ANN MASSING
Ann studied Art History and Fine Art at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana and at Strasbourg University in France, then painting restoration at the Institute für Technologie der Malerei, Staatliche Akademie der bildenden Künst, Stuttgart, Germany. She taught painting restoration at the Hamilton Kerr Institute, University of Cambridge from 1978 until 2007 where she was Assistant to the Director; she published on the history of Western painting techniques including Painting Restoration Before ‘La Restauration’: The Origins of the Profession in France, Harvey Miller 2012.
After a trip to China in 1986 she began learning Chinese Brush Painting and has continued to develop her skills in this tradition. After retiring from her profession as painting restorer, she took up printmaking as well.
Drawing on Eastern and Western practices, she has evolved her own style combining both aesthetic traditions. Ann’s artworks are often painted or printed onto handmade oriental papers and signed in the East Asian manner with red vermilion paste, often using an antique carved seal with her artist’s name Majingju.
She exhibits with the East Asian painting group Song Lin Zhai, among other, and since 2014 she has participated regularly in Cambridge Open Studios and the biannual exhibitions organized by the Cambridge Drawing Society.
BOOKS AND CONTRIBUTIONS
A Journey Eastwards: Reflections on Chinese Ink and Watercolour Paintings
An Anthology of Ann’s work. She has chosen a selection of paintings from the 1980s to the present day. Her work is based on the natural world. Even when nearing abstraction, the original motif can still be observed to be of this world. Within the boundaries set by the natural materials of Chinese painting, she found the range of technical possibilities to be enormous. And when she ventured into new domains, such as printmaking, the lessons she has learned by studying the traditional Chinese masters find their place in her work. She signs her prints with her seal as a reminder to herself and to others that the harmonious qualities of paintings by the old masters of traditional Chinese painting are worth striving for.
West Meets East in East Asian Brush Paintings
Ann Massing's new book, West Meets East in East Asian Brush Paintings, combines decades of experience in restoration to provide a unique and beautiful insight into the world of East Asian art.
Please note that the book is bilingual, and it is printed in both English and French.
After having studied art history and fine art at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA, and then at Strasbourg University in France, the author trained as a painting restorer at the Institut für Technologie der Malerei in Stuttgart, Germany, becoming Diplom Restorator in 1978. She was Assistant to the Director at the Hamilton Kerr Institute, University of Cambridge from 1978 to 2007 where she was a painting restorer and taught painting restoration. She edited several books for the Hamilton Kerr Institute mainly on the history of European painting materials and techniques and wrote her own book on the restoration of paintings in France in the eighteenth century before she began developing her own artistic interests.
