Browsing by Subject "Chinese art and architecture"

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Open Access
China in Denmark the transmission of Chinese art and architecture from the view of Jørn Utzon’s Danish socio-cultural background
(SINTEF Academic Press, 2017) Chen-Yu, C.; Goad, P.; Myers, P.
Danish architect Jørn Utzon’s lifetime obsession with Chinese art and architecture is well known. However, why Utzon was interested in China and how he perceived Chinese art and architecture were not clearly explained in the previous studies. To answer the above questions with a better understanding of Utzon and his Danish socio-cultural background, the authors examines the experiences of the young Utzon and his connection with varied ideas and artefacts associated with China. The authors argue that the path leading to Utzon’s reception of Chinese art and architecture can be traced back to the intermittent three-hundred-year connection between China and Denmark generally, and the legacy of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in particular. Together, these represent an amalgamation that assimilated diverse aspects of China taken by different people before and during Utzon’s early career. This further provided Utzon with the impetus to construct his own understanding of Chinese art and architecture with his pivotal study trip to China in 1958. Thus, China could serve as both Utzon’s aesthetic inspiration and confirmation for his architectural works.
Open Access
My Country and My People and Sydney Opera House: the missing link
(Higher Education Press Limited Company, 2019) Chiu, Chen-Yu; Goad, Philip; Myers, Peter; Kılınçer, Nur Yıldız
It is known that Jørn Utzon (1918–2008), the principal architect for the Sydney Opera House project (1957–66), had a lifetime obsession for Chinese art and architecture. However, previous studies did not explore the relationship between Utzon and his venerated Chinese writer Lin Yutang (1895–1976). How Utzon represented the ideas and ideals he received from Lin Yutang׳s conceptualization of Chinese art and architecture in My Country and My People (1935) has not been systematically documented. To this end, this article examines the role of Lin Yutang׳s work in Utzon׳s architectural career generally and the architect׳s Sydney Opera House design in particular. It argues that My Country and My People nurtured young Utzon׳s own architectural philosophy, as reflected in his early manifestoes and design projects. Eventually, Lin Yutang׳s Chinese aesthetics encapsulated in calligraphy, painting and architecture helped Utzon to initiate, articulate and further communicate the design principles of his Sydney Opera House, as well as several other important architectural works before and after. Although Utzon never fully realized his Opera House due to forced resignation in 1966, the inspiration from Lin Yutang vividly remains in Utzon׳s yet to be finished masterpiece.