國畫藝術之三 (Chinese paiting art example 3)

Ni Zan ( 倪瓚 ) 1301 or 1306 -1374

Ni Zan was born in a wealthy land-owning family in Jiangsu Province. He was by nature aloof and arrogant and had mysophobia. The eccentric Ni Zan built his Pure and Secluded Pavilion ( 清閟閣 ) where he kept collections of antiques, paintings, and calligraphy and enjoyed the company of famous scholars and poets of refined tastes according to his judgment. Already by 1330s, series of floods, droughts, and consequent famine and peasant revolts brought this ideal existence to an end as the Yuan Dynasty began to unravel.  For twenty years, beginning in 1351, Ni Zan wandered with his family through the southeast China, living in a houseboat or staying with friends and acquaintances, and often repaid their hospitality with his paintings. In his earlier paintings, he often painted widely separated riverbanks rendered in sketchy and ink monochrome brushwork  and foreground trees silhouetted against the expanse of water. His sparse landscapes rarely represent people and defy many traditional concepts of Chinese painting. Many of his works hardly represent the natural settings they were intended to be depicted. Indeed, Ni Zan used his art as a medium of expression. In 1364, he said “I use bamboo painting to write (note) out the exhilaration in my breast, that is all. Why should I worry whether it shows likeness or not?” (note: Many Chinese brush painting masters often proclaim they are "writing objects" with brushes since most of the brush painting techniques were derived from the methodologies of Chinese calligraphy brushstrokes. Like all of the Four Masters of the Yuan painting, Ni Zan’s brush techniques originated from calligraphy.) Ni Zan landscapes truly bring out the great importance of brush work in Chinese landscape painting, especially that of the literati painting tradition. His minimalism turns every single brush stroke into an emotional statement that cannot be ignored. The almost compulsive repetition of themes throughout his career has never led his art to lose its originality and emotional vigor. Scholars read Ni Zan's paintings of simple, almost barren, and unpeopled landscapes as expressive of a longing for a simpler, cleaner, and peaceful world.  Already shortly after Ni Zan's passing, the cultural levels of the families in Jiangnan, the southeast region of China, were evaluated according to whether or not they owned one of his works.