Five-Pavilion Lake (Wuting Hu)

The title of this work identifies it as a depiction of the lake Chang created on his garden property in Brazil. But unlike the album leaves with scenes from the Pa Te Yuan garden that clearly depict the particularities of a specific garden, the tilted peak in the distance and stylistic approach of this painting harken back to the ancient models that Chang emulated. Here, opposing diagonals and contrasting areas of detailed form and empty space balance the classical approach. The artist cultivated and inhabited an aesthetic space where the overlay of Chinese cultural signifiers, the natural environment, and lived experience blended and became unified.