Lotus

Depicted in all seasons and blossoming stages, Pan Gongkai's lotuses are new expressions of one of the most enduring and evocative subject matters in ink painting. This work, a scene of lotuses thriving with their leaves busily intertwining one another, radiates a weighty feeling of strength and bursting energy, as suggested by the Chinese title "a robust air of lotus". When studying the art of his father Pan Tianshou in the 1980s, the artist began to reckon the importance of xieyi, that is the expression of spontaneity and the spirit of a being through brushworks. Through this expressive technique and his preservation of the traditional concept of ink and brush, Pan's works exude the elegance of the ancient literati. However his firm believe in producing large-scale works in a large brush and big splashes of ink (da bi da mo) confirms his sensitivity of how ink paintings can fit in the contemporary art context.