The Art Institute of Chicago

Searching for Mountains No. 2Author(s): Jay XuSource: Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, Vol. 34, No. 1, Notable Acquisitions at theArt Institute of Chicago (2008), pp. 38-39Published by: The Art Institute of ChicagoStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20205577 .

Accessed: 16/06/2014 00:48

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

The Art Institute of Chicago is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Art Instituteof Chicago Museum Studies.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.101 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 00:48:36 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

3

Searching for Mountains No. 2

2005

Wucius Wong (Chinese, born 1936)

Ink on paper; 120 x 237 cm (47 x 93 Vs in.)

RESTRICTED GIFT OF FRED EYCHANER AND TOMMY YANG GUO

IN HONOR OF JAY XU. 2007.6

WUCIUS WONG HAS been a pivotal figure in

Hong Kong's artistic and literary movements for the last

four decades. Originally from Guangdong Province in

southeastern China, Wong moved with his family to Hong

Kong at age ten; there he studied Chinese painting with

the renowned master Lui Shou-kwan, who inspired him

to undertake what has become a lifelong search for ways to synthesize the art of the East and West and resolve the

challenges of the traditional and the modern. In the 1960s, the artist received formal training in Western art in the

United States. Over the next forty years, he has pursued a

multifaceted career as an art educator, critic, curator, graphic

designer, painter, and poet in both America and Hong Kong. In 1997, when Hong Kong reverted to Chinese sovereignty,

Wong returned home for good. Through his painting,

teaching, and writing, he has exerted major influence in the

city's art and design community; in 2006, the Hong Kong Museum of Art presented a retrospective of his work.

3?

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.101 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 00:48:36 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

3

Wong possesses a well-known signature style that

combines Western graphic design and Chinese landscape, but he is also constantly experimenting. Searching for

Mountains No. 2 is a recent result of his attempts to explore the infinite expressive power of ink. Monumental in scale, the painting portrays a close-up of a majestic mountain

whose ravines, streams, and vibrant vegetation are suggested

through the interplay of varying tones of ink and white space; these details are purposefully left vague, however, taking on a powerfully abstract character. While the composition is remarkable for its massive structure, the artist creates a

dynamic imbalance between the darker left half of the image and the lighter right half, with the latter allowing room

for a sense of airiness amid the potentially overpowering

density of ink. This imbalance creates a strong impression of

momentum, making the mountain appear as a living force.

Wong captured the majesty of nature in this piece and

at the same time celebrated its more sensuous and poetic

moods in the details of his brushwork. Although these

fine landscape elements reveal the painting's traditional

roots, his composition breaks away from established

Chinese landscape practice. Indeed, the picture as a whole

embodies both Wong's intellectual approach to art and his

introduction of new methods of spatial organization and

technical execution.

JAY xu

39

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.101 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 00:48:36 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions