Lot 135: Fissuring - The Reflection of Mountain

Qiu Deshu (b. 1948) Fissuring - The Reflection of Mountain signed in Chinese (lower left); & signed in Chinese (upper left) acrylic, ink and colour on rice paper mounted on canvas, diptych overall: 244 x 182 cm. (96 x 71 5/8 in.) each: 122 x 182 cm. (48 x 71 5/8 in.) Painted in 2013

244 x 182 cm.

An artist of the Shanghai School with influential impacts in contemporary Chinese ink painting, Qiu Deshu has created a distinctive artistic rhetoric for himself by combining his exceptional skills with essence extracted from traditional Chinese ink paintings. Drawing inspiration from the cracks in worn and mottled stone slates, Qiu adapted the lines of these complex and delicate fissures for his creative work. Making use of the unique characteristic of xuan paper, he first soaked the paper and then cut it with a sharp instrument to create rough edges which, as a result, exposing the bottom layers of the paper. These exposed layers of xuan paper thus evolved through the process of fissuring and change. Over the course of the past thirty years, Qiu's fissure works have evolved from simplicity to complexity, and it is these very fissures that reveals how this evolution has progressed. After the turn of the millennium, Qiu's fissure series took on a more simplistic and natural progression, with traditional Chinese landscapes a recurring theme. The lyrical quality in Chinese ink paintings has always been regarded as a priority before medium selection and technical application. By replacing traditional ink with acrylic, a contemporary approach is opted in Qiu's expression of nature. His skilled mounting method allows the quality of the xuan paper to be fully presented. The xuan paper, a medium that encapsulates a comprehensive significance for Chinese traditions, is manipulated with wet or dry treatments and also torn apart, with a new look reconstructed through the artist's Western collage approach. In Fissuring-The Reflection of Mountain, the top-bottom composition depicts a mountain reflected on a mirror-like lake, and echoes with 19th century Swiss impressionist artist Ferdinand Hodler's Lake of Silvaplana, where vertical and horizontal lines are used to enhance the double symmetry in the depicted landscape (Fig. 1), and while appreciating its compositional aesthetics, an orderly and serene sense of natural beauty is also experienced from the painting's structural form. The juxtaposition of the reflection on the water and the tangible scenery creates a blurring effect fusing together the elusive with the realistic world, as illusions of the scene in water and the water in the scene are explored through its compositional symmetry. With the landscape clearly reflected on the calm and lucid water, feelings of tranquillity and peace are thus conveyed. The painting with its sharply defined ridges and overlapping forms also reminds of Gong Xian's depiction of stacked and creased rocky cliffs and mountains (Fig. 2). The two paintings share similarities with glimpses of the paper's original colour shining through implying the glimmers projected from between the mountain peaks. With the majestic rocky cliffs portrayed with vivid colours and a meticulous composition, the result is a visually brilliant and moving work of art. Chinese art places great importance on lines, as seen in the traditional approach with achieving a sense of elegance from depicting water stains on the wall. With his extensive ink brush practice integrated with the artistic gesture of tearing, Qiu's new landscape captures the audience's internal obstacles and enlightenments for life in an interesting manner.