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If two trees embraced in a snowy, isolated forest, would the affection make a noise?
Zhang Jingru saw it, was moved, and even figured out a way to paint the scene. Employing meticulous brushwork on both sides of hair-thin paper, voodoo somehow arises from the surface–serene, chilly, and eerily breathtaking. On the one hand, that silent white tangle looks pretty refreshing to summer-baked viewers on this side of the Pacific; on the other, nobody in his right mind would want to be left in a dark, twisted, freezing thicket like that.
Far be it from us, with Western eyes, to judge that Jingru’s works are pioneering by Chinese standards; he’s forged a style for painting snowscapes that, only a decade into it, makes him a deviant among his West Asian colleagues. And despite the works’ scroll and silk-brocade mounts, his visions have more in common with Western aesthetics–Church’s translucent atmospheres and Monet’s dappled lightplay–than with the centuries-old traditions of Chinese brushwork.
The Valley House Gallery displays Jingru’s recent watercolors through August 1. Mountains loom in backgrounds, snow swirls in gentle arcs, leaves tumble silently from branches, and yes, even trees embrace in these glowing windows on a coldly exotic world. Jingru travels high into the mountains of far north China and south Russia to find his inspiration (he resides in Northeast China, where he takes on apprentices who wish to learn his technique); although his work is finding critical acceptance in his homeland, his biggest audience is here and in Japan, where breaking up old constructs is celebrated rather than feared.
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The 54-year-old Jingru toed the traditional line during the first 18 years of his career, and up until the late ’80s, was a master and teacher of the old figurative style. In 1989 he made an abrupt departure to try his hand at painting the frosty landscapes that surrounded him much of the year, and was intrigued by the challenge of capturing the essence of ice and snow on paper. With that, he and three of his fellow painters, tagged the “Four Fellows of the Northeast,” founded the Snow and Ice School (with Jingru as the leader). Just this side of Impressionism, the style is far more concerned with mood than concrete detail. The best word for Jingru’s work: ethereal. If you didn’t nail the works down, they’d surely float off the walls and out the door.
For China to be ground zero of a new school of painting is extraordinary enough–the only “new schools” of anything out of that region have come from Hong Kong in the form of various cinema. But for these works to be here in Dallas is a miracle. Check it out before the wind blows it all away.
–Christina Rees
Zhang Jingru: Master of the Snow and Ice School is at Valley House Gallery, 6616 Spring Valley Road, through August 1. (972) 239-2441.
