Oriental Brushwork (1956)

the [Music] the we are at the Freer Gallery in Washington studying Oriental brush work this 9-t watercolor or scroll is called Plum Branch the Chinese and Japanese not only right but paint from right to left to enjoy fully work by Oriental artists would need a knowledge of their traditions we must be content however with an appreciation of the quality of their brush work we also need a sense of the timelessness of nature of trees and mountains and of man's love for them the whole last part of this Branch was done with one continuous tapering stroke the Chinese have been trained from one generation to another to make the brush respond to what the artist feels in this grape vine in the wind we know that the artist thought wind and his hand and arm responded kinesthetically for centuries most Oriental painting and indeed writing too has been with watercolor on silk or on Long fiber paper made of rice or mberry the brush work sometimes takes the form of calligraphy or picture-like strokes and is full of symbolism this is River landscape painted on a long silk scroll in 1580 by D chin while it is too late for us to watch him or any other great master from the Ming Dynasty at work many living artists still paint in the same tradition given similar brushes colors skills and emotions years or centuries are easily bridged this is Tyrus Wong Chinese American painter at work in his Los Angeles Studio here are his brushes pallet and Chinese ink he drags the Wet Brush across the edge of the pallet as D Jin did centuries ago and now he writes the early character for tree or wood if you wish to say Grove add another tree and for Forest a third the word for up is amusing when contrasted with the one for down here is the ancient character for the word horse the man head back legs and tail the word has now been simplified to this Mr Wong is thinning the ink in preparation for the painting of a horse he uses rice paper or ordinary American watercolor paper the strength and purity of the lines that you are now seeing painted comes first from a profound contemplation of the import of each one this brush work is simple and significant not only does the artist eliminate everything not essential to movement but he uses every device to convey action while the heavy lines Express power the lighter ones suggest resilience you even find yourself sharing the exu Vitality of the animal the signature is as beautiful as the rest and the seal lends final authenticity to most Oriental work let us pursue the path of the eye as it follows the artist brush in the blind man a story written in paint Eline emphasizes the bent back the worn shoes the road traveled the cane is a symbol of lost way and the cup begs for arms now that Mr Wong has shown us something of his way of working let me take you back 500 years before his time and show you a landscape done with similar restraint and Purity centuries before cesan this unknown artist created tension and depth by the use of PLS and multiple Horizons he wasn't afraid to move his Vanishing points about or to ignore them entirely a modernist point of view from out of the past reproductions of this picture by the way are are in most of the world's great museums If This Were music instead of painting these quiet horizontals and smooth flowing lines might be the Adagio movement gradually preparing us for the final maestoso the full Orchestra would be needed to bring out the Menace of these Pinnacles and the drama of this towering escarpment we now leave Chinese brush work its old history and its symbolism and expressiveness and pass on to Japanese painting more recent but equally sensitive the art of watercolor in China was the ancestor to that in Japan so that it seems natural to find gaho a Japanese of the Cano School painting these Chinese toist Immortals with so much much empathy another good example of this understanding is found in a winter party painted by utagawa toaru in the 18th century whether it be a landscape or a portrait the Oriental artist usually observes his subject for a long time before presuming to talk about it he sometimes even identifies himself with it a rich man once commissioned a painter to make a picture of a duck after several months with no delivery the artist excused the delay by saying but sir I do not yet feel like a duck we share with the tea drinkers their Delight in the view of snowcovered trees and Gardens and now in another Garden in this country we shall actually watch chora obata of the University of California painting a cypress tree though he sometimes uses rice paper or silk he is now working on hosio paper from Japan he is painting as did his forbears with sui or black stick pigment and often with the same kind of brush The Strokes must be significant and express the artist's deep appreciation of nature although the Japanese traditional painter sometimes uses color his greatest Delight is in the movement of the brush and pitsu as he calls it here it speaks eloquently of the Spiral strength of the bark or describes the foreground as the blending brush flicks over the paper trees appear in the distance and then a bird in flight with two strokes who could have done that but an artist trained from Boyhood to use a brush for writing as well as for painting while painting obata tells me he is thinking the beauty of struggle of cypress trees at Point Lobos they face the day and night sea wind before touching brush to paper obata takes a deep breath and holds it while stroking he doesn't use the wrist but the whole body Swings with the arm this brush is known as a five-stroke haky that stroke surprisingly called wrinkles on a cow's neck is a symbol for rocks in this case Granite cut by glaciers in the Yos he now substitutes the blending brush for the haky while I could describe the great variety of techniques you will now see I prefer to let the brush talk a Chinese proverb says to hear about a thing a 100 times is not so good as to see it once coming from a race of great fishermen Mr oart now turns his thoughts to a leaping trout instead of drawing the fish he places dots to locate it on the paper these colors are minerals ground and glue yellow Earth peacock Stone iron rust or oyster shell white color and a little Sumi for the back and spots but the mark on the paper that seems to start with brown turns magically to an irid green a warmer color for the belly of the fish malachite green and indigo blue on the hockey brush make the water splash as the trout jumps a different feeling entirely from that of the falling water of the rocks or of the trees these are the water wheel Falls near yosee I for one get less pleasure out of looking at a photograph or even the actual scene than I do from A Fine painting of a subject such as obata's thundering Nevada Falls painted on Silk the Oriental artist seeks not a copy of something but an emotional relief but whatever the subject may be or whenever the artist knelt to paint from the Sun Dynasty to the present the world of art owes a special debt to the Oriental for his high level of taste and the distinction of his brush [Music] work