Vol 12: Thriving indoors.
Lin Fengmian, Lady Playing Pipa, ink and color on paper, circa 1950s-1960s
My art history knowledge is scattershot. I have a strong background in American modernism, and I know quite a bit about Viennese Secessionism and Art Nouveau, but there are these big, embarrassing gaps in my knowledge. For instance, I know so little about the history of Chinese art.
I’ve been trying to change that, but I’m no longer in college and I can’t just take a class. Instead, I’m browsing until I see something I like and then, bam. I dig in.
And I like Lin Fengmian. I like him very much.
Which, okay, is kind of embarrassing, too. He has quite a bit of European influence in his work—you can kind of tell he spent years in Berlin, and there’s a tinge of German expressionism in his portraits. But Lin’s work is softer and more playful. He draws from the Chinese painting tradition, too. A lot of his images have these great teardrop shapes, these funny oblong curves, which I think are so different from the spikes and edges and triangles that signify German expressionism. Lin’s expressionism is pear-shaped.
Sadly, many of Lin’s paintings were destroyed. From Wikipedia: “While many of his early works were destroyed by Japanese soldiers during the Sino-Japanese War, many of his later works were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. After being heavily criticized and denounced by the Gang of Four, a Chinese political faction, Lin personally destroyed his own works by soaking and then flushing his works down the toilet; however, he still ended up being imprisoned for over four years.”
I feel terribly sad thinking about his unkempt owls, his groups of “beauties,” his flowers in vases and his fisherwomen—all flushed down the toilet.
I chose this image because I think it is very beautiful. I want to embody her energy today—indoors, alone, content, creative. I also chose her because I want to know Lin Fengmian’s name and his style, the same way I know, say, Mary Cassatt. I know her strokes and her subjects.
Time to study.