The Stone Chamber Where One Writes Exquisite Things 1871 - 1933

Jian Guzhai carved ‘The Stone Chamber Where One Writes Exquisite Things’ from wood, and you can really feel the hand of the artist. The whole thing is about process. It’s been carved in a way that shows the marks of the tools - gouges and scrapes left behind and not smoothed out. You get a sense of the artist finding his way through the material. The mountains are just, like, alive, look at those little lines, all so individual, but together they make something immense. The artist is like, 'I'm gonna go into this material and see what happens.' See the way the light catches on the ridges of the mountains? It gives the whole piece a kind of shimmer, even though it's just a single colour. It reminds me of those drawings by Guston, where the lines are so rough and the images are so weird, but somehow it all comes together. Both artists understand that art is about embracing the unexpected, and letting the material speak for itself.