Page 31 - The Pioneers, November 26, 2016 Hong Kong
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Wu Daozi, Eighty seven celestial people (detail), Osaka art museum, Osaka, Japan
吳道子《天王送子圖卷》(局部) 日本大阪大阪市立美術館
elements of Eastern and Western painting. Sanyu's known for images of Buddha with drapery painted in
rhythmic brushwork produced flowing, graceful a 'wet' style. Holding his breath in concentration, he
lines, and it was the practiced economy with produced firm, fine lines with a pointed brush that
which he handled his brush that gave his work its made the garments appear to cling wetly to the bodies,
modern feel. Even in the oil medium, he emphasizes giving them a kind of fresh beauty like lotuses rising
a purity of line, through which he conveys the above the water. Sanyu was an inheritor of the same
essence of his subjects and their expression. Eastern painting tradition which, through the use of
The essential spirit of Eastern painting is in fact line, expresses so much. He favored the use of easily
found in its use of line. Tang Dynasty painter Wu worked pigments, and when painting a profusion of
Daozi was famous for flowing lines described as 'Wu's chrysanthemum stems, as here, used a heavily loaded
sash blowing in the wind.' His line drawings featured brush, painting slowly in a deliberately rudimental style,
repeated, contoured lines and an expansive, romantic so that even his fine, thin lines acquired softness and
approach; variations in his lines create the impression supple charm. The viewer's eye, traveling in a leisurely
of his subjects' clothing floating on the wind. Cao way along the stems to the leaves, has time to take in
Zhongda, of the Northern Qi Dynasty during the Wei, and appreciate their graceful poise. In Chrysanthemums
Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties period, was in a Glass Vase, as Sanyu's brushed lines wind and
extend along the spreading stems and leaves, he creates
Claude Monet, Londres, Le parlement, Reflets sur la Tamise, effects that seem to leave the flowers eternally poised
1905, Musee Marmottan Monet, Paris, France in space and passing time, with stems that seem to
克 勞 德 莫內《泰 晤 士 河 反 照 的 國 會 大 廈》19 0 5 年 作 法 國 巴 黎 瑪 摩 丹 美 術 館 收 藏 continue growing effortlessly beyond the blooms. In
the floral still lifes of the Song Dynasty, painting from
life was emphasized, and for the philosophers of the
rationalist neo-Confucian school popular at the time,
observing the 'living' aspect of all things was the highest
pursuit. Sanyu's Chrysanthemums in a Glass Vase does
indeed possess this 'living' character, as the artist
imbues his modernist still life with the spirit of Song
Dynasty painting for a lively work of lasting appeal.
The mid-20th century Paris in which Sanyu found
himself was one of great artistic change and
development, as a host of different schools and
movements swept through the city. Sanyu himself
became a school of one, preferring not to discuss his
painting with others but to let viewers themselves
discover his unique visual vocabulary in direct
encounters with his work. Here, space unfolds as two
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