ZENG XIAOJUN (BORN 1954)
Scholar's Rock No. 2
Hanging scroll, ink and colour on paper
129.5 x 77.5 cm. (51 x 30 ½ in.)
Executed in 2003

PROVENANCE
The Origo Collection

LITERATURE
Goedhuis: Zeng Xiaojun, Michael Goedhuis, London, 2009, p. 6

SPECIALIST'S NOTES
Born in Beijing in 1954, Zeng Xiaojun graduated from the Central Academy of Arts and Design in Beijing, specialising in mural painting. He moved to the United States in 1983 and lived in Boston for over a decade. In 1997 the artist moved back to Beijing, his hometown. Zeng is an avid collector of Chinese antiques as well as a painter. His fascination with scholar’s rocks, scholar’s objects, trees, and Chinese antique furniture brings inspiration to his art; this affiliation is evident in his early landscape paintings and his more recent portraits of trees. His pursuit in ink paintings returns to the ancient literary and artistic practice that he longs for. For the artist, dormant and bare tree branches manifest the most elemental vigour of life – the ability to regenerate. Wilting trees and flowers are merely waiting for a new beginning, denoting part of a life cycle that takes place every year. Zeng paints with this spirit in mind and depicts all the intricate lines and structures that he can see and touch. He gives life and a mystical presence to his subject-matters whilst directing viewer’s attention to every detail he painstakingly outlines from prolonged observation and sketching.