Chrysanthemums with Green Leaves 1929

Curator: Here we have "Chrysanthemums with Green Leaves," a 1929 painting by Sanyu. He employed gouache and watercolor to capture this floral arrangement. Editor: Oh, I get such a tender feeling from this. It's fragile, you know? Like a secret garden pressed between the pages of an old book. The palette is so subdued. Curator: Sanyu's background is significant. Born in China, he later moved to Paris, a popular destination for artists at that time. He straddled Eastern and Western artistic traditions. The prevalence of Chinese motifs in the Parisian art scene, in turn, had some influence in China. Editor: That duality is definitely there. The composition, with the upward thrust of the stems and blooms, feels so classically Chinese, calligraphic almost, yet there's this loose, dreamy application of paint that whispers of the European avant-garde. What do you think the almost exclusively vertical emphasis signifies in relation to Parisian notions of modernity at the time? Curator: It's interesting you ask that, as it offers an approach for thinking through these hybridities. Though modernism at the time challenged traditional notions of subject matter and technique, this particular piece might serve as a critique to some strains of hyper-rationalism in modernism at the time. By focusing on floral figures and form, Sanyu makes a departure from some dominant modernist trends in Europe, opening his own avenues for considering how Eastern philosophy might also have something to say. Editor: The more I look, the more it strikes me: it’s like the essence of a chrysanthemum, distilled down to a whisper. And the colors seem to drain almost... almost ethereal, in the way they render these plants into a kind of quiet echo, I think. I’m very much affected by the way the form calls up associations with my past— Curator: His blending of materials is noteworthy too, creating a very unique painting style for the period that feels fresh even today. Editor: Absolutely. And perhaps we too have something to say to Sanyu’s painting—a mutual and perhaps timeless connection between image and viewer.