Figures
Xu Cao Chinese
Not on view
The 19th century interest in a dramatic figural style, cultivated by populist artists, celebrating heroes, sages and religious figures, was fueled in the 20th century by the heroics of a nation in crisis and the continuing democratization of culture.
Xu Cao was a leading conservative artist in Peking in the 30s and 40s. He took his inspiration for this handscroll from a painting of Drunken Immortals by the 15th century artist Du Jin, known for his large figures, sometimes over a foot high, wielding torches, thunderbolts and the like. Some 15th century critics thought these figures "strange indeed, lacking what is called elegant beauty." In the Peking of the 1930s, Xu Cao's zestful brushwork and taste for theatrics exemplified in the attitudes of his figures, were conservative in their references to the past, but wholly modern in the spirit of defiance and abandon they celebrated. Among the riches of China's artistic tradition are innumerable ghosts ready to take new life in the present.
Xu Cao, who served as vice-president of the Peking Painting Academy was charged as a rightist in 1957, disappeared and later died.
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