A Loosely Articulated Series of Notes on Works by the Painter Tang Shu
I
In front of me, spread out randomly (like a patient etherised) on a table, is a set of colour reproductions of paintings by the artist Tang Shu. Some represent paintings I have seen at first-hand in Shanghai, some do not. All of the paintings represented depict closely framed natural scenes: tree branches set against pale skies, some bearing spring blossoms or other flowers; dense patches of bamboo and grasses; accumulations of stones; branches overhanging and/or reflected in water. Each has been made without the structured ordering of foregrounds and backgrounds or the overt application of perspectival geometry. No human figures are depicted.
II
Though attention to detail is evident, each of the paintings is characterised by an underlying formal restraint. Pictorial depth is relatively shallow and contrasts of colour, texture, tone and scale have been consistently held in check. No extraneous formal devices have been used as a way of accentuating depth or of adding drama. The paintings—some of which resemble painted Chinese wallpapers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—are undeniably decorative from a Western cultural perspective.
III
The colouring of the scenes depicted in the paintings is rich but muted, as if captured on an over-cast spring or summer’s day—a few suggest impending or passing spells of rain, or distantly circulating electrical storms. The bamboo leaves and grasses can be imagined as if rustling in a shifting breeze. I think of remembered scenes from films by Akira Kurosawa depicting rice fields or bamboo groves where sound and image proceed uncannily out of synch with one another, and of a musical composition by Toru Takemitsu titled ‘Rain Spell’. I am also reminded of a recent and long-deferred... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline
Peach blossom, 2013. 90 x 90cm. Courtesy the artist and AroundSpace Gallery, Shanghai.
Before the Rain, 2013. 150 x 180cm. Courtesy the artist and AroundSpace Gallery, Shanghai.
