Page 189 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

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199 Hsu Kuei (aeli*( IJOO-IJJO). Putt
Four Old Recluses in Cincinnati attributed to Ma Yuan, that his
<mi Rrmou Virw of Hills md Streams.
brushwork is bold and fiery, we will find the same quality even Detail of a handscroll. Ink on piper.
Southern Sung Dynasty.
more brilliantly displayed in Hsia Kuci's Pure and Remote View of
Hills and Streams, in the Palace Museum collection, Taipei. It is
hard to believe that this almost violently expressionistic work was
painted by a senior member of the Imperial Academy. Both he and
Ma Yuan used Li T'ang's axe stroke ts'un with telling effect, both
exploited brilliantly the contrast of black ink against a luminous
expanse of mist; all we can say is that of the two Ma Yuan gener-
ally seems the calmer, the more disciplined and precise, Hsia Kuei
the expressionist, who may in a fit of excitement seem to stab and
hack the silk with his brush. The brilliant virtuosity of his style
appealed strongly to the Ming painters of the Che School (see p.
206), and there is little doubt that the great majority of paintings
generally attributed to Hsia Kuei are in fact pastiches by Tai Chin
and his followers. For there is in the real Hsia Kuei a noble auster-
ity of conception, a terseness of statement, a brilliant counter-
point of wet and dry brush, a sparing and telling use of ts'un,
which his imitators failed altogether to capture.
The art of Hsia Kuei is not far removed, in the explosive energy of CH'AN PAINTING
its brushwork, from that of the Ch'an Buddhist masters, who at
this time were living not far from the capital in point of distance
their monasteries lay in the hills across the West Lake from
Hangchow—but who were in their lives and art far removed from
the court and all it stood for. Of these, the chief were Liang K'ai,