Shao Yuan, Peking University, Beijing, China
Since the mid-1980s, the photographer Lois Conner has been working in China, developing a particular fascination with the lotus. This photograph shows a lotus pond in Shao Yuan, an early seventeenth-century garden whose landscaping survives today as part of the campus of Peking University. Both Conner’s subject matter and her vertical composition, created by using a “banquet format” camera lens, evoke traditional Chinese hanging-scroll depictions of the subject. By pointing her camera downward so that the flowers in the foreground completely fill the picture frame—eliminating a horizon line—Conner’s image recalls Chinese examples that omit any view into the distance.
Artwork Details
- Title: Shao Yuan, Peking University, Beijing, China
- Artist: Lois Conner (American, born New York, 1951)
- Date: 1991
- Medium: Pigment ink print
- Dimensions: Image: 35 3/8 x 14 1/16 in. (89.8 x 35.7 cm)
Sheet: 39 3/8 x 16 15/16 in. (100 x 43 cm)
Mat: 42 5/16 x 20 3/8 in. (107.4 x 51.8 cm) - Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Purchase, The Rosenkranz Foundation Gift, 2012
- Object Number: 2012.66
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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