Lotus and Birds

Nowadays, some people take Bada Shanren as the originator of Chinese minimalism art, and some also compare him to Paul Cézanne, thinking that his works present extreme modernity. This is perhaps a misreading of Bada Shanren himself and his works, however, today when Chinese experimental ink painting has acheived a rapid development, when Chinese contemporary artists and art historians seek "modernity" base on Chinese paintings, Bada Shanren’s traditional works no doubt have new value for exploration. Bada Shanren’s real name was Zhu Da, and he was a successor of Ming Dynasty imperial family. After experiencing the change of emperors in Ming and Qing dynasties, he became a monk to and began his career of painting. His main achievement was flower and bird painting, inheriting Xu Wei's freehand traditional painting and influenced the subsequent freehand painting circle for nearly three hundred years. His works have unique styles and strong personality, with influence on flower and bird painting nowadays. Lotus, stones and waterfowls in this painting are common images under his brush. The whole picture adopts a concise composition with generalized images and the whole painting has a very strong sense of form.