Cloudy Boat in the Yellow Ocean

Xuezhuang, a Chan monk-painter, in his later years resided in the Yellow Mountains, famous for their strange scenery and swirling mists. On a remote site high in the peaks, he built a retreat named Cloudy Boat, depicted in the center of the painting among the spring foliage. The inscription records that the artist painted the scroll for a friend who had visited during early spring. Inside a pavilion in the lower right are two tiny figures, the “Disheveled Monk of the Yellow Mountain” as the artist names himself, and his friend. Xuezhang’s blunt unpretentious brushwork is quite distinct from other Chinese monk painters such as Shitao and Bada Shanren also represented in this exhibition and seems to express the individuality and directness of the artist’s character.