(jazz music)
- [Kristen] We're in the Shanghai Museum
looking at a Gong Xian painting,
"Eight Views of a Landscape" dated to 1684
and its eight album leaves that have been mounted
into a handscroll format.
- [Beth] Gong Xian was an important artist
during this period in Nanjing,
a region in the Southern part of China.
In fact, Gong Xian one of the eight masters of Nanjing.
- [Kristen] Nanjing and also Yangzhou
where he also worked is right
on the banks of the Yangtze River.
So this is an area that's low waterways,
low lying, rolling hills.
And you see that in these paintings.
- [Beth] We're looking at one
in particular that seems densely painted
as though there were layer upon layer of ink.
But without that sense of watery ink that we see
- [Kristen] Yeah.
- [Beth] so often in Chinese painting.
- [Kristen] Gong Xian was known for a technique
that we refer to as jimo or piled ink.
- [Beth] So he would apply some ink, let it dry,
and then put another layer on top of that.
Perhaps let that dry, apply another layer
on top of that.
In the album leaf that we're looking at
there does seem to be a sense of atmosphere
and mysteriousness as though we can't read the space.
- [Kristen] This is perhaps the foot
of a mountain and we see thatched huts.
There's one that's perched right
in between the two precipices of a hill.
And there's a waterfall that drips down behind it
and there's a bridge, but there's no evidence of a human.
- [Beth] So often in Chinese painting, we have a figure
and that figure is a stand in for us
as we imagine ourselves in the landscape,
but here we don't have that opportunity.
- [Kristen] And you can see contour lines
shaping the rocks.
They define this bank where the rocks meet the water
and where that then meets the bridge.
And you can envision this path
to the thatched huts
that are just these little waterside pavilions.
- [Beth] We get a sense of the hand of the artist.
We can feel the way that he's pulled the brush down
in some places, across in others,
diagonally in some places,
longer, more linear strokes to describe the trees
that carry that hut in the background.
But I'm also struck by the way that the river is represented
by that negative space, by the paper itself.
- [Kristen] And there's a wash of pink and blue
on the huts.
It's subdued.
That gives this melancholy atmosphere.
- [Beth] The artist lived at a transitional moment
in history and often for artists that was difficult.
These artists would be employed by the court.
If there was a change
in the political situation, which there was,
then all of a sudden an artist could find himself unemployed
or in a very difficult political position.
- [Kristen] Gong Xian had hoped to have an imperial career.
Those hopes were dashed
at a young age when the Ming Dynasty fell
to the Manchu Qing Dynasty.
Like many other artists
he was drawn to landscape painting.
Gong Xian went into reclusion
in this area of Nanjing and Yangzhou
where it was a hotbed of loyalists.
- [Beth] So when you say loyalists,
you mean people who are loyal to the Ming court
- [Kristen] Exactly.
- [Beth] as opposed to the new Qing dynasty.
- [Kristen] Landscape painting was a way
that they were able to engage that sense of dissent.
- [Beth] I'm not going to paint
for the new foreign rulers of China.
- [Kristen] Exactly.
- [Beth] But in fact, I'm going to turn to nature
as artists had done in previous moments in Chinese history.
Let's look at another one that is especially intriguing
because of the amount of empty space.
We have in this particular album leaf, the land
the marshy bank of the river on the bottom,
another marsh across,
and this wide area of paper
that stands for the river.
- [Kristen] And there's an intense amount of ink
that has been lavished upon these three trees
in the foreground
in contrast with a completely white river
right behind them.
And then little fishing boats up at the top
of the composition.
- [Beth] So, although we have no human figures here
we have a sense of human presence.
- [Kristen] And a notion of exile,
this desire to be away from everything
and the complete desolation of that.
- [Beth] Here in Nanjing,
we have an important commercial center
with a lot of wealthy merchants.
These are the new patrons for art at the end of the Ming
and during the beginning of the Qing Dynasties.
- [Kristen] Gong Xian was exceptionally lucky.
He was able to find a residency
and was able act as a tutor to a wealthy family in Nanjing,
which allowed him to see more paintings
and allowed him the time to paint.
We have lots of poetry from him, writings and descriptions.
He's written some theories also
about the teaching of landscape and of art history.
- [Beth] Being an artist working
for a family would be better
than being an artist working on the open market.
Someone who just works and sells their art
for a living instead
of having a more personal connection
to what you make. - [Kristen] Exactly.
And still feeling that connection
to that notion of being a literati,
somebody who is creating art for art's sake.
(jazz music)