現代　郭大維　紅荷圖　卷|Lotus

Guo Dawei

ca. 1960–65 · Horizontal panel; ink and color on paper · Asian Art

Guo Dawei dedicated this painting to Lin Yutang and his wife. It chronicles the life cycle of the lotus. At the center is a flower in full bloom. To the right, two buds have just emerged, while a seed pod dips down between two not yet unfurled leaves. To the left, a pale leaf, tattered and drooping, sets off bare or broken stems. Although Guo painted lotus often, compositions with a distinct temporal dimension like this one are rare. The distinctive pink color of the lotus—namely, "Western red" in Chinese—was first imported into China from Mexico in the early twentieth century and became widely used in traditional painting. The sinuous lotus stems cutting across the picture surface are calligraphic lines that create a shallow space through overlapping and contrasting tonality. This work demonstrates Guo's idea that the "space-consciousness" in Chinese painting, unlike that in western art, is "calligraphically created."

Artist

Guo Dawei

Date

ca. 1960–65

Medium

Horizontal panel; ink and color on paper

Culture

China

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

The Lin Yutang Family Collection, Gift of Richard M. Lai, Jill Lai Miller, and Larry C. Lai, in memory of Taiyi Lin Lai, 2005