Word: hsieh
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Since the fifth century, Chinese art has been guided by the Six Principles of Painting formulated by Hsieh Ho. It is extremely remarkable to the Western viewer that such a philosophy has survived and still serves as a criterion for judging art; the West has no comparable set of principles but has known many. To the Chinese, the endurance of Hsieh Ho's Six Principles is no oddity; the principles provide a general framework within which the artist may work freely. At the same time the principles enable the viewer to approach the individual works with more sensitivity...
...remaining principles of Hsieh Ho include proper usage of the brush, careful depiction of forms, "pleasing" application of color, and transmission and perpetuation of the masters. This sixth principle deeply influenced Chinese painting. Imitation of the great masters tends to become unimaginative repetition. There is no taboo on plagiarism in the East as in the West. The imitator was apt to become less forceful, further from the essential nature of the subject, as a result of his study of the masters. Continuities of style certainly mark Western art, too, but the variations have been more extreme and are not bound...
...representative is in the works of the Ch'an (Zen) Buddhist monks which are noticeably sparse--no doubt because court and monastery failed to maintain close relations. Among the traditional scrolls of calligraphy there is an "Autobiographical Essay" by a monk which shows the Ch'an Buddhist application of Hsieh Ho's first principle. The characters appear like scribbles of a child among the stylized work of the emperors and scholars. A Zen counterpart in painting is the "Sage," a work by another monk. In a few rough, abrupt, sometimes unfinished brush strokes the figure is forcefully rendered...