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Preface by Professor Robert E. Harrist, Jr. of Columbia
University
BOOK DESCRIPTION
This book brings together over seventy Chinese fine
brushwork paintings by Xu Jin, including figures,
landscapes, animals, flowers and birds. While his
works draw on sources in earlier art and traditional
iconography, they also reflect Xu Jin's gift as a
narrator and storyteller capable of inventing fresh
and new ways of bringing the past to life. Xu Jin’s
paintings are characterized by stylish composition,
impressive colors, and fine lines. They not only demonstrate
a natural integration of verse, calligraphy, painting
and seal, but also a fine combination of Chinese and
Western painting skills. His figure paintings display
the artist's virtuoso command of the techniques of
traditional Chinese painting as well as his encyclopedic
knowledge of Chinese history and literature, embodied
in his depictions of artists, poets, military heroes,
famous beauties, and deities. They also combine the
finesse and technical polish with the more spontaneous,
calligraphic gestures of Chinese literati painting.
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