Notes on Loss (Toxic)

    

     Traditionally, the painting of ancient trees was always a necessary part of the Chinese artist’s inventory of images.  “…old trees in Chinese paintings can register both gradual decay and sudden destruction” according to the art historian Wu Hung.

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     Wu Hung, A Story of Ruins:  Presence and Absence in Chinese Art and Visual Culture,  Princeton and Oxford:    Princeton University Press, 2012

 

 

     A portion of an inscribed poem on Zhengming’s 15th century painting of trees says:

 

           Crushed by snow, oppressed by frost, as the years and months pass

           Branches twisted, habit bent down – its strength is still majestic!