Worlding China: Huo Mingzhi’s transnational dealership and global narrative of Chinese art in the early twentieth century

Abstract

This article studies the multifaceted interactions between a Beijing-based art dealer Huo Mingzhi (霍明志, 1880-?) and the Euro-American art market in the early twentieth century. By delving into the circulations of both Huo’s stock of Chinese antiquities and his transcultural narrative, this article provides a sketch of Huo’s strategies to reify Chinese cultural identities through Chinese antiquities in the international arena and a glimpse into the cultural environment of collecting Chinese art at the time. Despite being an influential tastemaker and expert in Chinese antiques during his day, Huo has rarely been studied either in art history or general historical research. By tracing Huo’s contact with institutions and individuals within the changing context of the early twentieth century art market, I explore Huo’s self-presentation as a mercenary dealer and also as a transcultural scholar, whose monographs and collections re-trained the eyes of a broad range of connoisseurs and amateurs for Chinese art, domestically and internationally. Studying Huo’s bilingual writings: Bowu Huizhi 博物彚志 and Preuves des antiquités de Chine 達古齋古证录, I argue that Huo not only contributed to the transmission of Chinese material culture and the acceptance of Chinese art abroad, but also conjured a strategic vision for cosmopolitan Chineseness.

Keywords:

• Huo Mingzhi
• cross-cultural collecting
• transnational dealership
• global art market
• Chinese art and antiquities
• cosmopolitan Chineseness

Acknowledgements

I sincerely thank my advisor Professor Chang Tan for her tremendous support and invaluable insights.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 I thank Susan Naquin for pointing me toward the primary materials of Huo’s French auction in 1932.

2 The nine inscriptions were written respectively by the military officers Du Shanfu and Ji Qingtai 纪清邰(1879–?), the artist Qi Baishi 齐白石 (1864–1957), the representative of National People’s Congress Xiao Fangjun 萧方骏 (1870–1960), the landscape painter Qi Kun 祁昆 (1901–1944), the professor of traditional Chinese painting at Peking Art Academy Xiao Xun 萧愻 (1883–1944), the literatus Guo Jiasheng 郭家声 (1871–1938), the specialist on seal carving Shou Shigong 寿石工 (1885–1950), and the official and calligrapher Zhang Chaoyong 张朝佣 (?-after 1920). For the whole inscriptions, see 霍明志 双松图 (xlysauc.com), accessed 23 June 2023.

3 Huo’s early years featured in ten black-and-white photos and brief texts in French and Chinese in his bilingual monograph, Preuves des antiquités de Chine. Susan Naquin has closely examined Huo’s biography and career trajectory in her (2015) article ‘Paul Houo 霍明志, A Dealer in Antiquities in Early Twentieth Century Peking’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Han Chen

Han Chen is a dual-title PhD candidate in Art History and Asian Studies at Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on the history of collecting and exhibiting Chinese art in the Euro-American context from the late nineteenth-century to the contemporary era.