Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Poem
Calligrapher Fu Shan Chinese
Not on view
明/清 傅山 草書七言絕句 軸 絹本
This monumental work is a perfect visual encapsulation of Fu Shan’s credo: “Better awkward than clever, better ugly than charming, better fragmented than slick, better straightforward than calculating.” Works by Fu’s contemporaries Ni Yuanlu and Wang Duo also achieve the effect of intentional “ugliness,” but they do so by different means. Where Ni and Wang use quirky angles and shifts of direction, Fu uses free—seemingly uncontrollable—meandering, rounded lines. All three saturate the surface of the silk with splotches of wet ink, a bold gesture that goes against traditional ideas of beauty in calligraphy.
The poem reads:
Taking things easy in old age, I shun all worldly engagements,
And sleep day after day behind the tightly shut doors of my rustic home.
But then deep feelings stir up attachments;
A red lotus blossoms in the rain.
—Trans. by Shi-yee Liu
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