新年快乐！Happy New Year!
To celebrate Year of Tiger, 虎年, I want to show a few Guo Hua 国画, by Zhang Daqian (张大千)'s brother Zhang Shanzi （张善子).
虎啸图
First glance at the painting, I think that it has a very full composition of a tiger in an atmospheric botanic scene. Closest to the viewer is a rock stained with moss. Behind it a slope full of wild grass and bamboo, tilting to the left in the wind. Amidst the bamboo is the tiger, facing the same direction as the floras. It is in mid-action, with its front right claw reaching out and its left talons lifted up. It grins and bears its teeth and tongue. Its eyes staring steadily at the painting’s left. Although I cannot see what it is threatening, I could hear the tiger’s fierce roar.
I think that in this painting Zhang Shanzi almost abstracts the form and manipulates the subject to create a sense of wild and majestic ferocity. He uses atmospheric perspective to create a sense of depth through decreasing the bamboos’ value as they move up the painting. The decreasing saturation of the tiger’s body also creates a sense of depth, pushing the tiger’s hind legs back while allowing the tiger’s face and front claws to come forward. The contrast between the loose and quick brushstrokes of the bamboo and the details of the tiger further emphasizes the subject. The placement of calligraphy on the top left corner of the painting creates a sense of balance.
Zhang Shanzi’s brother Zhang Daqian is also a highly accomplished artist. I was surprised to find that Zhang Daqian had a brother because he is much more well-known to me because he lived and created numerous paintings in my hometown, SuZhou, Jiangsu, particularly in the famous Wang Shi Yuan, also known as the Master of Nets Garden. Similarly, Zhang Daqian also has loose and unstrained brushstrokes contrasted with detailed depictions of the subject in his paintings. In this case, the lotus leaves are portrayed with wide, quick, and loose brushstrokes while the lotus flowers are carefully outlined in thin strokes.
Red Lotuses in Splashed Color by Zhang Daqian
Absent is almost all the attention to realistic depiction of forms. Instead, the two Chinese artists focus on creating artistic conception and sensation through unrestrained brushstrokes that create contrasts and yet balance in the composition.
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