Lot 139: A Spring Scene

Peng Wei (b.1974) A Spring Scene titled in Chinese (on the right side); one seal of the artist ink and colour on handmade paper, album 35.5 x 395.5 cm. (14 x 155 3/4 in.) Painted in 2012

35.5 x 395.5 cm.

Having been nurtured in an artistic environment since childhood, Peng Wei is striking in her refined yet restrained style which originates from traditional Chinese painting. In A Spring Scene, she frees herself from the shackles of the medium itself to depict, with extraordinary charm and dazzling colours, landscape scenery which embodies both the classical elegance of traditional Chinese painting and a contemporary symbolic simplicity. In a departure from Peng Wei's experimental works, where she takes available materials such as 'embroidered shoes' and 'silk garments' as the vehicles for her creation, A Spring Scene marks a return to traditional Chinese media and paradigms. The artist has created what is more than a landscape painting in the style of the ancients: this is an integration of the subject matters of traditional painting into contemporary painting lexicon. 'My obsession lies not only in classical landscape painting itself, but in the very material of the painting album or scroll. In my eyes and to my touch, they carry not only a sense of culture but also a historical charm. They are like the small decorative objects which attract me to draw out their every detail, including the complex damask patterns.'