The Poet Du Fu, Wang Ziwu

Exhibition Label:
"Using the Past to Serve the Present in 20th Century Chinese Painting," Oct-2006, Ai-lian Liu, Asian Art Intern
Du Fu (712-770) was one of China’s greatest poets. A scholar and government official in the service of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) during the turbulent eighth century, Du Fu wrote poems expressing concern for the dynasty he served and the welfare of the common people. This imaginary portrait of Du Fu is inspired by his poem “Withered Palm Tree,” in which he identified the dying tree with the suffering commoners exploited by corrupt officials. The inscription states:
"They suffered like the withered palm tree,
Which made me heave deeply a lingering sigh;
Even though the dead were let to rest,
How are the living to earn their keep?"

Here the artist depicted the poet as an old sage, weary but with tightened lips and set jaw reminding the viewer of his determination and remarkable endurance. Leaning against the tree, the poet ponders the fate of the common people with sorrow and compassion.

Archive Label 2003:
Du Fu (712-770) is considered preeminent among China’s poets, and wrote during the ‘Golden Age’ of poetry in China, the Tang dynasty (618-907). In addition to being a poet, he was a scholar and a government official. The period in which he lived and wrote was a turbulent era of political crisis and rebellion. Du Fu wrote many poems that expressed his concern for the dynasty he served and for the suffering of the common people. He is remembered for his compassion and seriousness, as well as for the creative use of language in his poems.

The painter, Wang Ziwu, lived through another turbulent time for China, the mid twentieth century. In his portrait of the poet, he captures Du Fu’s character with an expressive yet economical use of the brush. The poet is shown as an old man with a staff, leaning against a tree. Although he seems weary and somewhat melancholy, his upright posture and the set of his jaw hint at the seriousness and determination he was known for. Using a traditional mode of figure painting in which the face is rendered in greater detail than the body and setting, Wang draws attention to the wrinkled and noble face of the poet. He further creates a sense of emotional turbulence through the rough texture of the tree and the poet’s robe.