Power and Virtue: The Horses in Chinese Art by Robert E. Harrist Jr. & Virginia Bower
4to. pp. 136. colour & b/w illustrations. bibliography. paperback (fine condition). New York: China Institute, 1997.
Exhibition catalogue.
ISBN-10: 0965427013 / ISBN-13: 9780965427012
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Catalog of the first exhibition to consider the remarkable endurance and symbolic resonance of the horse in Chinese art, history, and philosophy. It features almost 30 works, including 13 sculptures from the Han-Tang dynasties, and hand scrolls, hanging scrolls, and album leaves from the Tang-Qing dynasties. By examining the tremendous range of equine depictions in Chinese art, it reveals the horse as an exceptionally fluid and potent means for the continual construction and reconstruction of Chinese identity, a figure of enduring fascination and value given its usefulness-both real and symbolic-to humankind.