PLUM BLOSSOMS
This pattern depicts details from HKMoA’s priceless ink-wash art painting “Red Plum Blossoms & Rock” by world-revered Chinese master artist Wu Changshuo.
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Wu Changshuo specialized in poetry, calligraphy, painting and seal carving. He is known for his calligraphy in seal script, especially in stone and drum script, and infused his paintings with a calligraphic touch, so his paintings also show his profound calligraphic and seal script skills. Wu Changshuo loved plum blossoms, and once called himself “The Intimate Friend of Plum” and painted a large number of them in his works.
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The painting “Red Plum Blossoms and Rock” depicts crisscrossing, but not cluttered red plum branches. The brushwork is strong and powerful, with methodical lifting, pressing, stuttering and turning. The ink is richly varied in terms of intensity and wetness. The overall use of brushstrokes and ink is thick and rustic, with lines in the style of seal script. The use of magenta in the painting, as opposed to the carmine used in traditional Chinese painting, makes the red plum in the painting even more colourful, and visually complements the thick brushwork with ink, making the overall painting rich and colourful without being vulgar.
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Painting: “Red Plum Blossoms & Rock” by Wu Changshuo (紅梅圖)(吳昌碩)
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*This collection is collaborated by the Hong Kong Museum of Art and SPARKLE COLLECTION.
