177 Wang Jiqian (C.C. Wang; b. 1907)
Landscape #880222 (A Thousand Peaks Compete in Splendor)
1988
handscroll, ink and color on paper
45.7 x 198.3 cm.
Private collection
Wang Jiqian, from a prominent Suzhou family, studied painting under two
Suzhou masters represented earlier in this exhibition, Gu Linshi and Wu
Hufan. From them he learned not only superb painting technique, but also
exemplary connoisseurship of ancient paintings. The style represented here
was developed after he moved to New York. In this period he explored various
innovative techniques to create accidental effects, which he then constructed
into what he called "mind landscapes." He sought to embrace the
spontaneity of nature by replacing texture strokes, the standard method
of building up a landscape, with random ink dabs from crumpled paper, thus
challenging himself by giving up an important tool in his technical vocabulary.
The spontaneity of the dabbed ink technique has obvious parallels with Abstract
Expressionism but similar techniques are described in ancient Chinese texts.
Its successful incorporation into a Chinese landscape painting make explicit
the theoretical parallels between modernism and Chinese literati painting.
Typical of C.C. Wang's work is the incorporation of these seemingly random
effects in a strongly structured landscape, so that execution and image
alike communicate the artist's vision.