Article: Raining, drowning and swimming: Fu Baoshi and water

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TitleRaining, drowning and swimming: Fu Baoshi and water
AuthorsClarke, D1
Issue Date2006
PublisherBlackwell Publishing Ltd. The Journal's web site is located at http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journals/AHIS
CitationArt History, 2006, v. 29 n. 1, p. 108-144+199-200 [How to Cite?]
AbstractWater is a prominent element in the media of Chinese ink painting and, in the form of clouds, rivers, floods and mist, it is a major subject of Chinese painting. In the culturally distinctive modernist practice of Fu Baoshi (1904-1965), these two identities of water self-consciously encounter one another. The artist's attention to watery themes in his work is unprecedented, and he is one of the first painters to focus on the direct depiction of falling rain. The essay considers Fu's representations of rain, the theme of water in his images of the poet-statesman Qu Yuan and (after the founding of the People's Republic in 1949) in paintings illustrating the poems of Chinese leader Mao Zedong. Fu's water-themed works are examined here with reference to the inherited stock of Chinese cultural meanings as well as to recent artistic practice in the People's Republic and to the Maoist state ideology which informed it. The potential meanings of these water-themed works are considered, and politically subversive connotations are discovered. The essay concludes by reflecting on the theme of water in contemporary practice, particularly in Song Dong's performance art work of 1996, Printing on Water. © ASSOCIATION OF ART HISTORIANS 2006.
ISSN0141-6790
2011 SCImago Journal Rankings: 0.025
ReferencesReferences in Scopus
DC Field
Value
dc.contributor.authorClarke, D
dc.date.accessioned2010-09-06T09:33:26Z
dc.date.available2010-09-06T09:33:26Z
dc.date.issued2006
dc.description.abstractWater is a prominent element in the media of Chinese ink painting and, in the form of clouds, rivers, floods and mist, it is a major subject of Chinese painting. In the culturally distinctive modernist practice of Fu Baoshi (1904-1965), these two identities of water self-consciously encounter one another. The artist's attention to watery themes in his work is unprecedented, and he is one of the first painters to focus on the direct depiction of falling rain. The essay considers Fu's representations of rain, the theme of water in his images of the poet-statesman Qu Yuan and (after the founding of the People's Republic in 1949) in paintings illustrating the poems of Chinese leader Mao Zedong. Fu's water-themed works are examined here with reference to the inherited stock of Chinese cultural meanings as well as to recent artistic practice in the People's Republic and to the Maoist state ideology which informed it. The potential meanings of these water-themed works are considered, and politically subversive connotations are discovered. The essay concludes by reflecting on the theme of water in contemporary practice, particularly in Song Dong's performance art work of 1996, Printing on Water. © ASSOCIATION OF ART HISTORIANS 2006.
dc.description.natureLink_to_subscribed_fulltext
dc.identifier.citationArt History, 2006, v. 29 n. 1, p. 108-144+199-200 [How to Cite?]
dc.identifier.epage144+199
dc.identifier.hkuros119902
dc.identifier.issn0141-6790
2011 SCImago Journal Rankings: 0.025
dc.identifier.issue1
dc.identifier.openurl
dc.identifier.scopuseid_2-s2.0-34249433064
dc.identifier.spage108
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/87716
dc.identifier.volume29
dc.languageeng
dc.publisherBlackwell Publishing Ltd. The Journal's web site is located at http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journals/AHIS
dc.publisher.placeUnited Kingdom
dc.relation.ispartofArt History
dc.relation.referencesReferences in Scopus
dc.rightsArt History. Copyright © Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
dc.titleRaining, drowning and swimming: Fu Baoshi and water
dc.typeArticle
Author Affiliations
  1. The University of Hong Kong