Lothar Ledderose is senior professor at the Institute of East Asian Art History at Heidelberg University. An internationally renowned scholar of Chinese art and calligraphy, he has curated numerous exhibitions on Asian art, including Treasures from the Forbidden City (Berlin, Vienna 1985), The Terracotta Army (Dortmund 1991), Japan and Europe (Berlin 1993), and an exhibition of Chinese painting of the Ming and Qing dynasties (Baden-Baden 1985). His books include Mi Fu and the Classical Tradition of Chinese Calligraphy (Princeton).
Winner of the 2002 Joseph Levenson Book Prize for pre-1999 China A truly unique book to clarify the mind about what Chinese art is now and what it was. * Choice * [A] stimulating and provocative overview of the theme of creativity in Chinese art . . . This may be a book with a large and ambitious thesis, but it is also one very firmly grounded in specifics . . . illustrated with a richness and aptness which is rarely seen today . . . The clarity of exposition and the liveliness of the language makes each of the eight linked essays a pleasure to read on its own . . . The work deserves a wide readership. ---Craig Clunas, Burlington Magazine While the idea that traditional China can be defined by its production processes is not entirely new, only with Lothar Ledderose's Ten Thousand Things has that argument been made comprehensively, and in terms that fully engage the social and art historian . . . An excellent resource for the social and art history of China. ---James A. Flath, Pacific Affairs Ledderose's book, although written to be accessible to a nonspecialist reader, should have an equally impressive impact on scholars. . . . After reading it, one cannot but be excited about the future direction and possibilities of Chinese art history. ---Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt, Journal of Asian Studies