Landscapes

Two figures sitting quietly in their lakeside villa draw us into their vibrantly painted environment— undulating hills of cursory, fragmented outline and blurry wash; bent and twisted trees of densely layered brushstrokes; and mist, water, and sky of blank paper. Executed with diff erent angles of the paintbrush and multiple layers and varied densities of ink, paintings of such careful synthesis and sketch-like spontaneity describe what the artist Huang Binhong called “the order of disorder.” Huang helped reinvigorate China’s tradition of literati painting, which emphasizes personal expression. He disdained the themes and styles that had been established in the eighteenth century and looked to even earlier artists for inspiration. Indeed, the inscription on this painting alludes to brushstrokes of “broken ink” demonstrated by eminent artists of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Its limited use of color and caricature-like simplicity suggest that this painting dates to the late 1940s or early 1950s. By then, Huang had reached the pinnacle of his painting career and simultaneously distinguished himself as a connoisseur, scholar, poet, and publisher.