"A White Jug"one of the representative stills from Lin Fengmian's Shanghai period, is currently in Madam Yuan Xiangwen's old collection. In the past, it frequently appeared in collections and catalogues of the artist's oeuvre, and was generally assumed to stem from the 1950s. This erroneous consensus was overturned by Ms Yuan's recollection that Lin actually finished this painting in 1964, and it thus is officially listed under that period in the 2005 catalogue.
In the early 1990s, Taiwan's Chin Hsiu Publishing House issued a series under the title'Great Masters' introducing 100 leading artists from China and abroad. These publications received very positive feedback. In the book on Lin Fengmian ('Grandmasters of Chinese Art: Lin Fengmian' renowned art critic Lang Shaojun devoted two entire pages to his critique of the above painting, "A White Jug" Here is an excerpt:
As I have mentioned before, in this painting from the 1950s Lin Fengmian is seen to be experimenting with various styles, exploring new ways of blending structure, color and ink into a cohesive whole that may adequately express his emotions and state of mind. Although the main objects of the picture are just a water jug and three fruits, it yet evokes a sense of sumptuousness. The color, kept in simple shades of white, borders on the ordinary and monotonous, but this impression is immediately dispelled by the red, yellow and blue of the fruit that, by contrast, appear particularly appealing to the eye. Another thing that deserves out attention are the geometrical shapes that dominate the back- and foreground: a square, a standing rectangle and a lying rectangle, each of which mirrors one of the colors seen in the fruit, but in subtly different shades that are merged with black. In other words, the composition relies entirely on almost imperceptible variations on the five basic colors red, yellow, blue, white and black to produce its dignified, pristine and profound overall effect. We can very well say that red, yellow and blue are the basic colors of Western painting, while black and white are the lifeblood of ink-and-wash, and their skilful combination exemplifies Lin Fengmian's successful amalgamation of Western and Chinese techniques. In fact, the different hues are blended with the typical mastery of the Fengmian style, always bringing together compatible elements from the artist's two cultures with a natural ease. Round forms dominate the design of the jug and the fruit, again in contrast to the squares and lines of the background. Setting off round and square forms in this harmonious, interweaving manner is one of the important techniques in modern Western art, and at the same time it is an essential compositional principle in traditional Chinese landscape painting. The artist's treatment of light also deserves mention. While the white jug and the bluish-green fruit are illuminated with a faint glow, the other objects, including the other two fruits and the table, are in the dark. This does not really conform to physical reality. Rather, it is a reality that the artist imposes on his subject matter-an artificial lighting created to suit the purposes of composition. This is a crucial feature in Lin Fengmian's art. (From: Lang Shaojun'Grandmasters of Chinese Art: Lin Fengmian'Taipei: Chin Hsiu Publishing House, 1994, pp 18-19)
The compositional structure of "A White Jug" owes much both to the cubist school and the Fauvist paintings of Matisse, displaying an intentional neglect of the principles of three-dimensional perspective that lie at the heart of Western painting tradition. In its place, we find a strong emphasis on light and color placed firmly in the geometrically divided plane. All of Lin's still lifes are painted on a square canvas that contrasts with the dominant round shapes of the painting. The soft circular shapes instill a feeling of gentleness, comfort and smooth flowing movement in the observer, while the rectangular elements underpin the composition with a sense of solidity, force and stability. Much of the interest generated by this lot is rooted in this interplay of round and rectangular shapes, from the square frame to repeated curvilinear elements against the stricter backdrop of straight lines that carve up the picture's two-dimensional space. The intricate fusion of Western and Chinese traditions, dissolving contradiction into harmony, leaves the observer with a lingering sense of wonder. "A White Jug"shows all the hallmark signs of Lin's art: the emphasis on structure and balanced variety, cohesiveness and concise simplicity, all contributing to the ultimate goal of achieving a harmony that borders on the musical.
When Madam Yuan Xiangwen's collection went on display in Bejing in 2004, Lang Shaojun was invited to contribute another treatise on Lin Fengmian's work. Lang once more focused on "A White Jug" and its significance as one of the artist's definitive stills:'Still lifes belong to Lin's favored motifs during his peak period as an artist. In the early 50s, he produced a number of more experimental works that were characterized by broad, thick strokes and a somewhat constructionist style, but he was forced to destroy most of these during the Cultural Revolution. Beginning in the middle of the 50s, he started to paint an increasing number of stills featuring flowers in vases and fruit on plates. All of these pieces concentrate on immediate expression through color, free brushwork and original arrangement. Their images are close to being a direct translation of the artist's observations, but at the same time their style keeps an obvious distance from the then popular realistic ways of painting. Instead, Lin's work shows a firm insistence on art for art's sake and an openness to experimentation. Still, the stills of this particular period are free from exaggerated abstraction and have not completely abandoned perspective. Rather, they teem with subtle refinement and sophistication, creative imagination and versatile execution. A good example is "A White Jug" which adroitly arranges conical, round and rectangular shapes in a flat plane, and uses a compact palette of black and white blended with shades of red and green. Then there are works such as Cactus with its carefree elegance, Cyclamen and Teapot with its dynamic expressiveness, or White Cigarette Case in the Afternoon that succinctly captures the rich flavour of everyday life. What they all have in common are meticulous brushwork, well-structured composition, and a pleasing harmony that all serve to give the observer a keen aesthetic pleasure.'Lang Shaojun,'From Exploration to Maturity-Lin Fengmian's Painting from the 40s through the 70s? Taipei: Art & Collection, May 2005 issue,p. 113)
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