Title: Bear Mountain
Date: 2010
Artist: Wang Mansheng
Location: New London, Connecticut
Culture: Chinese
Medium: Ink and color on cardboard
Dimensions: N/a
Repository: Chu-Griffis Asian Art Collection, Shain Library, Connecticut College, New London
Donated by Chu-Griffis Art Fund
Description:
This painting depicts Bear Mountain located in the Hudson Valley in New York. Wang often uses materials that are deemed useless, and he does that here by using cardboard as the canvas of his work. There is a sharp contrast in the dark and light of this piece following traditional Chinese landscape paintings, more specifically the interplay between the black and white and the painted and unpainted space. The sky comes off as a grey in the work but that is due to the texture of the cardboard and is closer to a white, with an even truer white layered on top of the mountain maybe suggesting snow. The white on the top of the mountain is cooler and has specks of a very dark blue in it suggesting a difference between the mountain rocks and what lays on top. There is a red seal on the left of this painting that is not very uniform in placement, but as the dimensions of the piece are a little unusual it pairs quite well.
Resources:
https://ctexaminer.com/2020/02/08/wang-mansheng-roots-art-in-shanxi-and-the-hudson-in-connecticut-college-show/
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/215069
https://www.huntington.org/news/chinese-garden-calligraphy-exhibition
https://westchestermagazine.com/things-to-do/arts-culture/meet-westchesters-art-stars/
https://fuqiumeng.com/en/%e6%8a%98%e8%98%86%e7%82%ba%e7%ad%86-interview-with-mansheng-wang-2/
