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Sunflower And Twelve Plants And Calligraphy

Decent Essays

Sunflower and Twelve Plants and Calligraphy Being an artist takes time, dedication and commitment, especially to become as talented as Xu Wei and Liu Dan. These famous Chinese artists put in the time, dedication and commitment and their hard work has paid off. Xu Wei, from Saoxing, Zhejiang, did not grow up in the ideal situation, he was orphaned at a young age, but escaped his problems in life by painting and writing calligraphy; where he excelled the most. (BOOK pg. 208) Later during the Ming dynasty, he began to paint flowers and plants. One of his famous works in which we will focus is called Twelve Plants and Twelve Calligraphers (1). (BOOK 209). Another well-known artist from this century is Liu Dan. Liu Dan is also from China and was a fan of studying Confucian classics, poetry and calligraphy with his grandfather. He enjoys creating new perspectives on his pieces and one of his artworks that hits close to home is called Sunflower (2). This artwork is found right here in Minnesota at the Minnesota Institute of Art. In this paper, I will explore the similarities and differences found in the composition of Xu Wei’s Twelve Plants and Twelve Calligraphers and Liu Dan’s Sunflower. The composition can be broken down into space, shape and overall composition. First, the space that is present throughout the artwork can be very important in depicting positive and negative space, scale and perspective. In Xu Wei’s Twelve Plants and Twelve Calligraphers, the positive and

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