Gao Song Bamboo Spectrum

Author: Wang Chang'an
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: A must-read for collectors and connoisseurs. Reprinted four times within six months. This is a remarkable book that blends the extraordinary and the refined. The author is known as a "player" in Beijing and is celebrated for his effortless and expert mastery in artifact appreciation. The book covers furniture, lacquerware, bamboo carvings, crafts, regulations, calligraphy and painting, sculpture, music and dance, reminiscences, leisure activities, cuisine, and miscellaneous writings. Beyond the (refined play), it delves into trivial anecdotes, revealing breadth amidst the mundane and elegance within the broad. It is particularly rich in wit. The author organizes his experiences and insights in painting bamboo into rhymes, with illustrations as the main focus supplemented by textual explanations. The format is clear, simple, and accessible, lively, progressive, moving from the basic to the complex, and showcasing the distinct spirit of each. Gao Song Bamboo Spectrum is a valuable painting manual: First, it serves as a bridge between tradition and innovation. The Yuan Dynasty was a golden age for ink bamboo painting, with renowned artists like Gao Kegong, Zhao Mengfu, Gao Daosheng, and Ke Jiensi excelling in this art. Second, Gao Song pays great attention to meticulous observation of bamboo, carefully distinguishing its varieties and creating variations in form. Third, his compilation of bamboo painting rhymes into colloquial language is a unique contribution. To some extent, it enriches the art and theory of Chinese bamboo painting.