James Cahill And The History Of Chinese Painting

James Cahill, as western researcher for Chinese paintings, still insisted in constructing the History of Chinese Painting based on style analysis, when he faced several of problems caused in the process of development. In America, during his tenure at Art History Department of Berkeley University, he advocates a series of “visual propositions”, which affected by the researchers like Baxandall etc. who advocated practical methods of The Social History of Art. In the face of differences between the two cultures, he attempted to change prejudice and discrimination from western country on Chinese art, and established a new research paradigm based on the development of western art and western Sinology.For a new context on the development of Chinese painting, the understanding pattern to Chinese painting from James Cahill is worthy of reference to us. As a foreigner in western art history background, he made a comprehensive outline from the images, content, the meaning of the painting and social environment. In addition, he attempted to change the doubt and prejudice in Chinese painting, which break the male collection, taste the arbitrary literati dominated. Despite some Chinese scholars pointed that his research is not consistent with the internal logic of Chinese painting, but Professor Cahill, as the most prolific, the most influential and controversial writer, and as the Western authority of the painting Chinese recognized by western academic community, fully established style analysis to enrich our traditional way to the history of Chinese painting, also changed the fixed mode to traditional painting.Just as Silbergeld said, Cahill is standing at the position of "cultural relativism" to discuss Chinese painting, which means to study the traditional culture based on respecting the tradition itself. For his systemic research, and with a "global art" perspective, Cahill criticized the western mainstream art historians who placed Chinese painting into illusionism categories. Under the new context of Western value, Cahill strongly critiqued those subjective and disorder assertions in the history of Chinese art. Not only Cahill emphasized the importance of Art history, but also he insisted in stylistic as the method to judge and solve various problems. In this case, he proposed a lot of ‘powerful’ viewpoints, as a result, we have to confront and rethink these historical deposition and drawbacks.