Tokyo National Museum’s show on Chinese artist Yan Zhenqing ranks 15th in our latest visitor attendance survey despite contentious loan from Taipei museum

The Art Newspaper
Date: 2nd April 2020
By: Emily Sharpe

Exhibitions at the Tokyo National Museum usually rank high in The Art Newspaper’s Art’s Most Popular visitor attendance survey and this year is no exception. But the Japanese museum’s show on the famed Tang Dynasty calligrapher Yan Zhenqing (709-785) was not without controversy.

Caught in the crossfire of rising political tensions between China and Taiwan was the loan of a Chinese masterpiece by the National Palace Museum (NPM) in Taipei to the Japanese museum for its 2019 on the Chinese artist. Critics in China and Taiwan objected to the loan of Requiem to My Nephew (759)—a calligraphic work that is especially valued because it is a draft of a lost piece and the only extant autograph work by Chinese artist. The only other time the Taipei museum had sent the piece overseas was back in 1997 for a show on treasures from its collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Some questioned whether it was safe to travel and the NPM responded by issuing a statement assuring the public that its specialists had deemed Requiem to be “stable and suitable for overseas exhibitions”.    [FULL  STORY]