Sunset over the Plateaux of Southern Shaanxi
In this painting, a mule train moves slowly along a mountain path through a cornfield that appears brilliant red in the glow of sunset. During the Cultural Revolution, the color red symbolized new China and recalled the stirring lines of the revolutionary song: "The East is Red, the sun rises; China has produced a Chairman Mao." In Shi Lu's ominous landscape, however, it is the light of the setting sun that illuminates the fields, which appear like a brushfire about to consume the travelers. The mountains, like thick black smoke, offer no sanctuary from this conflagration.
Artwork Details
- 近代 石魯 陝北夕照圖 軸
- Title: Sunset over the Plateaux of Southern Shaanxi
- Artist: Shi Lu (Chinese, 1919–1982)
- Date: dated 1972
- Culture: China
- Medium: Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
- Dimensions: Image: 32 in. × 20 3/4 in. (81.3 × 52.7 cm)
Overall with mounting: 79 × 26 1/4 in. (200.7 × 66.7 cm)
Overall with knobs: 79 × 30 1/8 in. (200.7 × 76.5 cm) - Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Gift of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, in memory of La Ferne Hatfield Ellsworth, 1986
- Object Number: 1986.267.350
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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