Above: Chen Lee with three scrolls of his own paintings that he mounted and prepared on silk.
Featured: Chen Lee measuring silk for mounting Chinese paintings in a scroll format.
This week, I consulted with an expert conservator, Jing Gao, at the MFA in Boston on the best ways to keep my father’s traditional Chinese paintings safe and in the best condition. Did you know that Chinese paintings are done on a very thin rice paper that can be kept rolled up for years? Mounting the rice paper, or adhering it to another type of thicker paper (xuan paper) serves as a way to give greater structure and stability to the painting. Once they are mounted, they can be framed, or even made into scrolls.
Jing Gao, Cornelius Van Der Starr Conservator of Chinese Paintings at the MFA, once conserved and remounted old and new paintings for the Palace Museum in a studio that was formerly home to the Imperial Court ladies, inside the walls of the Forbidden City in Beijing, China. My father was a good friend of Mr. Gao, who was very happy to know that I am embarking on this project to preserve my father’s art for the next generation.
In 1990, my father was awarded a grant through the NEA to do a residency in Chinese painting and conservation at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. He was the only Chinese painter who was awarded the grant. That summer, I remember him packing up his Blue Volkswagen diesel station wagon and driving out to Ann Arbor on his own. We somehow survived that period of time without him. But the end result was that he deepened his knowledge and expertise in complex mounting and conservation, and had the opportunity to work on several of his own paintings with expert conservator Jing Gao. The skills that my father sharpened that summer got passed on to his students, including Stewart Joon Thomas, who will be helping us over the next few months mount my father’s Chinese paintings so they can get the restorative treatment that they deserve.
这周，我咨询了在波士顿MFA一位名叫高競（Jing Gao) 的中国画保护专家，探讨如何让我父亲的中国画安全完好地保存下来。你知道中国画是在一张很薄的宣纸上画的，可以卷起放好多年吗？把宣纸贴在纸上，或把它粘在另一种较厚的纸（宣纸）上，可以使这幅画有更好的结构和稳定性。一旦装裱好，就可以将它们框起来，甚至可以做成卷轴。
Jing Gao是MFA的中国画保管员，他曾经在故宫的工作室里为故宫博物院保存和重新装裱了旧画和新画，该工作室曾是中国北京紫禁城内宫廷贵妇的家。高先生是我父亲的好朋友，他很高兴得知我正在着手这个项目，以为下一代保存我父亲的艺术作品。
1990年，我父亲通过NEA获得了一笔拨款，在密歇根大学艺术博物馆(University of Michigan Museum of Art)从事中国画和保护方面的工作。他是唯一获此殊荣的中国画家。那年夏天，我记得他收拾好蓝色大众柴油旅行车，独自开车去了Ann Arbor。我们在没有他的情况下活了下来。但最终结果是他加深了自己的知识和专长，并有机会与专家Jing Gao一起创作了自己的几幅作品。我父亲那年夏天提高的技能传授给了他的学生，包括@worldcalligraphy，他将在接下来的几个月里帮助我们装裱父亲的中国画，以便它们得到应有的修复。