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‘Superb’ artist’s carvings on display
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AN exhibition featuring the bamboo carving and painting artworks created by Zhou Hao, a bamboo carving master, is currently on display at Shanghai Museum through August 15.
Zhou (1685-1730), is considered not only a great master of bamboo carving in Shanghai’s Jiading area, but an artist of great influence and landmark in the history of Chinese bamboo-carving art as well.
Zhou’s arts matured as he entered his 50s. Besides bamboo carving, he was also accomplished in wood and stone carving, painting, calligraphy, seal cutting and poetry composing, making him an all round literary craftsman and artist.
Organized by the Shanghai Museum, with cooperation from the Nanjing Museum, Suzhou Museum and Tianjin Museum, the exhibition is divided into three categories with three different themes based on the subject of his works.
The exhibition features nearly 44 pieces of Zhou’s works, including his bamboo carvings and ink-wash paintings. Most of his bamboo-carving works and paintings depicted landscapes, bamboos and rocks. His bamboo-carving style was heavily influenced by his paintings, which are less well known.
Zhou lived in the last golden age of ancient Chinese craft arts, during which different types of carving arts, including bamboo carving, had been developed to their peak. After fully mastering the bamboo-carving technique of “Jiading School,” he created a new carving style emphasizing “using a knife as a brush.”
New carving style
As recorded in the book “Biography of Zhou Hao” by Qian Daxin, Zhou was a painter first, who had never studied hard for imperial examinations. An expert in painting landscapes, figures and flowers, he imitated the technique handed down by masters of the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties, but expressed the thoughts in his own way. Zhou preferred to paint landscapes with figures described vividly and carefully in clothes and facial expressions.
Zhou also applied the new carving technique of showing different arrangements of ink and brushwork seen in landscape painting to bamboo-carving works, finely presenting the concentration of ink and a strong sense of space.
Besides carving strong and straight lines, he also carved to depict diverse arrangements. Thus, his artwork not only showed the effect of outlining wrinkles of literati landscape paintings, but also reflected the technological characteristic of delicate Jia-ding bamboo carving, which were thought to be superb among his contemporaries.
His calligraphy, mostly running and cursive scripts, imitated the vibrant and expressive style of Su Shi (1037-1101), a renowned calligrapher of the Song Dynasty.
His carving inscriptions on his bamboo works are especially distinguished, as they represent the characteristic of paper work at the same time.
After his death, he became a big name, and imitations of his artwork appeared in large numbers. The exhibition also showcases some of the fakes during his time.
Date: Through August 15,
9am-5pm
Venue: Shanghai Museum
Address: 201 People’s Ave
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