Bada Shanren 400th Anniversary Exhibition Draws 400,000 Visitors in Nanchang

Key facts

• So Lofty the Spirit, So Eternal the Ink opened on 10 July and runs until 10 October at the Jiangxi Provincial Museum and the Bada Shanren Memorial Hall in Nanchang
• The exhibition had attracted around 400,000 visitors across the two venues as of 15 September, per a Bada Shanren Memorial Hall spokesperson
• It is the largest exhibition ever devoted to Bada Shanren, bringing together 129 paintings and calligraphic works from 22 museums and cultural institutions across China
• Bada Shanren, also known as Zhu Da, lived from 1626 to 1705 and was born into the Ming imperial family before the dynasty fell in 1644
• Highlights include Self-portrait of Bada Shanren, the only widely accepted portrait of the artist, and the nearly 20m-long handscroll Flowers Along the River (Heshang Hua Tu)
• Merchandise such as plush toys inspired by the artist's eye-rolling birds generated around RMB 400,000 ($59,000) in sales during the exhibition's first 20 days
• The Shanghai Museum will stage a major exhibition on the artist this December, including important loans from the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, DC
• Preparations for the Nanchang show took nearly three years, according to Deng Feng, a research fellow at NAMOC and a curatorial consultant to the exhibition