Mimi Gardner Gates presents Traces of the Brush: Chinese Arts of Calligraphy and Painting
Friday, July 28
7 pm
Mimi Gardner Gates will provide a dynamic introduction to Chinese painting and calligraphy, showing slides of masterworks throughout history. From designs on Neolithic pots to works by literati and individualists (notably Shihtao and Bada shanren), to a modern calligraphy entitled "single-stroke" Tiger, she will discuss the expressive potential of the Chinese brush and the intimate relationship between Chinese painting and calligraphy, the highest forms of expression in China.
Mimi Gardner Gates joined the Seattle Art Museum as Director in May 1994. She is a scholar of Asian Art with a strong interest in Chinese painting, ceramics and the history of ornament.
She received a B.A. degree from Stanford University in Asian history; an Honors Certificate in Chinese Language and Culture from the École Nationale des Langues Orientales Vivantes, Paris; an M.A. degree in Oriental and Chinese studies from the University of Iowa and a PhD. in Art History from Yale University.
She began her tenure at Yale University Art Gallery in 1975, serving in curatorial positions in the Asian art department through 1987 and as director from 1987 to early 1994. Under her direction, the Yale University Art Gallery dramatically expanded its collections and added a department of European and Contemporary art. She also created a conservation studio and embarked on an ambitious exhibition program.
At Yale, Gates helped organize numerous Chinese Art exhibitions, and contributed to several publications including Bones of Jade, Soul of Ice: The Flowering Plum in Chinese Art (1985), The Jade Studio, and at China Institute The Communion of Scholars: Chinese Art at Yale(1981). At the Seattle Art Museum she co-curated the exhibition and co-authored the publication entitled Stories of Porcelain, From China to Europe (2000) and worked with Seattle curator Jay Xu to organize the exhibition Ancient Sichuan: Treasures from a Lost Civilization (2001). In addition, she taught Chinese art history and museum studies at Yale and is presently affiliate faculty at the University of Washington.
Gates has served as president of the Association of Art Museum Directors, chaired the Federal Indemnity panel (1999 - 2002) at The National Endowment, and is a member of many professional organizations and advisory committees. In addition, she sits on the Board of the Downtown Seattle Association and the YWCA.
