PRINTCatalogue Note:
After throwing herself back into abstract creation in 2016, Sophie Chang’s first choice of theme in mind was the snow scene. In it, she used quick brush strokes to depict the sheer force of a howling blizzard, which also invoked her earliest attempts in breaking free from Realist and Impressionist styles.
Sophie Chang is no stranger to snow, having lived across from Central Park in New York for many years. The snows came with each winter. Likewise, blizzards were common. However, what made this work a break from Realism and Impressionism is the “sheer force” of the howling snowstorm. Chang loves works of immense impact, so when she attempted to shake free from structural form and capture her own impressions of the outside world, this visual experiment in swirling snowflakes marked the beginning of her abstract works. Though Chang utilized several realist concepts in her painting of the snow, she simultaneously depicted the snow and branches through quick, intersecting strokes. Since this was her first experimental step into abstract art, she kept the dimensions of the painting small, and the work is mostly a sort of landscape painting. However small it may be, it contains great potential within its haziness.
“Polished Snow” is still considered a landscape painting that depicts snow-covered bushes lining a path that fades in and out of existence behind the falling snow. From the traces left by the snow and the snowflakes delicately fluttering past the branches, it would seem that the storm has just begun. It could also be that the storm had passed, with the wind and snow lingering as the path is slowly uncovered. Whether this is a scene pre- or post-snowstorm, the image depicts snow swirling in the wind and a silence left by the stirrings of the earth as the true nature of things is gradually revealed. Chang once commented that the power of snowstorms attracted her deeply, but also that its otherworldly tranquility reminds her of how she liked the atmosphere of cemeteries as a child: “It’s the sense of silence that comes with centuries of faded glory.” Every time she comes across a cemetery, it always calms her down. As described in Dream of the Red Chamber, one witnesses the rise and the fall and the final disintegration into white nothingness. Sophie Chang’s snowy landscape and her glimpse at humanity through charity events expressed much the same sentiment as that in the Dream of the Red Chamber; despite all trials, one must remain undeterred in one’s faith in humanity. Chang once said, “The most important part of painting is that moment of inspiration and beauty.” “Polished Snow” not only preserves that instant but also the pureness of the artist’s hope for humanity.
Sophie Chang is no stranger to snow, having lived across from Central Park in New York for many years. The snows came with each winter. Likewise, blizzards were common. However, what made this work a break from Realism and Impressionism is the “sheer force” of the howling snowstorm. Chang loves works of immense impact, so when she attempted to shake free from structural form and capture her own impressions of the outside world, this visual experiment in swirling snowflakes marked the beginning of her abstract works. Though Chang utilized several realist concepts in her painting of the snow, she simultaneously depicted the snow and branches through quick, intersecting strokes. Since this was her first experimental step into abstract art, she kept the dimensions of the painting small, and the work is mostly a sort of landscape painting. However small it may be, it contains great potential within its haziness.
“Polished Snow” is still considered a landscape painting that depicts snow-covered bushes lining a path that fades in and out of existence behind the falling snow. From the traces left by the snow and the snowflakes delicately fluttering past the branches, it would seem that the storm has just begun. It could also be that the storm had passed, with the wind and snow lingering as the path is slowly uncovered. Whether this is a scene pre- or post-snowstorm, the image depicts snow swirling in the wind and a silence left by the stirrings of the earth as the true nature of things is gradually revealed. Chang once commented that the power of snowstorms attracted her deeply, but also that its otherworldly tranquility reminds her of how she liked the atmosphere of cemeteries as a child: “It’s the sense of silence that comes with centuries of faded glory.” Every time she comes across a cemetery, it always calms her down. As described in Dream of the Red Chamber, one witnesses the rise and the fall and the final disintegration into white nothingness. Sophie Chang’s snowy landscape and her glimpse at humanity through charity events expressed much the same sentiment as that in the Dream of the Red Chamber; despite all trials, one must remain undeterred in one’s faith in humanity. Chang once said, “The most important part of painting is that moment of inspiration and beauty.” “Polished Snow” not only preserves that instant but also the pureness of the artist’s hope for humanity.