A master who used his carving knife as a brush
Print Edition
AN exhibition featuring bamboo carvings and paintings created by Zhou Hao, a Jiading native bamboo carving master, is on display at Shanghai Museum until August 15.
Zhou (1685-1730) is considered not only a master of bamboo carving in Jiading, but an artist of great influence in the history of Chinese bamboo carving.
Zhou’s arts matured as he entered his 50s. Besides bamboo carving, he was also accomplished in wood and stone carving, painting, calligraphy, seal cutting and poetry composing, making him an all round artist.
Organized by the Shanghai Museum, with cooperation from the Nanjing Museum, Suzhou Museum and Tianjin Museum, the exhibition is divided into three categories with three different themes based on the subject of his works.
The exhibition features nearly 44 of Zhou’s pieces, including his bamboo carvings and ink-wash paintings. Most of his bamboo-carvings and paintings depict landscapes, bamboos and rocks. His bamboo-carving style was heavily influenced by his paintings, which are less well known.
Zhou lived in the last golden age of ancient Chinese crafts, during which different types of carving, including bamboo carving, had developed to their peak. After fully mastering the bamboo-carving technique of the “Jiading School,” he created a new carving style emphasizing the use of “a knife as a brush.”
As recorded in “Biography of Zhou Hao” by Qian Daxin, Zhou was a painter first, who had never studied hard for imperial examinations. An expert in painting landscapes, figures and flowers, he imitated techniques handed down by masters of the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties, but expressed thoughts in his own way. Zhou preferred to paint landscapes with figures described vividly and carefully by clothes and facial expressions.
Vibrant and expressive
Zhou also applied the new carving technique of showing different arrangements of ink and brushwork seen in landscape painting to bamboo-carving works, finely presenting the concentration of ink and a strong sense of space.
Besides carving strong and straight lines, he also carved to depict diverse arrangements.
Thus, his artwork not only showed the effect of outlining wrinkles of landscape paintings, but also reflected the technological characteristics of delicate Jiading bamboo carving, which were thought to be superb among his contemporaries.
His calligraphy, mostly running and cursive scripts, imitated the vibrant and expressive style of Su Shi (1037-1101), a renowned calligrapher in the Song Dynasty.
His inscriptions on his bamboo carvings are especially distinguished, as they represent the characteristic of paper work at the same time.
After his death, Zhou became a big name, and imitations of his artwork appeared in large numbers.
The exhibition also showcases some of the fakes that were produced during his time.
Date: Through August 15, 9am-5pm
Venue: Shanghai Museum
Address: 201 People’s Ave
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