30 septembre 2007
Nouvelles plantes et espèces animales découvertes au Vietnam
Anoectochilus annamenis, a new orchid species found in Vietnam.
A new snake species, called white-lipped keelback, discovered in Vietnam.
Gastrodia theana, a very rare leafless orchid discovered in Vietnam.
A new species of skipper from the genus Zela discovered in Vietnam.
Saccolabiopsis viridiflora was named after its white to light green colored flowers.
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Scientists have discovered 11 new species of plants and animals in Vietnam, including a snake, two butterflies and five orchid varieties, the World Wildlife Fund said Wednesday.
The new species were found in a remote region known as the "Green Corridor" in Thua Thien Hue province in central Vietnam, the international conservation group said.
The new snake species, the white-lipped keelback, generally lives near streams and eats frogs and other small animals, the WWF said. It has a yellow-white stripe along its head, red dots on its body and can grow to more than 30 inches long.
The new butterfly species are among eight discovered in Thua Thien Hue since 1996. One is a "skipper," a butterfly that flies in a quick, darting motion.
Three of the new orchid species are leafless, which is unusual for orchids, the WWF said. The other new plant species include one in the aspidistra family, which produces a black flower and can subsist in low light, and an arum, which produces yellow flowers surrounded by funnel-shaped leaves. Lire la suite http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/09/27/vietnam.new.species.ap/index.html
29 septembre 2007
"2000 Years of Architectural Models from the Henan Museum" aux Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire de Bruxelles
Mansion with attics and watch tower. Polychrom terracotta - 175 x 168 x 76 cm, Later Han : 2nd century
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM.- The Royal Museums of Art and History present 2000 Years of Architectural Models from the Henan Museum. Looking to fill in a much less known and appreciated aspect of Chinese art – more particularly the country’s diverse architecture – the Royal Museums of Art and History are presenting the exhibition ‘Under the Chinese Roof’ in close co-operation with China’s Henan Museum. It is the first time a large selection of this museum’s treasures – small scale models testifying 2,000 years of daily life and architecture – are put on display in the West.
Throughout its long course, Chinese civilization has produced absolutely stunning works of art, all witness to virtuoso craftsmanship, artistic inspiration and material richness. Masterpieces of terracotta, porcelain, jade, bronze and silk from the ‘Middle Empire’ are to be found among the treasures of countless museums throughout the world. The Henan Museum possesses a wealth of architectural models found in the graves of prominent Chinese and dating from the second century B.C. to the eighteenth century A.D. The purpose of many of these constructions in miniature was to draw back the souls of the deceased once they had returned from their sojourn in the hereafter. The large selection of models is supplemented with real architectural fragments.
Several of the models are quite spectacular in size, some of them being nearly two metres high and comprising several elements. Their variety reflects many different types of building: residential complexes, fortified farms, towers, repositories, theatres, pagodas and summer-houses, as well as modest dwellings, kitchens, mills, and even wells, pigsties and latrines. In many instances, they are enlivened by figurines of humans and animals. The materials generally employed are terracotta and stoneware, glazed or painted.
By way of linking the 200 architectural models and fragments, the exhibition also includes a slide –show of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century buildings, which was made specially for projection and which provides a picture of the inventiveness and charm of Chinese architecture. A special scenography has been devised for the exhibition with large scale display windows, screenings of existing buildings and interactive games for children. (by courtesy of www.Artdaily.org)
21 septembre 2007
Don de la tête de cheval de bronze par le Dr Stanley Ho
Dr. Stanley Ho with the Bronze. Credit: Virgile Simon Bertrand. © Sotheby's Images
HONG KONG.-Sotheby's Hong Kong is pleased to announce that Dr. Stanley Ho, Standing Committee Member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, has decided to donate the Bronze Horse Head of Haiyantang in the Yuanmingyuan (or Summer Palace) to China upon his purchase of the piece in a sale brokered by Sotheby’s for HK$69.1 million (£4.42 million, US$8.84 million). The Bronze was originally scheduled to be auctioned in Hong Kong in October, but given Dr. Ho’s good intentions to donate this rare and magnificent Chinese imperial piece to China, the Bronze was sold to Dr. Ho under an agreement with the consignor through Sotheby’s Hong Kong. The purchase has set a world record price for any Chinese Qing sculpture. 
Lire la suite http://www.artdaily.com/section/news/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=21764
Bronze Horse Head of Haiyantang in the Yuanmingyuan (or Summer Palace). © Sotheby's Images.
09 septembre 2007
"Silk Road to Clipper Ship: Trade, Changing Markets and East Asian Ceramics" au Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
Blue-and-White Ewer with Silver Fittings, China, early 15th century, Porcelain with underglaze blue painting
KALAMAZOO, MI.- A new exhibition at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts demonstrates the impact of the exchange of goods, people and ideas on Chinese potters, and their counterparts in Japan, over nearly two thousand years of history. Silk Road to Clipper Ship: Trade, Changing Markets and East Asian Ceramics opens Saturday, September 8 and continues through Sunday, November 25.
Throughout recorded history, the technical and material superiority of Chinese ceramics has made them prized commodities, within China and throughout the world. Many critics mistakenly believe that China’s magnificent ceramic tradition developed in splendid isolation, but foreign trade played a key role in shaping the history of this art form. The works in this exhibition illustrate three historical phases in East Asian ceramic production.
Exchanges along the Silk Road explores the exchange of ideas and goods between China and Iran and the Mediterranean on the overland route that came to be known as the Silk Road, from the first through the tenth centuries of the Common Era. The Silk Road trade impacted Chinese art through the introduction of new subjects to the artists’ repertoire, exposure to new materials – such as cobalt from Iran – and technical experimentation, especially in the development of new glaze effects. At the opposite end of the trade route, Rome and Persia eagerly sought out Chinese ceramics, which were more durable and beautiful than the pottery available locally.
Tea Wares and the Ceramics Trade within East Asia focuses on the beginnings of a certain type of black glaze and its lasting importance for tea bowls and other wares associated with the tea ceremony. The Chinese Song dynasty emperor Huizong (reigned 1100-1126) declared that black-glazed bowls were best for drinking tea, giving instant prominence to the thickly glazed black stonewares from southeastern China. Another individual who greatly influenced the history of tea wares was the Japanese tea master Sen no Rikyû (1522-1591), who advocated the use of simple materials and “found objects,” and is credited with nurturing the creation of Raku ware.
The largest section of the exhibition, Asian Porcelains for Foreign Markets, presents the vividly colored porcelains of Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1912) dynasty China and their Japanese counterparts. From the 14th century onward, Chinese potters mastered an extraordinary range of colors for ceramic glazes, from “chicken fat yellow” and “peachbloom” to “teadust” green, deep reds and all shades of blue. Blue-and-white wares were made possible when the Mongols reopened trade with Central Asia in the late 13th century and came to be cherished and imitated throughout the civilized world.
This exhibition is organized and circulated by the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA). Founded in 1946, UMMA owns collections of nearly 18,000 works of art in the Western, Asian and African traditions, including works by great masters and from the key schools and movements in these cultures. (by courtesy of www.Artdaily.org)