by Elaine Suyu Liu (Translation by Timothy Chang)
Su Chung-ming’s landscapes give the viewer a sense of freshness, and the same is true of Four Views of a Landscape – Summer.
The circular album leaf format sets the scale of the composition. The painting captures the fine details of a mountain, focusing in on a steep cliffside. The brushwork is non-traditional and is comprised of a network of rectangular lines. When viewed up close, the lines appear highly textural, while at a distance, they form the structure of a mountain. Sitting atop of the mountain is a thicket of trees, intricately rendered with fine brushwork that contrasts with the corse texture of the cliffside below.
Su Chung-ming is fond of adding hints of green in volumes of blue, as seen in this album leaf, where its elegance give the viewer a sense of calmness and beauty, especially fitting in the heat of summer. The calming imagery is furthered by a silky strand of waterfall on the left, and the cool vapours of mist that rises from its depth. Drifting across the cliffside, the light mist adds a sense of subtle movement to the overall landscape.
Relatred Journals
Calling to Mountains
Essay
Su Chung-ming’s landscapes leap off the paper and call to the mountains outside
Seemingly speaking a thousand words, but spoken in solemn silence
The worries of the world are lost beyond the sky
Aesthetic theorist Zong Baihua (1897–1986) introduced in An Aesthetics Anthology that the most profound sentiment in Chinese painting is “to silently be molded by and thus become one with the infinite reality of nature and space.”
Su Chung-ming, Misty Valley (detail), 2021 © Su Chung-ming