Title:
Apples
Creator/Contributor:
Wang Chi-ch'ien (Wang Jiqian; CC Wang)
Date:
1960
Identifier:
CT.37
Format:
Painting
Ink and color on paper
China
h 36 -7/8 x w 17 -7/8 inches
Description:
"This painting hung for some time in the back room of the Mi Chou Gallery on Madison Avenue in New York City - I would visit
on every trip to New York [frequently, during my years in Washington at the Freer Gallery of Art]. Anyway, every time I would
go there I would admire this [painting], and in between I would worry over whether someone else would buy it. Finally I conquered
my reluctance - understand that one could buy a pretty good old painting in Japan for around the same price - and bought it
myself. I've never regretted it; it's hung on several walls of places I've lived. It exemplifies what Wang himself says about
strong but supple brushwork in praising Bada Shanren and others, and is also very original compositionally. Was his style
affected in this period by his study [at Cooper Union in New York City] of Western-style painting, was it Cézanne, or someone
else? If you could combine Bada Shanren and Cézanne, this is what you would get."