71 Chang Shuhong (1904-1994)
Thunder Throughout the Land
1939
Oil on canvas
86 x 63 cm
Chinese National Art Gallery, Beijing
Upon his return to China from France in 1936 Chang Shuhong assumed a post
at the Beiping National Art Academy. War broke out the following year and
all colleges were evacuated to China's interior. Thunder Throughout the
Land, painted two years after the invasion, depicts in bright colors
the small pleasures of daily life, including a blooming cactus, cherries,
a drink, a foreign-language newspaper, a doll, and through the roughly framed
window, a view of distant mountains. The cheerful domestic elements are
made fragile and transitory by the work's ominous title and by the temporary
look of the simple brick room in which they are placed.