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M+, Hong Kong, © Chao Hong
Chao Chun-hsiang 趙春翔
Black Splash 15 墨韻十五
1958
Chao Chung-Hsiang spent a lifetime integrating methodologies of Chinese and Western painting. He began painting at the age of ten in Henan Province, and later studied under influential art educators Lin Fengmian and Pan Tianshou in Hangzhou before moving to Taiwan. Chao arrived in New York in 1956, and Black Splash 15 dates from his early days there, capturing his initial reactions to abstract expressionism. Chao uses transparent wash in the background, while his energetic, opaque strokes occupy the foreground. In one continuous gesture, he blends splashed ink with dry-brush techniques, sometimes creating pools of ink that appear suspended in flux. His brushstrokes are consistently dynamic and vibrant, and spiral out in all directions. His forms flaunt the potential of ink with a three-dimensionality achieved through simplicity, proving that ink is just as versatile and expressive as layers of splattered oil paints. Few of Chao’s early monochromatic works have survived. In contrast with his practice of superimposing brightly coloured acrylics over ink—which he developed in the 1980s and 1990s—this composition provides an early glimpse at his use of layering as compositional device.
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