Saturday, April 30, 2016

One of He Kun's color reduction woodcuts

I don't know the title of this piece - if any readers out there do and/or have more information about this contemporary Chinese artist, please comment below! I found two of He Kun's colorful and playful reduction woodcuts for sale on Amazon of all places. But doing a Google search for the artist I found a website with some information and that features several more impressive reduction woodcuts, most of which feature people or animals in landscapes and make surprising and dramatic use of color.

The sky seems flooded with scattered shards. Perhaps they have broken off of the central landmass, and some have even fallen into the water, and so I fear a bit for the lone swimmer. My eyes rest on him and I am calmed. The swimmer moves in a path parallel to a steer meandering across the field near the water's edge. They have both moved just past the halfway point of the picture plane, and so I feel confident that they know where they are going and will soon arrive at their destination. Assuming they have a destination. The world around them is colorful chaos. The symmetry we perceive is but one perspective, the pockets of serenity are tightly localized. What grandeur in this partnership between the inner life of the human mind and the outward state of the material world.

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