Page 83 - japanese and korean art Utterberg Collection Christie's March 22 2022
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SESSHU SCHOOL (17TH CENTURY)
Egrets in a Marsh
Pair of six-panel screens; ink and slight color on paper
58 x 140Ω in. (147.3 x 356.9 cm.) each (2)
$40,000-60,000
A river landscape with herons in spring and autumn distills
the power and poetry of seventeenth-century ink painting.
Birds and foliage are close to the foreground along the river
bank, dramatically silhouetted against a misty void. Grey
ink wash sets off the white herons. Birds are flying, crying,
eating and sleeping; those on the ground are balanced by
those in the air. There is an impression of lively vitality
conveyed by the interaction of the twenty-one birds. The
abstraction and emotional appeal of the screens shown here
derives from the repertory of Zen paintings of waterfowl and
a Japanese taste for simplification.
