Lilies, Rocks and Falling Seeds
Yizong in spring of wuwu [1978].
This painting features two contrasting techniques: the rocks were each created with a single broad expressive brushstroke while the flowers were created with relatively fine ink outlines and filled with bright colors. This combination is unusual. Most Chinese paintings of bird and flower motifs fall into one of two broad groups according to the technique employed to create them: Paintings in the xieyi style are more expressive and feature more spontaneous brushwork, as with the rocks here; paintings in the gongbi style are more carefully done with fine outlines often filled with color, as with the flowers here. The differences in these two styles are more than just technical, however. The xieyi style is associated with artists of the educated elite, while the gongbi style is associated with professional and court artists. Since members of the educated elite considered professional and court painters mere artisans, the styles were rarely mixed. Born in Shandong province in northeastern China, Guo Yizong was first influenced as an artist by his father, Guo Weiqu, who, like so many artists of his generation, had studied with Huang Binhong (1865–1955). Guo Yizong enrolled in Beijing Art College in 1959 and like his father became known for bird-and-flower painting. He current teaches at the Central Academy of Arts, Beijing and is a member of the Bird-Flower Painting Society and the National Art Institute.
