QIJIA

JADES OF THE QIJIA AND RELATED NORTHWESTERN CULTURES OF EARLY CHINA
ca. 2100-1600 BCE

THURSDAY MARCH 6th – SATURDAY MARCH 29th,  2008

Monday –Saturday 11am-5pm

Throckmorton Fine Art will be exhibiting precious jade artifacts from China’s Neolithic Qijia culture.  Artifacts from this culture date to ca. 2100-1600 BCE, and are found in China’s far northwest corner (mostly southern and eastern Gansu).  There are two prominent jade forms from the late Neolithic era in China: the perforated disk bi and the prismatic cylinder cong.  These forms emerged from central and southeastern coastal cultures, and were important for symbolic and ritual purposes.  Qijia artisans appropriated these forms, but frequently made them more monumental and employed more diverse jade and jade-like stones.  Also included in the exhibit are jade blades and other, smaller works.  The highly polished jades vary in color from a pure pale green-white to a “sugary” gray to a dark green.
Qijia jades are not well known here in the United States, but they were prominent in the collection of the art-loving emperor Qianlong (who ruled China in the eighteenth century).  His Qijia bi and cong are now in the imperial collection preserved in the National Palace Museum in Taipei (Taiwan).  Their abstract form and textural richness give Qijia jades an enduring aesthetic appeal, one that transcends cultures.
The early period of Chinese cultures is all-important—it is the formative era.  However, the period is not well understood, and its artifacts are not sufficiently appreciated.  Still, material such as Qijia jades is strong and evocative.  Qijia jades are unembellished; they are pure abstract form, fashioned out of raw jade and other rare minerals.  The exhibit presents an opportunity to rediscover these masterpieces.
The exhibit is accompanied by a catalogue featuring essays by two prominent scholars of early Chinese material culture, Gu Fang and Elizabeth Childs-Johnson.  The catalogue includes 29 color illustrations.  It is available for $35.00.