Lotus
Guo Dawei Chinese
Not on view
Guo Dawei dedicated this painting to Lin Yutang and his wife. It chronicles the life cycle of the lotus. At the center is a flower in full bloom. To the right, two buds have just emerged, while a seed pod dips down between two not yet unfurled leaves. To the left, a pale leaf, tattered and drooping, sets off bare or broken stems. Although Guo painted lotus often, compositions with a distinct temporal dimension like this one are rare.
The distinctive pink color of the lotus—namely, "Western red" in Chinese—was first imported into China from Mexico in the early twentieth century and became widely used in traditional painting. The sinuous lotus stems cutting across the picture surface are calligraphic lines that create a shallow space through overlapping and contrasting tonality. This work demonstrates Guo's idea that the "space-consciousness" in Chinese painting, unlike that in western art, is "calligraphically created."
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