Sunday, August 2, 2015

Breaking rules 4: 八大山人 Bada Shanren





八大山人 简笔写意花鸟画

https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-sg/%E5%85%AB%E5%A4%A7%E5%B1%B1%E4%BA%BA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bada_Shanren

Bada Shanren (1626—1705) was a Chinese painter with one of the most fundamental impact on modern day Chinese ink painting and art. His noble background and recluse lifestyle is quite interesting, but putting that aside, let's consider his art and how he broke rules.

Differing from the classical and precise paintings that's more typical of traditional Chinese ink painting, Bada Shanren's simplified and cartoon-like animals embody a lot of character and symbolism, and brings them from just being 2-D representational depictions to becoming conceptual symbolic art in our world.

To me, I find the almost careless expressions worn on the visages of the characters and the carelessness expressed in the brush strokes particularly noteworthy.

21 11 3.JPG

Recently viewed a lecture discussing his art - he said that BadaShanren didn't used to be exceptionally skilled in his drawings - so that's quite encouraging.