuries of accumulated knowledge and technique. The Fong family brought these precious fans to the United States in 1949 and has treasured them as family heirlooms for over seven decades.
For the first time in their history, these significant fans are being presented to the public, offering visitors a rare glimpse into the intimate process of artistic education and cultural transmission between master and student. The exhibition provides free admission with general museum entry and is made possible through generous support from the Joseph Hotung Fund. Among the notable works featured is a piece by Mi Fu (Chinese, 1051-1107), titled "Poem Written in a Boat on the Wu River," dating from approximately 1095 during the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127), which exemplifies the sophisticated artistic achievements represented in The Met's collection.
