Long live the Country by Pan Tianshou

Ink on paper
56.6x82.4cm
Pan Tianshou Museum

Pan Tianshou (1898-1971)
Courtesy name: Da Yi, style name: Shou Zhe. He was from Ninghai, Zhejiang Province. A painter, calligrapher, and fine arts educator, he served as president of the State School of Arts, president of Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts and vice chairman of the Chinese Artists Association. He was good at flowers, birds and landscapes, and was a master of modern structure. This work portrays a small scene on National Day. A yellow chrysanthemum reveals that it is early autumn; lighted red lanterns convey a festive atmosphere. Pan paintings take great care of structure - creating and breaking a precipitous situation. He emphasized the spatial division of the picture and often mulled over the amount and location of the seal for considerable time. Semi-circular chrysanthemum twigs and round lanterns occupy the right bottom space, forming a big "L"; there is also a small "L" on the top left corner. The two 'L's facing each other comprises the basic structure of this painting. Whether the scene extends to the four corners of the paper, how many joints to have and to what extent I the painter has given a lot of thought to these considerations. There are no repetitions; all form a perfect unified whole.