NARRATOR:

This work titled Zen is an ink and colour painting on paper created by Lui Shou-kwan in 1970. It’s a large vertical rectangle, measuring 284 centimetres high and 122 centimetres wide.

Zen is an abstract painting with no recognisable objects or figures. A form resembling a black cloud dominates around 80 percent of the space at the centre. The cloud is not clearly defined and resembles thick smoke with irregular edges. Other colours can be seen through the black ink or around the edges at its top and bottom. Red is peeking through the centre of the black cloud in many spots, as if there’s a fire burning behind the cloud. A tiny strip of yellow sits near the bottom of the cloud. Above and behind the black cloud is a splotchy area of greyish white and pale blue. The very bottom of the painting, below the black cloud, is a clean white area showing no paint, only the paper. The most clearly defined element in the painting is at the upper left corner. What looks like a shaft of white light appears to be either entering the black cloud at an angle, or possibly shooting up out of it.

In the bottom section of the painting there are five seals which are small red squares. Near the left edge two seals represent the artist’s name and his family name. Below those two is another seal that contains a three-word Chinese quote from the Doctrine of the Mean of Confucian philosophy, which approximately means ‘intelligence resulting from sincerity’. At the extreme right edge of the painting is a collector’s seal, which represents a previous owner of the work. At the bottom of the painting, near the centre, is a seal showing a tiger figure—a common motif in ink art seals.

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