Hi All
Today, while visiting an Asian Arts exhibition in HK with Geoff and also talking to some exhibitors, I was reminded of a very basic thing
Often - indeed usually - artists paint their best works when they are relatively young and unknown.
It's a known fact that most people are at their most creative and innovative phase of life when in their mid-20s
I know that of myself in my mid 20s when I did my best original scientific work, and in writing songs.
(Today I still cannot understand my own Ph D thesis, which was later published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society ... ! At the time I wrote it there were only four other scientists in the world qualified to adjudicate my thesis )
I believe the same goes for IPBs, except for the caveat that it takes several years to learn the necessary skills before one can paint creatively in miniature, so it's hard for a young artist (unless he/ she starts very young... 16/17 YO ) to acquire the necessary skills in order to create original work
at high quality in his/ her mid 20's
Paradoxically, one of the biggest scams of all shows this to perfection. I refer to the Liu Jianghua / Da Yong scam whereby Liu Jianghua (whoever he may be in reality) commissioned Da Yong - and maybe a couple of other Hengshui junior masters - to have bottles painted by their students and then signed "Liu Jianghua" and sold to unwitting collectors, especially in Singapore.
There is even a book published of "Liu Jianghua masterpieces" !
But the strange thing is this : I accidentally bought several bottles painted by the very same students whose works were eventually passed off as "Liu Jianghua" bottles. The bottles I bought were either unsigned or else signed "Jiang Hua" or other short-term art names (one is actually signed in full "Liu Jianghua" ) but regardless of the signature,
they are beautiful bottles ! In fact, one particular bottle - it's a spider theme (see pics attached) is so beautiful that I even posted a RMB1,000 reward in Hengshui during my first visit for anyone who could identify the real artist .
It finally turned out to be Zhang Limin who painted the bottle, and although ZLM has gone on to to become a very well-respected artist and deservedly so (he moved for a while to the new new Qin School in Xian, but I recently heard he has moved back to Hengshui) , I personally still reckon this spider bottle to be probably his single most original and beautiful work
At the time I wrote the "commentary" on this bottle (P144) , I had still not figured out the Liu Jianghua scam - hence the words I wrote, which I have not updated
In fact both my bottle P144 and the equivalent "Liu Jianghua" bottle were both painted by Zhang Limin, as I now realize . But I actually think that my version is the best ... it's kind of more "earthy" and original than the final version scam-signed "Liu Jianghua"
Strange but true !
So how to spot works but up-coming new, budding artists , the future "Wang Xisans" of the VMIPB world?
I really don't know !Da Yong recently sent me pics of 4 x bottles . I am certain that
none of them were painted by DY himself - his own personal style is too different. But every bottle was a masterpiece.
If only we could know the real artists....
Any thoughts from others on this topic, please ?
I declare the discussion open and I am open to rebuttal !
Cheers
Peter
PS: The way I present this bottle P144 is as per my new method of cataloguing all my bottles.
If anyone is interested in how I did this, please ask