Butterfly on Reeds, Zhao Shao’ang

Archive Label 2003 (version 1): The inscription on this painting reads: “In deep autumn of the wu-yin year [1938], wailing winds whip grasses around the northern border. Shao’ang, under lamplight in Shanyan Studio” The wailing winds refer to Japan’s aggression toward China, and the northern border is Manchuria. Zhao Shao’ang was working in his studio in the south of China, but he was nonetheless concerned about the increasing Japanese militarism. The Sino-Japanese War had begun the year before and Japan was rapidly gaining control of China’s center of industry, Manchuria. The painting school to which Zhao belonged often engaged in art with political content. This painting is a masterful blend of a seasonal piece and Zhao Shao’ang’s political concerns. A few sweeping brush strokes and wide range of ink tones set an autumnal mood. The chaff at the bottom of the painting and the reed stalks gradually angling off to the left make a balanced composition. The butterfly valiantly fluttering its wings as it tries to balance itself on a windblown reed stalk suggests the anxiety of the uncertain time. Archive Label 2003 (version 2): The wailing winds imply Japanese aggression in China and the northern border refers to Manchuria. Though he painted this work in his studio in Southern China, Zhao Shao'ang revealed his worry about the ever-increasing militarism of Japan. The Sino-Japanese war had broken out a year earlier, and Japan was quickly gaining control of Manchuria, the industrial center of China. Zhao Shao'ang is a second-generation Lingnan School painter; painters of this school are mostly from the southern province of Guangdong, the home province of the founding father of the Republic of China, Dr. Dun Yat-sen. Inspired by patriotic anti-imperialism, the three early masters of this school, Gao Jianfu (1879-1951), Gao Qifeng (1889-1933), and Chen Shuren (1883-1948), all participated in the revolutionary war against the Qing, the last imperial dynasty. The strong tie between art and politics is a major characteristic of the Lingnan school. With a few sweeping strokes and masterful tonality, Zhao Shao'ang captured the sorrow of late autumn. Arranged diagonally, the reed stalks and chaff form a balanced composition, yet the butterfly, fluttering its wings in an attempt to balance itself on a windblown stalk conveys the anxiety and unsettledness of the times. Exhibition Label: "Selections for the Summer," Jun-2006, Mary Dusenbury In deep autumn of the wu-yin year [1938], Wailing winds whip grasses around the northern border. Shao-an, under lamplight In Shan-yen Studio In 1937 Zhao Shao’ang abandoned the studio and school he had established in Canton to flee to Hong Kong at the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War. Butterfly on Reeds was painted in Hong Kong a year later. The painting is a lovely depiction of the instant a fragile butterfly alights on windswept reeds, but Zhao’s inscription suggests that the artist intended the painting to have a political meaning as well. With a few sweeping strokes and the skillful use of washes, Zhao has described the fragility of life and desolation of late autumn-the end of an age. It would be hard not to interpret the wailing winds of the inscription as a direct reference to Japanese aggression in Manchuria (the northern border), whereas the fluttering butterfly, attempting to balance itself on a windblown stalk, ably conveys the anxiety and unsettledness of the times.