1982 ‘Contemporary Art’ Chinese brush painting, ink and color on paper, mounted to silk scroll fabric (w/ a pheasant or phoenix motif), signed lower right along with date “82” and artist seal.

Painting sheet size: approx. 12 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches. Overall size with frame: approx. 23 1/8 x 23 5/8 inches. It’s a square shaped piece.

Black painted wood frame has damage and paint loss. Painting has not been removed from framing and is under plexi-glass. Backer is wood panel; ‘picture wire’ is actually red rope. Painting’s paper is discolored (yellowed or browned) and has foxing spots.

Powerful, eye-catching image per the confidently painted form and primary colors a la Joan Miro. It’s a great Abstract Expressionist painting. Willem De Kooning painted female forms while this artist was painting a mammal, perhaps an aardvark.

The style is unique. Seems more painterly / looser than Joan Miro or Marino Marini, yet not as abstract as Tapies or Soulages. It’s like a more defined Frankenthaler but with Miro coloration and an actual subject vis a vis Marini.

Depending on how the painter was informed, this may have roots in Zen / Buddhist painting. Japanese style Sumi-e is by definition all black. This painting seems more likely to have sprung from the New Ink Movement of Hong Kong. Although, a similar movement of Western influenced artists were emerging in ‘free China’ Taiwan. By the 1980’s, abstraction blossomed in Shanghai.

In the 1950’s, artist Lu Shoukun aka Lui Shou-Kwan was a pioneer in marrying Chinese brush painting with Abstract Expressionism. Some of the artists included in the Origo Collection were Chan Ky-Yut, Gu Gan, and Zeng Shanqing. The painting here falls somewhere between the more abstract styles of the first two and the representational style of the later.

Artists who emerged from the 1980’s abstract movement in Shanghai included Yu Youhan, Li Shan, Zhang Jianjun, Zhou Changjiang, Chen Chuangluo, Miao Pengfei, Qiu Deshu, Dai Hengyang, Wang Jieyin, Cha Guojun, Chen Zhen, Hu Xiangcheng, Liu Yaping, Xu Longsen, and Yu Jiyong.

Robert Rauschenberg was working in China in 1982 and was in Shanghai. He collaborated with local artists there. I do wonder if he had anything to do with this painting. Interestingly, Bob also used chop marks / stamps on his artworks.

I’m Chris Smith, in New Jersey, USA. I can’t understand the markings on this piece, but I do know a good painting when I see it. If you know who painted the painting offered here, I’d love to learn who the artist was. Please message me to share your thoughts.