By Giuseppe Marasco
Ends 19th January. Victoria and Albert Museum.
Painting in China has always been on par or equal with Philosophy & Literature. On this, the exhibition is most instructive. An extraordinary example is that of ‘Nine Dragons’, by Chen Rong, 1244. Which far exceeds the accomplishments of European artists,even until the Renaissance and then there is plenty of invention worthy of gawping. Much of Chinese painting is suffuse with a musical tonality, along with paint possessing a specificity equal to the written word. Many of the Master Paintings give the effect of having been painted in one moment, often it is clear that the intention and program of the work had been envision, held in the minds eyes with great completeness before the commencement of painting. Yet there is an incredible and tantalizing spontaneity in the application,
it is athletic focused and agile. This can be seen when the artist incorporates imperfections, wrinkles etc in the paper, letting chance inform and spur on the compositions and choices in the the moment.
In this,one senses the mediation, and experience in the visualisation of the world and the internalisation of image and meaning. This is still something quite alien to the Western World.
I spent nearly Six hours rapt, very glad that it had been on a late Friday opening.
A Chinese girl fainted in the last room, it must have been the Stendhal Syndrome in effect.
As it really is beyond a treat to be served up more than a thousand years of Chinese painting.
The effect is akin to visiting Rome for the first time. There is so much everywhere to see.
One gains a giddy sense of time and history. How is it that through the modern concern for public exhibitions, that we are afforded such a fortune, that which only gods before could traverse time itself.
A great many paintings dating on or more than 1000 years on age. In one case the oldest painting to have its date inscribed 729 AD is absolutely spell binding. Utterly inspiring to spend a few hours in this parallel evolution of painting.
At the end of the exhibiting hours, a great many visitors looked on at the last scroll, which celebrates the life time achievements of an Emperor. Clearly a work for posterity and the inspiration of future Emperors. It is very interesting for how it reconciles Chinese and Western Perspective. Painted over a decade or two, the visitors were scooping up as much as they could with their eye.
Exhibition Ends 19th January go twice if you can, or go on a Friday for a long viewing.