Chinese Landscape

The profusion of repetitive lines in this large-scale work by the reclusive Kyoto-based painter and theorist Nakabayashi Chikutō creates the illusion that the entire landscape is softly swaying. Although there are few signs of human activity, the scene is not entirely uninhabited: a contemplative figure is visible in one of the structures on the lakeshore in the left panel, and a man wearing a long-sleeved robe and holding a staff appears on the bridge at the bottom of the right panel. The latter is depicted walking, yet he is rendered with such economy that it almost appears as if he is the only element of the picture that is still. The elegant visual dissonance between the scholar and his surroundings marks this figure as a possible proxy guide to the uncanny, dreamlike landscape.