Chao Er Tai

1974

泛黃 / 斑點

POST WINGS

This work was completed when Zhao Erdai was fifty-seven years old and represents a crucial transitional phase in his ink painting from traditional heart-mind imagery landscapes to a more personal visual language. The composition retains the momentum and grandeur emphasized in traditional landscapes, with mountains and water dynamically driving the spatial elements, presenting a vast and flowing visual rhythm. However, within the brushwork, there are emerging fractures and pauses that do not fully adhere to compositional rules, indicating that the artist is gradually loosening the existing narrative structure of landscapes.

Compared to his later works, which focus on "site-generated perspectives" in sketching ink painting, this piece still primarily drives from heart-mind imagery but shows a sensitive response to the true state of nature. This artwork marks an important stage for Zhao Erdai as he moves from grand landscapes towards a personal ink language based on bodily experience and on-site observation.

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