Fish and Frogs 1965

Ding Yanyong created this painting, Fish and Frogs, in 1965 with visible brushstrokes and a palette of muted greens, browns, and blacks, punctuated by the bright red stripe on the fish. You can almost feel the painting come into being, shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. I wonder what Ding was thinking when he made this, this almost naive, childlike scene. The paint is applied pretty thickly, giving real texture to the fish and frogs, and the surface feels tactile. That red stripe—it’s not just a detail, it's like a scream of color that brings the whole thing alive! The fish, trapped on the plate, is staring out, which gives the scene an edgy, almost surreal quality. It’s like he's in conversation with other painters who dare to push boundaries and create something deeply personal and kind of weird. Painting, after all, is a form of expression that embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations. We can find new meaning in what it tells us every time we look.