Day 82 - Another landscape scroll
August 28, 2018
Gallery 216, the last gallery devoted to the theme of landscape, focuses on the river landscape. My initial reaction was that devoting a gallery to this theme would be highly redundant, since rivers have been prominent in the landscapes on view in the previous galleries. The wall caption is, however, quite helpful in explaining that rivers came to symbolize both good government (since flood control and water management were such important responsibilities of government) and the good, simple life.
The gallery also reflects an interesting curatorial decision: Cases on one side of the gallery present two long Ming dynasty painted scrolls depicting the Yangzi River, while those on the other contain long scrolls showing the same river that were made in 2015 by an American photographer, Michael Cherney. The juxtaposition necessarily contrasts the natural beauty of the river in the earlier images (romanticized as these may be) with the degradation of that beauty brought about by industry and commerce evidenced in the 21st century works.
The two Ming scrolls were originally one long scroll - I would guess it was some 30 feet or more in length - that was subsequently cut in two. And despite the fact that both parts were done by the same anonymous 15th century painter, I find myself much preferring one half to the other. The one I like less seems very crowded to me, three-quarters of it filled with high mountains in the background and rocky promontories in the foreground. It feels claustrophobic, affording hardly any breathing room. The scroll I really like, as I hope can be seen in the photo, has the same landscape elements, but they appear in three distinct zones, separated by areas that are unpainted; the composition allows for a sense of spaciousness and air and light and freedom.
It is so interesting to see how looking at hitherto unfamiliar works allows me to define my own aesthetic more clearly - in this case, my preference for simplicity and lack of clutter. If only it were so easy to incorporate these qualities into my own living space!
The gallery also reflects an interesting curatorial decision: Cases on one side of the gallery present two long Ming dynasty painted scrolls depicting the Yangzi River, while those on the other contain long scrolls showing the same river that were made in 2015 by an American photographer, Michael Cherney. The juxtaposition necessarily contrasts the natural beauty of the river in the earlier images (romanticized as these may be) with the degradation of that beauty brought about by industry and commerce evidenced in the 21st century works.
The two Ming scrolls were originally one long scroll - I would guess it was some 30 feet or more in length - that was subsequently cut in two. And despite the fact that both parts were done by the same anonymous 15th century painter, I find myself much preferring one half to the other. The one I like less seems very crowded to me, three-quarters of it filled with high mountains in the background and rocky promontories in the foreground. It feels claustrophobic, affording hardly any breathing room. The scroll I really like, as I hope can be seen in the photo, has the same landscape elements, but they appear in three distinct zones, separated by areas that are unpainted; the composition allows for a sense of spaciousness and air and light and freedom.
It is so interesting to see how looking at hitherto unfamiliar works allows me to define my own aesthetic more clearly - in this case, my preference for simplicity and lack of clutter. If only it were so easy to incorporate these qualities into my own living space!
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