Page 7 - Beyond Compare Christie's Hong Kong RU WARE .pdf

Su Shi (1037–1101), Wood and Rock (detail)
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his contemporaries did. In a similar spirit, as Su Shi explored the The Chinese works of art in the sale show us the material culture
expressive potential of a single, strangely shaped stone in Wood and with which Su Shi would have been familiar and which helped
Rock, so Zhan Wang’s rocks capture the artist’s evocation of our shape his aesthetics as a literati. He was known to be a consummate
own contemporary world through a natural form but one created qin player, and composed numerous poems and a treatise on qin,
from modern silvery stainless steel. which greatly influenced players of subsequent generations. The
music produced by this most Confucian of musical instrument,
Su Shi famously stated “If anyone discusses painting in terms of of which there is a fine example in the current sale, emphasizes
formal likeness, his understanding is close to that of a child.” He the quality of pingdan (the regular and the plain), which is also a
and many other scholar-artists during the Song Dynasty believed central tenet of Su Shi’s concept of poetry. He once said “pingdan
that the most important quality of a great artist was their ability to is the ultimate form of opulence”. The objects in the current
express their individual character and soul in their art, an opinion sale echo this ethos, seeking to convey depth and complexity in
shared by the Expressionist movements of the 20th century. Zhou simple forms, and spurning excessive decoration. One of the best
Chunya’s Tree Series depicts an entwined tree and stone that grows examples of this idea is the Ru ware bowl. Deceptively simple
upward like a plume of smoke, executed in bold strokes that and plain, its perfect form, velvety glaze and mesmerising sky-
encapsulate the artist’s energy and vision. Just as Su Shi’s stone blue colour earned this group of wares an unrivalled place in
and tree express the very raw feelings of the artist, Zhou Chunya’s Chinese history, not unlike Su Shi himself. Fascinatingly, Su Shi
work also reveals the psychology of the artist during the moment was once assigned to the post of Governor of Ruzhou, where Ru
of creation. wares were produced. He failed to reach his destination due to
ill-health but his younger brother, Su Zhe, later took the post and
Monumental landscape painting is another genre that owes its Su Shi was once able to visit him in Ruzhou. Su Shi asked for this
roots to the Song Dynasty. Zao Wou-Ki’s abstract paintings pay to be his final resting place so that he could always be close to his
tribute to this tradition, adroitly balancing light and shadow, beloved younger brother. When Su Shi composed his magnum
emptiness and mass to create an effect that invokes a depiction opus, Shuidiaogetou ˥ሜဂ᎘, he lamented the impermanence of
of towering mountains and enveloping mists. Zao’s energetic, life and separation from loved ones, which is perhaps a fitting note
textural brushwork, applied in oil on canvas, also looks back to on which to end, capturing the asceticism, fortitude, and also the
the drybrush technique that Su Shi used to paint Wood and Rock. durability of the Song literati aesthetic from then till now and on
Taiwanese artists Ran I-Ting and Yu Chengyao took a more into our future.
direct approach, creating works that refer back to traditional Song
Dynasty painting formats while simultaneously exploring new
ways of depicting a landscape. Their works are inspired by scenery Jonathan Stone
that has been empirically observed but are also enhanced by Co-Chairman, Asian Art
the imagination, building from the foundations Deputy Chairman, Asia
of a millennium old practice.

A Song Dynasty Lacquered Phoenix-Style Qin
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