Newsletter No. 387

10 No. 387, 19.11.2011 …… 如是說 Thus Spake… 屈志仁教授 Prof. James Watt 你的主要工作範疇是甚麼? 這是一個兼事中國文化研究所和藝術系的新講座席位。我將 主力研究和為研究生主持研討會。合適的話,也會給文物館的 策展事務提供意見。我會先會見學生,確切了解他們的研究興 趣,然後構思課程,務與他們的學習相輔相成。眾所周知,研究 生所選的研習範圍往往失諸過專,因而忽略了與其專科有關的 歷史和文化背景等常識,以及當時的學術氛圍。為補不足,我計 劃引入全面涵蓋中國歷史個別時期的藝術與文化史課程。 有甚麼實際的方法可幫助學生培養欣賞中國傳統藝術的基 本修養? 我們一向不遺餘力去喚起學生這方面的意識。不過,要促進中 國藝術在學生之間普及程度並非易事,因為對藝術形式的興 趣是需要時間培養的。要引導他們對賞心悅目美的事物心存嚮 慕,樂於親近,也需下功夫陶冶性情。我倒認為藝術教育應在 中學階段開始,在大學的通識教育課程也應佔一席位。現時文 物館人手比較短缺,外展工作必須靠受訓義工幫忙。 你為文物館收藏擘畫芻模,功不可沒。在世界芸芸大學的 博物館中,文物館如何奠定其獨特之處? 文物館1971年啓用之初,談不上甚麼館藏。現在所見琳琅滿 目、多姿多彩的展品,是多年由各方仁人君子、舊雨新知慷慨惠 贈,以及由員工努力不懈蒐集而成的。彼時大學羽翼未豐,採購 預算自然也小,所以必須訂立策略原則,審慎積累館藏。當時 的主導原則是「策略收藏,成就他人之不能成;人所少採或未 採,苟不偏離使命,即採之」。 根據這原則,文物館從太平天國史研究權威簡又文教授 (1896 – 1978)的私人珍藏裏收集了大量廣東文物和藝術品。 當時廣東的繪畫、書法和裝飾藝術,普遍未如今日般受到收 藏家欣賞和追捧,所以文物館才有能力添購這批珍品,充實陣 容。文物館另一令人豔羨的收藏是為數不少的碑拓。雖然世代 以來這些拓本都價值不菲,但由於當時還未得到西方大型博物 館的青睞,文物館才可在幾位善長慷慨出力下,有幸集得「蘭亭 序」和「西嶽華山廟碑」等宋代拓本;後者更是現在傳世的四個 宋拓本之一。文物館所藏的大量古代印璽也值得一提,一如前 述,在文物館草創初年,收藏家對這些藝術品還未如當今般趨 之若鶩。 回香港之前,你在紐約大都會藝術博物館工作多年,擔任 亞洲藝術部主任,今夏才退休,現為其榮休館長。在該博物 館工作有何值得懷記之事,可否透露一二? 我在大都會博物館四分之一個世紀了。我的工作是建設亞洲藝 術部,時至今日,該部門的規模在西方已屬數一數二。 談到我在大都會博物館的成績,我會說是蒙元時代絲織品的 收藏。這些在中國和中亞生產的奢侈織物,是歷史上最精美細 緻的。大都會博物館和克利夫蘭藝術博物館在1980年代開始 蒐集這些十三至十四世紀的織物,並在1997至1998年一同展 出其收藏。之前,這方面的系統研究非常缺乏。當時有一份名為 《錦如金貴的時代》的展覽目錄,內載了好幾篇關於蒙元時代 織錦、刺繡和緙絲的論文。 你怎樣看藝術在中國文化上的地位? 要界定藝術在某一文化上的地位是不可能的。不過,沒有甚麽 比藝術更能代表一個文化,而且藝術是傳遞文化面貌和精神最 有力的媒介。就以一件宋瓷為例—它的形態、紋理和色澤,蘊 含了多少宋代文人的價值觀、理想和美學。而由宋瓷的單色釉, 慢慢發展為元明兩代的青花瓷,也內含不少社會、經濟、政治 和學術演變的底蘊。 What do you see as your major areas of work? This is a new chair and is jointly held by the Institute of Chinese Studies and the Fine Arts Department. I shall be mainly engaged in research and conduct seminars for postgraduate students. Where appropriate, I shall also advise on curatorial matters in the Art Museum. My first steps will be to meet students to ascertain their research interests, and to devise courses that complement their studies. It is generally known that research students tend to become over-specialized in their chosen fields of study, often at the expense of general knowledge about the historical and cultural backgrounds of their subjects, and the intellectual milieu prevalent at the time. As a remedy to this, I am planning to introduce courses that would cover the full gamut of arts and cultural history of specified eras in Chinese history. In what practical ways may students be helped to develop the basic know-how in the appreciation of traditional Chinese art? There are always efforts to create awareness among students. However, enhancing the popularity of Chinese art among students is not an easy task, for an interest in art forms takes time to cultivate, and the development of a willingness to experience the aesthetically pleasing requires effort. I am rather inclined to think that arts education should start at school, and that it should also have its place in the General Education programme at university level. We are rather short-handed at our Art Museum here and, for extension work to be seriously contemplated, the help of trained volunteers will be essential. You were instrumental in laying the foundation of the Art Museum. In what way has its holding earned its place of uniqueness among campus collections in the world? When the Museum first opened in 1971, there was no collection to speak of, and the rich and varied exhibits we now see are the results of years of efforts sustained by the 十九世紀英國外交大臣巴麥尊形容香港是「荒煙蔓草,棟宇全 無」。一個多世紀之後,中文大學獲香港政府撥予沙田校址,巴 麥尊的名言恰好可以用來形容當時的中大校園。後來陸續落成 的美觀實用的建築物,在其時還付諸闕如,然而,一眾博古通今 的逸群之才雲集中大,令校園滋長出閑雅隆崇的文化氣氛。這 些卓爾出群的學界中堅,不少已相繼從前台退下,但我們很慶 幸文物館創館館長屈志仁教授在紐約大都會藝術博物館成就 了一番驕人事業後,重回中大擔任利榮森中國文化講座教授。 Lord Palmerston, a British Foreign Minister of the 19th century, described Hong Kong as ‘a barren rock with hardly a house upon it.’ A little more than a century later, when the Government handed over the Shatin site to the University, his famous dictum was an apt description of the campus. However, while the University at the time lacked the many pleasant and highly utilitarian buildings that gradually came to be built, the serene and august air of cultural refinement had already begun to gather, thanks to an exceptionally fine team of experts, deeply immersed in the classics and the human letters, that were assembled at the University at the time. Many of these arbiters of good taste have since retired from active academic service, but we are very glad to observe that Professor James Watt, the founding director of the Art Museum (known as the Art Gallery until 1995), having developed an illustrious curatorial career at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, has now returned to the Chinese University as the first J.S. Lee Professor of Chinese Culture. munificence of donors and friends, and the hard work of the staff. Since the Art Museum did not have much to start with, and the acquisition budget of the art gallery of a fledgling university would necessarily be small, strategic principles had to be laid down as the museum cautiously sought to build up its holdings. At that time the guiding principle was ‘to perform what others cannot through strategic acquisition, by collecting what others seldom do and yet not deviating from the mission of the museum.’ Working on the basis of this principle, the Art Gallery acquired a large quantity of valuable artifacts and objets d’art of Guangdong origin from the vast private collection of Prof. Jian Youwen (1896–1978), a well-known authority on the history of the Taiping Rebellion in the mid-19th century. It was a time when Guangdong paintings, calligraphy and decorative arts in general did not enjoy the same level of esteem and pursuit by collectors as they do today, and the Art Gallery was thus able to add this valuable hoard of great merit to its core collection. Another aspect of the Museum’s holdings that comes to be greatly admired is the considerable number of early rubbings of inscriptions on stone steles. Stone rubbings, though prized items for centuries, had not yet captured the fancy of large museums in the West at the time, and the Art Gallery was thus in a position to acquire, with the generous assistance of certain benefactors, Song Dynasty rubbings of the Lanting xu and the Xiyue Huashan miao bei , the latter being one of the four Song copies from the same stele currently extant in the world. Also worth special mention is the sizeable collection of ancient seals kept at the Art Museum. These were acquired during the Art Gallery’s very early days, when their collection, once again, had not yet earned the vogue that they would later enjoy. Prior to returning to Hong Kong, you were with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for many years, retiring only last summer as chairman of the Department of Asian Art and now its Curator Emeritus. Can you tell us one or two most memorable aspects of your career with that Museum? I was with the Metropolitan Museum for a quarter of a century, with work involved in the setting up of the Department of Asian Art which is now one of the largest of its kind in the West. I think I would mention the acquisition of Yuan Dynasty silk textiles as one of the highlights of what I did at the Metropolitan Museum. The luxury silks produced in China and Central Asia during the time of the Mongol-Yuan empire are among the finest in world history. There had been little systematic study of them until the Metropolitan Museum and the Cleveland Museum of Art started to collect textiles of the 13th to 14th centuries in the 1980s and exhibited their collections together in 1997–98. The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue entitled When Silk was Gold , in which there are essays on tapestry, embroidery and the ‘cloth of gold’ of the Mongol-Yuan period. What is your view regarding the place of art in Chinese culture? It is impossible to define the place of art within a culture. However, there is nothing more representative of a culture than its art, and art is the most powerful medium through which the outlook and the spirit of a culture may be transmitted. Take a ceramic piece made in the Song Dynasty as an example—its form, texture and colour will tell you so much about the values, the ideals, and the aesthetics of the Song literati. The gradual transition from monochrome ceramics of the Song Dynasty to the blue and white wares of Yuan and Ming Dynasties also tell a lot about the social, economic, political and intellectual changes that took place in those eras. 校園發展處處長林泗維先生 Mr. Lim See-wai David, Director of Campus Development 下期預告 Coming

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