Period:Unknown Production date:2007
Materials:paper
Technique:painted
Subjects:landscape seasons
Dimensions:Height: 132 centimetres (image) Height: 224 centimetres (mount inc. hanging cord) Width: 67 centimetres (image) Width: 95.50 centimetres (mount inc. rollers)
Description:
Hanging scroll; ink and colour on xuan paper. View of the Taroko Gorge (太魯閣) in Eastern Taiwan, in the height of autumn. The top of the steep gorge is bathed in bright white light that is cool and thin, distinctive of autumn’s short days. The brilliance of the light highlights the white colour of the rock that is a distinguishing feature of the geological formation of the Taroko Gorge. In contrast, the main body of the cliff is rendered in dusky hues coloured by azuriate and ink, describing stone faces too deep for the reach of the autumnal sun. Red trees (leaves coloured by cinnabar) stand out at the base of the gorge. Inscribed and signed on the left side and stamped with two artist’s seals.
IMG
Comments:’Deep Autumn’ depicts the steep Taroko Gorge at the moment when the brilliant red leaves of autumn are beginning to thin as the season moves towards winter. Hsu coloured the sides of the cliff with deep, sombre blues and inky tones to capture the mood of late autumn when melancholy fills the air signalling the imminent arrival of darker, colder days. Daylight is already becoming short, a feature that Hsu refers to by creating a brilliant white highlight on the top of the cliff—light that is only strong enough to brush over the top of the peak and can’t reach to the bottom where the red trees stand. Hsu’s rich layering of ink and colour, and use of highlight touches of pigment, such as the bright blue streaks near the red trees, is one of the distinctive features of his work pointing to his position as a great colourist in the modern Chinese tradition. The mood of “melancholy” is one that the artist has used himself to describe this painting.The painting exemplifies Hsu Kuo-huang’s mature style that incorporates a technique and approach grounded in the practice of traditional wenren, or “literati-style”, Chinese brush painting, while incorporating innovations in style that are especially notable in the close-up perspective of the painting and in his distinctively rich palette. Hsu’s working method for ‘Deep Autumn’, like many of his paintings, relies on close observation of natural scenery. He sketches on site and then returns to his studio to paint, combining features taken directly from observed landscape with images from his imagination. Local scenery in Eastern Taiwan is a common subject in Hsu’s work, including for ‘Deep Autumn’. For this work he was inspired by the landscape near two famous scenic spots on the Central Cross-Island Highway—Taroko Gorge (太魯閣) and Tien-hsiang (天祥). Taroko means “beautiful” in the local dialect of the aboriginal peoples who were the early settlers of this part of Taiwan and the name was given to a 19km-long gorge that features a rushing river of “white” water bordered by towering cliffs. The area, and river bottom, is rocky and a source of marble and Taiwan jade.
Materials:paper
Technique:painted
Subjects:landscape seasons
Dimensions:Height: 132 centimetres (image) Height: 224 centimetres (mount inc. hanging cord) Width: 67 centimetres (image) Width: 95.50 centimetres (mount inc. rollers)
Description:
Hanging scroll; ink and colour on xuan paper. View of the Taroko Gorge (太魯閣) in Eastern Taiwan, in the height of autumn. The top of the steep gorge is bathed in bright white light that is cool and thin, distinctive of autumn’s short days. The brilliance of the light highlights the white colour of the rock that is a distinguishing feature of the geological formation of the Taroko Gorge. In contrast, the main body of the cliff is rendered in dusky hues coloured by azuriate and ink, describing stone faces too deep for the reach of the autumnal sun. Red trees (leaves coloured by cinnabar) stand out at the base of the gorge. Inscribed and signed on the left side and stamped with two artist’s seals.
IMG
Comments:’Deep Autumn’ depicts the steep Taroko Gorge at the moment when the brilliant red leaves of autumn are beginning to thin as the season moves towards winter. Hsu coloured the sides of the cliff with deep, sombre blues and inky tones to capture the mood of late autumn when melancholy fills the air signalling the imminent arrival of darker, colder days. Daylight is already becoming short, a feature that Hsu refers to by creating a brilliant white highlight on the top of the cliff—light that is only strong enough to brush over the top of the peak and can’t reach to the bottom where the red trees stand. Hsu’s rich layering of ink and colour, and use of highlight touches of pigment, such as the bright blue streaks near the red trees, is one of the distinctive features of his work pointing to his position as a great colourist in the modern Chinese tradition. The mood of “melancholy” is one that the artist has used himself to describe this painting.The painting exemplifies Hsu Kuo-huang’s mature style that incorporates a technique and approach grounded in the practice of traditional wenren, or “literati-style”, Chinese brush painting, while incorporating innovations in style that are especially notable in the close-up perspective of the painting and in his distinctively rich palette. Hsu’s working method for ‘Deep Autumn’, like many of his paintings, relies on close observation of natural scenery. He sketches on site and then returns to his studio to paint, combining features taken directly from observed landscape with images from his imagination. Local scenery in Eastern Taiwan is a common subject in Hsu’s work, including for ‘Deep Autumn’. For this work he was inspired by the landscape near two famous scenic spots on the Central Cross-Island Highway—Taroko Gorge (太魯閣) and Tien-hsiang (天祥). Taroko means “beautiful” in the local dialect of the aboriginal peoples who were the early settlers of this part of Taiwan and the name was given to a 19km-long gorge that features a rushing river of “white” water bordered by towering cliffs. The area, and river bottom, is rocky and a source of marble and Taiwan jade.
© Copyright
The copyright of the article belongs to the author, please keep the original link for reprinting.
THE END