Bada Shanren

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Zhū Dā (朱耷) (c. 1626 – c. 1705) was a Chinese painter of shuimohua and a calligrapher. He was of noble lineage, being a descendant of the Ming dynasty prince Zhu Quan.

A child prodigy, he began painting and writing poetry in his early childhood. About the year 1658, when the Ming emperor committed suicide and a rebel army attacked Beijing, the young man sought refuge in a Buddhist temple and became a monk. As a loyal subject of the Ming, he was heart broken and refused to speak to anyone: he only laughs and cries (as inscriptions in his paintings show). He was a leading painter of the Qing period.

His paintings feature sharp brush strokes which are attributed to the sideways manner by which he held his brush.

In the 1930s, Chinese painter Zhang Daqian produced several forgeries of Zhu Da's works. But, they are easily spotted by the trained eye, because the modern copies were softer and rounder.

Yale University scholar Wang Fangyu was a major collector of Zhu Da paintings from the 1960s until his death in 1997.

In China, Zhu Da is more commonly known as Bādà Shānrén (八大山人), a religious name that he took up late in life.

[edit] Forgeries

According to an article by Lorraine Adams published in Smithsonian magazine in 2003, Zhu Da is one of the most forged artists of the 17th Century.

Article quoted here without permission: Netting Bada Shanren’s Forgers

A royal, a monk and a madman, this 17th-century Chinese artist became a favorite of forgers By Lorraine Adams

The daffodils are in sunny bloom on the Mall. But in the hushed, belowground spaces of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, curator Joseph Chang whispers to me in the dim light about forgeries and mysteries.

Chang stands before two sets of seemingly identical ink paintings, both titled Flowers, Birds, Insects, and Fish. One set was made by the 17th-century Chinese artist Bada Shanren. The other is a 20th-century forgery.

I look carefully at the flowers. “I think this is the real one,” I say.

“No,” Chang says, pointing to the other. “That is.”

Chang explains why. “During his middle period Bada tends to use the brush sideways. You always have a very sharp brushstroke,” Chang says, pointing to the originals. He motions to the 1930s fakes by the late Zhang Daqian, one of the greatest traditional Chinese painters of the 20th century and a major forger of Bada’s work. “These are softer, rounded.”

The art of Bada Shanren has captivated Chang, 49, for almost 20 years. Born in Taiwan, Chang came to the United States in 1978 to study art history at the University of Kansas; this is his eighth year at the Sackler. In a way, he’s been preparing for this year’s two Bada shows—this one at the Sackler and another at the Freer Gallery of Art—for most of his adult life. Why Bada? “He is so mysterious,” Chang says. “Scholars still haven’t figured out who he was.”

Here’s what they do know: Bada was born in 1626. His real name is unknown; Bada Shanren is one of more than a dozen pseudonyms he used over his lifetime. He was a descendant of the Ming imperial prince Zhu Quan (1378-1448) and came from a long line of calligraphers, painters, seal-carvers and art historians. After the last Ming emperor committed suicide while a rebel army attacked Beijing, Bada, at 22, went into hiding in a Buddhist temple. For more than 30 years, he was a monk. Around 1678, he suffered some sort of mental breakdown and left the temple.

He married briefly and died in 1705.

The Sackler exhibition includes 13 works Bada created after his breakdown, along with three forgeries made long after his death and two paintings by 20th-century followers.

Chang directs me to two apparently identical hanging scrolls titled Four Geese. Once more I guess which is genuine, and this time I’m right. In the Bada scroll, the faces of the geese are expressive (something Bada’s animals were noted for), and in the forgery, a lotus is almost blobby compared with Bada’s. “But what if you encountered the copy without the original to compare?” Chang asks. “Could you make a decision?”

Even for the connoisseur, it’s a tough call. Take cats. Scholars have come to believe that many of the surviving feline paintings that were originally attributed to Bada are copies. Chang steers me toward one titled Cat on a Rock, from the estate of Bada collector and Yale University scholar Wang Fangyu, who died in 1997. “Professor Wang saw this piece in the 1960s,” Chang says. “He thought it was a forgery, so he let it go. Over the decades, he studied Bada, he collected Bada, and then this piece resurfaced in the ’90s and he was convinced it was original and he bought it.”

Experts still debate whether it is a genuine Bada Shanren.

Forgeries of Bada’s work began to proliferate in the late 19th century as the Qing dynasty (1644-1912), which had forced the artist into hiding, crumbled. By the early 20th century, Bada had become one of the most copied artists of the 17th century.

Disputes and consternation have haunted his collectors and scholars ever since.

“After the Madness: The Secular Life, Art, and Imitation of Bada Shanren (1626-1705)” is at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery until July 27. “In Pursuit of Heavenly Harmony: Paintings and Calligraphy by Bada Shanren from the Estate of Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai” is at the Freer Gallery of Art until October 12.

[edit] Bibliography

Smithsonian Magazine article NETTING BADA SHANREN'S FORGERS

IN PURSUIT OF HEAVENLY HARMONY Paintings and Calligraphy by Bada Shanren (1626-1705) from the Estate of Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai by JOSEPH CHANG and QIANSHEN BAI catalogue by STEPHEN D. ALLEE Washington DC: Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, in association with Weatherhill, 2003. 203 pages, $60 (hardcover), $40 (paperback)