Only Chinese version is available
After a good nap
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Artist
Ding Yan-yong
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Year
1977
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Media
Double-sided album of 16 double leaves (leaves 5, 7, 9, 12), ink and colour on paper
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Dimensions
Each 40 x 60.7 cm
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Museum No.
FA2009.0066
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Artist Bio
Ding Yanyong went to Japan in 1920 to study western painting at the Tokyo Fine Arts School. He was passionately attracted to the art of Matisse and the Fauves. When he returned to China, he actively engaged himself in the making and teaching of art. Ding resettled in Hong Kong in 1949. In 1956, he was one of the initiators of the art programme of the New Asia College, which later evolved into the Department of Fine Arts of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He remained on the faculty until he passed away in 1978. From oil painting to Chinese ink painting, then onto Chinese calligraphy and seal-carving, Ding was able to assimilate them all into his oeuvre. Lauded as “Matisse of the East” and “Bada Shanren of modern times”, Ding adds a new page to 20th-century Chinese art.
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Description
This first 8 pages of this album were done one afternoon when the artist woke up from a nap and gave art lessons to his students. As a demonstration, he drew various species and genera of birds, insects, fish and flowers. The pictorial compositions are all simple and uncluttered, with blank spaces to leave room for imagination. The subjects are vivid and lively, and the brushstrokes as well as calligraphy terse and firm. The frogs, shrimps, crabs and chicks seem to come alive with just a few childlike strokes. The variegated ink tones and washes, reminiscent of Qi Baishi, show masterly control. The fish swimming and the eagle resting remind us of the art of Bada Shanren. The album leaf showing the mouse and the melon is typically done in the style of a “one-line drawing”, the genre that Ding invented and made famous. The lines are fluid, crisp and full of a kinetic charm. But one can see that behind the seeming ease and relaxed ink play, there is the virtuosity of a lifetime of a true master in art.
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—Collection of Hong Kong Museum of Art Donated by Mr Wong Yi
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