An exhibition of the supernatural in Chinese art makes for a perfect compliment to Halloween.
Unkillable "Halloween" movie super-villain Michael Myers was lucky to have never run into Chinese demon queller Zhong Kui. Same goes for Freddy Kruger and Jason Vorhees for that matter.
Legends describe Zhong Kui as an unrecognized scholarly talent who once appeared in a dream of Tang emperor Xuanzong (reigned 712-56) to kill a harassing demon. Relieved of the demon, the emperor had Zhong Kui's image painted after his dream, becoming the model for all later depictions: ugly face, bulging eyes, protruding nose, disheveled beard, heavy boots.
In popular belief, Zhong Kui is a powerful guard against evil spirits, particularly on New Year's Day and at the Double Fifth's Festival, on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, when his image is hung in households to prevent occupants from being met with diseases or other misfortunes.
Zhong Kui features in an exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art right in time spooky season, Demons, Ghosts, and Goblins in Chinese Art. The free exhibition includes scrolls, earthenware, sculptures, and inks on paper of fearsome demons and monsters in their role of either causing havoc on earth or acting as protectors against evil forces and harmful intruders.
"In traditional China, demons, ghosts, and goblins populate the Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist worlds," Clarissa von Spee, James and Donna Reid Curator of Chinese Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Interim Curator of Islamic Art, Chair of Asian Art, said. "We often see historic figures of these belief systems, such as Shakyamuni Buddha or the demon queller Zhong Kui, exert control and governance over those creatures, imposing order over chaos. We may ask each other, are they good or evil?"
Zhong Kui's likeness in the exhibition comes by way of a finger painting, his ugliness enhanced by the scratches, blotches, and ink dots achieved with the artist's split nails, fingertips, and palm used in place of a brush.
"Similar to the American Halloween, in China, supernatural creatures are often associated with death and intended to frighten. Many of those figures protect burial sites, but also sacred places from the intrusion of evil forces," von Spee said. "While traditional Chinese artists have as much imagination as young Americans who dress up for Halloween, the belief in supernatural spirits was considered superstitious in modern China and depictions of them were not celebrated or encouraged any longer."
Zhong Kui being a notable exception who remains popular today.
Also on view is a handscroll from a private collection that, fully unrolled, is over 32-feet-long. It has never previously been displayed in public. Paintings of the theme "Searching for Demons in Mount Guankou" are rarely seen and only a dozen are known to exist.
"It shows an army of 'good' demons in the service of a benevolent god in the guise of a civil official, charging through the woods and clearing the mountains and rivers from monster-creatures that were believed to have caused natural disasters and repeated floods and misery amongst the local people. This is an old story that has its historic and regional roots in the mountains of Guankou in Sichuan province, southwest China," von Spee explained. "The painting currently on display in Cleveland represents one of the story's earliest illustrations. This scroll, unrolled in its full length, is among the most entertaining and imaginative paintings in Chinese art history-it is absolutely worth a close look."
Ten album leaves from the museum's collection illustrating aspects of the same story are displayed alongside the scroll.
Demons, Ghosts, and Goblins in Chinese Art will remain on view through January 20, 2025.
Staying in the spectral mood, free docent led tours highlighting alleged hauntings at the museum are offered to the public regularly leading up to Halloween. Tickets are required. Eerie artworks from the permanent collection are also visited.
The holiday vibes continue on November 1 with "MIX: Supernatural," a ticketed Halloween dance party. Costumes are encouraged. Adult beverages and food will be served.
On November 2, the museum hosts a free visual artist showcase in its library featuring three local artists whose graphic art trends toward the creepy and macabre.
To further engage with the Chinese art exhibition, join von Spee and Ika Yi-Hsia Hsiao, Conservator of Asian Paintings at CMA, on Wednesday, November 20, for a discussion of the conservation efforts that took place to facilitate the show followed by a reception. The event is free, but a reservation is required.