Net Sichuan Painting Environment

作品賞析

Chiu Kuo-Fong was in touch with traditional Chinese painting theory since his student days, and he drew much creative nourishment from it. At the same time, he approached the problem of making creative breakthroughs in traditional ink painting from different angles. His Net Sichuan Painting Environment uses as its subject the Wang River Anthology (Wangchuan ji), by the famous Tang Dynasty poet and painter Wang Wei (the “Wang” of Wang Wei is not the “Wang” of Wang River). Wang River Anthology recorded Wang Wei’s life in retirement at his Wang River estate. Wang Wei is known as the originator of landscape painting, but no original Wang Wei landscape painting has survived to the present. However, a vogue for copying Wang’s works has flourished since the Five Dynasties era, and it had a far-reaching impact on the development of Chinese painting. Chiu Kuo-Fong chose to use novel contemporary media to reinterpret this tradition—mainly color rollerball pens for outlining the mountains, trees, and rocks. He painted a landscape that is rich in terms of ancient style combined with contemporary innovation. It displays the creativity of bringing together ancient and modern.