Page 36 - Christie's Fine Chinese Paintings May 27, 2019 Hong Kong

The Superlative Brush

Notes on Painting and Calligraphy by Bada Shanren
from the Chokaido Collection

Bada Shanren’s painting and calligraphy are highly esteemed in Japan and collection is exemplary. This May, Christie’s Hong Kong is privilidged to
have long been assiduously sought out by Japanese collectors. Japan’s affinity offer eight pieces from the Chokaido collection, three of which are works by
with this giant of Chinese painting is intimately connected with two Bada Shanren. These three pieces are: Poems in Running Script, an album of 22
factors. First, the eastward transmission of Chan Buddhism from China to leaves in ink on paper, Heron and Lotus, a hanging scroll in ink on paper, and
Japan (where it came to be known as Zen in Japanese), a transmission which a rare example of Bada’s landscape painting in ink and colour on satin. All
began a millennium ago. Second, the development of ink painting in Japan, three are widely published, variously included in Teijiro Yamamoto’s Index of
which was informed by this religious transmission. Painting and Calligraphy in the Chokaido Collection (1932), François Cheng’s
Chu Ta: le Génie du Trait (1986), and Wang Fangyu, Richard M. Barnhart, and
During the Southern Song dynasty (1126-1279), the Linji and Caodong
Judith G. Smith’s Master of the Lotus Garden: The Art and Life of Bada Shanren
schools of Chan Buddhism (Rinzai and Soo Zen in Japanese) came to Japan
(1990). None of these works are dated. However, through stylistic analysis of
with the support and patronage of the Kamakura Shogunate (1192-1333). In
Bada Shanren’s signatures on each work, we can confidently determine they
the latter-half of the thirteenth century, paintings by the Chan Linji monk
Muxi Fachang (fl. 13th century) were brought to Japan by the Japanese were all made when he was between 70 and 80 years of age (1695-1705).
monk Enni Ben’en (1202-1280). Enni had travelled to China in 1235 to
In the calligraphy of Poems in Running Script Bada’s brush tip is centred and
study with Chan abbot Wuzhun Shifan (1178-1249), who was also Muxi’s
concealed. Its power is contained and internalised within its vigorous turns,
master. Muxi’s works became canonical models for the later development
never spilling out beyond the prescribed movements of each stroke. In Wang
of Japanese painting, a whole genre of painting developed from the model
Fangyu’s estimation, this piece is among Bada’s most accomplished works
provided by his painting, known as ‘Muxi style’. Today, Muxi’s works are
Japanese National Treasures, and he is universally esteemed as a formative after seventy. Poems in Running Script was previously in the collections of
influence on Japanese painting. Shen Wu of Wuxi (1823-1887), and Zong Yuanhan (d. 1897) of Shangyuan
in Jiangsu. Their collector’s seals record the winding route through which
During the subsequent Muromachi period (1336-1573), the upper echelons the album eventually arrived in Japan, via the elite collections of China’s
of Japan’s elite, now the Ashikaga Shogunate, continued to patronise Zen Jiangnan region.
Buddhism. Zen was at the centre of the Ashikaga’s cultural project. Zen
thought and culture permeated all areas of Japanese life, inspiring the Thin stems and broad leaves fill the upper right of Heron and Lotus. The
emergence of aesthetic concepts centred on brevity, elegant simplicity, and heron stands upon a rock in the lower left, craning its neck upward as if
tranquil sincerity. In the 17th century, the Chan teachings and ink paintings its attention has been captured by something overhead. The composition is
of the Huangbo school (Obaku in Japanese), arrived in Japan from South eloquently balanced between these two diagonally opposing corners, while
Eastern China. The Obaku monks and their artworks had substantial impact the central space of the painting is a void of unmarked paper. Through
on Zen’s religious doctrines and on Japanese ink painting, reinvigorating Bada’s masterful use of brush and ink, the stems of the lotus appear rounded,
traditions which were by then already long-established. and the leaves look luscious. The terse application of dry ink to the rock
accentuates the saturation of the heron’s body. Bada’s apparent simplicity
In a parallel Chinese development to the historic accomplishments of
belies the complexity of his work, which addresses something beyond the
Japanese Zen and Japanese ink painting, the works of Bada Shanren, a
immediately visible forms within the painting.
disciple of the 38th generation Caodong master Hongmin (1606-1672/3),
have met with enduring acclaim. Originating in Qing dynasty Jiangxi,
The colours of Bada’s Landscape are fresh and vibrant, and use of colour on
his works spread through commercial and social networks. Bada became
satin is exceptionally rare among his extant oeuvre. The composition moves
highly esteemed in Anhui, Yangzhou, Nanjing and beyond, celebrated by
from a deep distance in the upper register, to a near foreground in the lower
such notable luminaries as Shi Tao (1642-1707), Cheng Jinge (fl. ca. mid
section. Misty valleys and peaks are executed in delicate washes. The snaking
17th to early 18th c.), Huang Siyan (b. 1661), and Zheng Banqiao (1693-
spine of visible topography winds from left to right, starting from a copse of
1765). That Bada impacted late Qing and early Republican artists such as
trees by a river at the base of the composition. There is no visible rendering
Wu Changshuo (1844-1927) and Qi Baishi (1863-1957), and that his works
then came to be avidly sought after by Japanese collectors, is an irrefutable of flowing water, or of human activity. These are implied in the restraint of
fact. Though Bada never set foot outside of Jiangxi province, toward the end Bada’s work. The brush work is sparse, subtle and abbreviated, allowing the
of his life he was widely celebrated as a painter and calligrapher. His works hills and trees to emerge from textured dots and light colour-washes.
were highly prized by his contemporaries, and continued to be sought after
Bada Sharen’s Poems in Running Script, Heron and Lotus, and Landscape
by collectors in China and internationally through the late Qing and early
encompass a diverse range of subjects and materials. While each of them
Republican period.
deploys the brush to a different expressive end, they are all born of a creative
Of the various collections of Bada Shanren’s works in Japan, the Chokaido process rooted in the profound introspection of Chan and Zen Buddhism.
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