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Symposium, exhibition honor Wen Fong, April 1-2
Posted March 23, 2006; 09:52 p.m.
"Bridges to Heaven," an international symposium on East Asian art in
honor of Professor Wen Fong's 45 years of teaching at Princeton, is
scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, April 1-2, in McCosh 50.
The event will run from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. each day and will
feature 15 paper presentations by several of Fong's students and
colleagues. A related festschrift including 40 papers will be published
following the event.
A scholar of Chinese art history, Fong was born in Shanghai and
received a classical Chinese education, including training as a painter
and calligrapher. In 1948 he came to Princeton, where he earned his
A.B. in 1951, joined the faculty as instructor after receiving his
M.F.A. in 1954 and earned his Ph.D. in 1958. The conference takes its
name from his landmark dissertation and the resultant publication "The
Lohans and a Bridge to Heaven."
Fong also served as faculty curator of Asian art at the University Art
Museum and as special consultant for Asian affairs and head of the
Asian art department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
City. He was named the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Art History in
1971 and transferred to emeritus status in 1999.
A related exhibition at the University Art Museum, "Worldly Guardians
of the Buddhist Law," features a Chinese handscroll painting acquired
in honor of Fong. The scroll, "Baimiao Lohans," was painted by
Ming-dynasty artist Ding Yunpeng in 1580 and is on view at the museum
through July 9. A lohan is an enlightened being entrusted by Buddha to
guard the law.
The symposium is sponsored by the Tang Center for East Asian Art, the
University Art Museum and the Department of Art and Archaeology. More
information is available online.