Another Master In Chinese Traditional Painting

[badatpool]

A masterpiece always makes people feel uncertain, a kind of mysterious emotion. Yes, if you read it closer and more carefully, you will sense what we call 诡谲. Sometimes, this is one of the standards of judging the quality of a work...

Chen hong shou 陈洪绶has this quality. I first heard his name because of his woodcut "Qu Zi Xing Yin Tu (Qu yuan walked while chanting in a low voice)《屈子行吟图》". Qu yuan 屈原 is a famous patriot in China’s history (some scholars think that he was a gay, for his beautiful poems presented to his king…oh, forget it, it’s not important) and most Chinese people think his death was the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, because kind people threw zongzi粽子 stop the fish eating him after he drowning himself for his helpless country and useless king. By the way, the longest lyric of ancient times, called Li Sao离骚, was written by Qu yuan

Lots of painters have depicted Qu yuan through the ages and Chen hong shou was one of them. It seems nobody’s work can compare with his, even though he created it when he was only 19. He just used the direction, strength and especially the spacing of the lines to make this unhappy patriot even more vivid. So it proved that he had two kinds of talents at least, one is painting, another is empathy and I think the latter is the real gift.

By convention, let’s talk about this artist from beginning. Chen hong shou was a painter of Ming dynasty, whose style name 字was Zhanghou章侯, Laolian老莲 and Huichi悔迟 by sobriquets 号(In dynastic times naming was far more complex, and occasionally traces of the older system are still used. The style name I mentioned above was taken at marriage or coming of age. And sobriquets were usually assumed by the person later in life, although sometimes conferred by friends. One can think of it as a rather formal nickname. For example, my sobriquets are beauty, intelligence and so on:mrgreen: ). Chen hong shou painted in human figures, landscapes, flower-and-bird (I love them all, it’s not easy for me). He created a style that is uniquely his own, particularly in his images of people, trees and hills. I do really enjoy them(Chinese conventional artist didn’t use to look at nature with fresh eyes but were simply concocting pictures out of their head→I love Chinese tradition!).. As to art, searching for a different language is the key to success. It’s not that difficult to find something different if you’re different naturally (Its also a quality), anyway, don’t pretend to be special or you’ll be a joke. It’s a common phenomenon in artistic creation though…

Chen hong shou would rather be an officer to devote himself to his country than being a painter. He once was a Buddhist monk after the Qing invasion and used to get drunk then flirted with the girls on the street during that period of time. He preferred painting prostitutes to ladies of rich family (a little like Lautrec?) and he even jumped into the river to avoid painting for snobbish officers. And he foresaw his own death then convened his family members to send him off by praying to Buddha…

If you’re really interested in Chinese painting, don’t ignore him (Many people did so though). In my view, good stuff has nothing to do with era. In respect of art, I would rather appreciate the art itself than the background or something behind it.