Lin Haizhong

signed, titled and dated 2015 in Chinese, and marked with six seals of the artist, framed

Private Chinese Collection

Overall in good condition
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Lin Haizhong was born in Hangzhou in 1968 into a family from Yongchun, Fujian province. In 1993, he earned a master's degree from the China Academy of Art, where he remains an instructor. His paintings have received awards at the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth National Art Work Exhibitions.

Lin Haizhong's landscape paintings feature simple and beautiful creative concepts. He brings the spirit of traditional ink painting into a contemporary context. His proficiency in ink wash painting allows him to create rich, classical tableaus that brim with modern sensibility without any sense of anachronism. As one journeys through his landscapes, one is undoubtedly aware of the continuation of a distant cultural tradition merged with a distinctive individual style.

Landscape Painting and Woyou
Lang Shaojun

The concept of woyou, or 'roaming while reclining', originates with the painter Zong Bing. According to his biography in the Book of Song, Zong's life bridged the Jin and Song dynasties, and he repeatedly refused nominations to official posts. When asked why, he responded: "I have been living among the hills and drinking the water of the valley for more than thirty years now". The Book of Song also records his travels: "He journeyed as far west as Jing and Wu, and in the south, he climbed Mount Heng, in order to embrace the resolve of Shang Ping [a noted recluse]. When he fell ill, he returned to Jiangling. He sighed: 'Now that I am old and infirm, I'm afraid I may not be able to see all the famous mountains. The only thing to do is purify my feelings, contemplate the Dao, and roam [遊 you] to them as I recline [卧 wo]', and in his chamber he made paintings of all the places he had travelled'.

Herein lies the origins of woyou. The term describes either landscape painting in general, as in A Record of Xishan Woyou, a Qing dynasty history of landscape painting; or more specifically, the landscape paintings of retired, hermitic scholars, as in Woyou Paintings of Xiaoxiang and Woyou Paintings of Xishan. Zong Bing also authored a text, On Painting Landscapes, that includes an in-depth explanation of woyou. The basic tenets are:

1) The woyou of landscape paintings is a journey of mind and matter through which one can clarify the heart and observe the Dao of Heaven, just as "the Dao of divine law, provided by wise men, gives understanding to the sages; the Dao of formal beauty, provided by landscapes, gives joy to the benevolent".
2) Painting landscapes can express the "beauty and spirituality" of the natural world, just as reading books can reveal "the logic of millennia" and "intentions beyond appearances".
3) Landscape paintings can contain "the form of paradise" within their dimensions. Gatherings at which people "deeply contemplate the hills, beaches, waters, and land" allow "wise men to reflect profoundly and experience great delight", accomplishing the goal of changshen ("smoothing the spirit").

In sum, On Painting Landscapes developed the Neo-Daoist idea of the Wei-Jin period that natural phenomena are connected to human enlightenment and drew a connection between the theory that man is an integral part of nature and the human practice of appreciating natural life. In other words, landscape paintings are interlinked with the Dao of wise men; they can facilitate the "purification of feelings and contemplation of the Dao" and "smooth the spirit", transcending Utilitarian Confucian ethics. This premise established the fundamental principles of landscape painting.

Art historical records show that landscape paintings in the Jin-Tang period were often metaphorical and didactic. Such attributes became less prevalent during the subsequent Five Dynasties and Northern and Southern Song periods as the main goals of landscape painting became the expression of natural forms, romantic scenes, and ascetic ideas. After the Yuan dynasty, as the connections between painting and calligraphy grew stronger, landscape painters increasingly focused on the skill and style of their brushwork. Consequently, the notions of woyou and changshen were displaced. It was not until the influx of Western ideas in the past century that landscape paintings became more formally diverse and the spiritual traditions of woyou and changshen underwent yet another transition.

Lin Haizhong (Lot 50), Zheng Li (Lot 52), Xue Liang (Lot 51), and Qiu Ting (Lot 53) are four painters who all came of age during the Reform era. They each possess a different style of painting, but all of them believe in the renewal of traditional Chinese painting. They have devoted themselves to inheriting the traditions of landscape painting and furthering its modern evolutions, including the creation of realms, the pursuit of poetic sentiment, and the ascetic refinement of brushwork. This movement is demonstrated by the hand scroll shown here, which offers the experience of woyou.

Written one day after Tomb-Sweeping Day, 2015, at the Red Pine Library