The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Black-inked print of a circle with marbling. The marbling radiates in slices from a swirling central point, giving the illusion of movement.

Poetic Pattern of Song Ware

2016

Zeng Xiaojun

(Chinese, b. 1954)
China, Beijing
ink and color on paper
164.3 x 163.8 cm (64 11/16 x 64 1/2 in.)
Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift 2020.146
© Zeng Xiaojun
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Zeng Xiaojun graduated from the Central Academy of Arts and Design in Beijing in 1981, specializing in mural painting.

Description

Contemporary artist Zeng Xiaojun is known for depicting tree trunks and rocks in draftsman-like fashion in the traditional Chinese medium of ink and paper. Inspired by a small, 11th-century Song dynasty dish in the artist’s own collection, Poetic Pattern of Song Ware is unusual in subject matter. Fascinated by the dish’s contrasting black and beige clay marbling, Zeng made an ink drawing of a graphic, abstract design on a monumental scale. The rendering of the marbling in lobed sections creates a unique three-dimensional effect and rhythm, not seen in the small dish CMA 2020.187.
  • 2016
    Collection of the Artist
    2016
    (Eskenazi Ltd., London, United Kingdom, sold to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph P. Keithley)
    2016–2020
    Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    March 2, 2020–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Von Spee, Clarissa. "Chinese Ceramics and Works on Paper." In The Keithley Collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art, edited by Heather Lemonedes Brown, 194-229. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2022. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 228-229; Mentioned: p. 275
  • Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 11, 2022-January 8, 2023).
    Spotlight on a New Generation: Contemporary Chinese Artists. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 6-November 1, 2020).
    Recent Paintings by Zeng Xiaojun 曾小俊新作. Eskenazi Ltd., London, UK (October 5-November 25, 2016).
  • {{cite web|title=Poetic Pattern of Song Ware|url=false|author=Zeng Xiaojun|year=2016|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2020.146