近代 石魯 陝北夕照圖 軸|Sunset over the Plateaux of Southern Shaanxi

Shi Lu

dated 1972 · Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper · Asian Art

In this painting, a mule train moves slowly along a mountain path through a cornfield that appears brilliant red in the glow of sunset. During the Cultural Revolution, the color red symbolized new China and recalled the stirring lines of the revolutionary song: "The East is Red, the sun rises; China has produced a Chairman Mao." In Shi Lu's ominous landscape, however, it is the light of the setting sun that illuminates the fields, which appear like a brushfire about to consume the travelers. The mountains, like thick black smoke, offer no sanctuary from this conflagration.

Artist

Shi Lu

Date

dated 1972

Medium

Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper

Culture

China

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Gift of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, in memory of La Ferne Hatfield Ellsworth, 1986