The Monkey King

This painting depicts the climax of a famous dramatic story in which the Monkey King attacks a skeletal demon three times to rescue his master. The figure’s face is painted red and white. Leaping high into the air and holding in his upraised arms a magical weapon, he is ready to pounce on the enemy. The skeletal demon, who had taken the disguises of a young girl, her mother, and then her father to lure the monk Xuanzang into its traps, is not shown in the picture.

Guan Liang was among the first wave of Chinese artists to travel to Japan to study art. During his early period, Guan did mostly oil painting in the Impressionist and Fauvist styles. In the 1940s, he began to focus on traditional ink painting and depict lively scenes from Chinese operas in humorous and exaggerated styles. He particularly excelled in vivid renditions of Beijing opera characters by capturing their spirit in naïve depictions with concise brushwork.

The subject of this painting is taken from Record of a Journey to the West, a famous fictional work relating the adventures of the monk Xuanzang and his three disciples, Monkey, Sandy, and Pigsy, to obtain Buddhist sutras in India. The Monkey King’s mischievous personality and superhuman powers make him one of the best-loved characters in Chinese popular culture and theater.