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Right now, all over the world and especially Asia, people are celebrating the arrival of the year of the Tiger. In addition to having enjoyed a delicious Chinese banquet, we hung a folk portrait titled “Two Tigers” front and center in our Bucktown gallery to mark the start of the new year. The painting of two tigers in conflict is an exquisite example of Eastern painting traditions from the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Minimal use of color and shading, cropped composition, and ‘bird’s-eye’ view are all elements that were uniquely Asian and not utilized in Western painting at that time.
“Two Tigers” was created in Korea during the late 18th c. when Europe was primarily producing historical paintings, which were highly representational, containing one focal point. That primary figure was engaged with the viewer, as if only created to be observed, as opposed to having been captured in a moment, almost accidentally. The Western perspective was distanced from the focal figure and depth was created by shading. The primary object was situated in a fully developed scene that gave the image a context, narrative, and visual interest. For example, if the figure was a reclining woman, she would be in a room with furniture, drapery, and perhaps attendants.
Nearly everything is different about the Korean folk painting “Two Tigers”. First, the tigers are two-dimensional, with only minor attempts to achieve an image of what is actually seen in nature. The curved lines on the tigers’ backs outline the muscles and movement of the animals, which are also repeated in the gnarled branch in the background. However, the blades of grass, the fanned leaves, and even the tigers themselves produce a flat image due to the lack of shading and color variation. In Eastern techniques of the time, depth was created by layering rather than shading. The tigers are in front of the trees so we know they are closer to us. The tiger on the left has one leg positioned in front of the boar, informing us of his dominant position, protecting his kill. The Eastern tradition of layering instead of shading is very purposeful and not utilized due to lack of skill. In Asia, shading was believed to be a means of hiding mistakes. In the Asian tradition, painters left mistakes along with their triumphs on the canvas. The tigers are executed within a cropped frame, barely contained within the borders of the frame, without much story around them. We look down on the scene from above, another reoccurring perspective in Eastern painting of the time.
“Two Tigers” is a great example of late 18th and early 19th century Eastern folk paintings. This type of painting would rarely have been created in Asia during the late 19th century when this aesthetic lost favor amongst many painters who ‘modernized’ and adopted Western techniques.
“Two Tigers”
Korea
Late 18th century
Pigment in Plaster on Board
43″ w x 33″ high
$5880
