An Interesting painting

A few days ago, a friend sent me an email with a picture of an interesting painting.

Beijing2008

The painting is a political allegory, for an explanation see below. But first more about the painting and the painter.

The painting is named Beijing 2008 and was created in 2005 by the Chinese-Canadian painter Lui Liu. He was born in 1957 in North China and is now living in Toronto. This painting was sold at an auction last year for more than 3 million US$.

Here is another painting by Lui Liu, “Towards de Future” (2008)

Towards the future

Personally I find his style of painting an interesting mixture of Magic Realism and Surrealism, similar to the paintings of Paul Delvaux (1897-1994), one of my favourite painters. See my Virtual Museum

Here is a painting by Delvaux: The Entrance to the City (1940)

The Entrance of the City

About the allegory, the title refers to the Olympic Games in Beijing, 2008. But in this painting another game is played, Mahjong. Here is the explanation as given in the email.

The woman with the tattoos on her back is China. On the left, focused intensely on the game, is Japan. The one with the shirt and head cocked to the side is America. Lying provocatively on the floor is Russia. And the little girl standing to the side is Taiwan.

China’s visible set of tiles “East Wind” has a dual meaning. First, it signifies China’s revival as a world power. Second, it signifies the military might and weaponry that China possesses has already been placed on the table. On one hand, China appears to be in a good position, but we cannot see the rest of her hand. Additionally, she is also handling some hidden tiles below the table.

America looks confident, but is glancing at Taiwan, trying to read something off of Taiwan’s expression, and at the same time seems to be hinting something at Taiwan.

Russia appears to be disinterested in the game, but this is far from the truth. One foot hooks coyly at America, while her hand passes a hidden tile to China, both countries can be said to be exchanging benefits in secret. Japan is all seriousness while staring at her own set of tiles, and is oblivious to the actions of the others in her self-focused state.

Taiwan wears a traditional red slip, symbolizing that she is the true heir of Chinese culture and civilization. In one hand she has a bowl of fruit, and in the other, a paring knife. Her expression as she stares at China is full of anger, sadness, and hatred, but to no avail; unless she enters the game, no matter who ends up as the victor, she is doomed to a fate of serving fruit.

Outside the riverbank is darkened by storm clouds, suggesting the high tension between the two nations is dangerously explosive. The painting hanging on the wall is also very meaningful; Mao’s face, but with Chiang Kai Shek’s bald head, and Sun Yat-Sen’s mustache.

At first glance, America appears to be most composed and seems to be the best position, as all the others are in various states of nakedness. However, while America may look radiant, her vulnerability has already been exposed. China and Russia may look naked, yet their key private parts remain hidden.

If the stakes of this game is that the loser strips off a piece of clothing, then if China loses, she will be in the same state as Russia (similar to when the USSR dissolved). If America loses, she also ends up in the same state as Russia. If Russia loses, she loses all. Japan has already lost everything.

Russia seems to be a mere “filler” player, but in fact is exchanging tiles with China. The real “filler” player is Japan, for Japan has nothing more to lose, and if she loses just once more she is immediately out of the game.

America may look like she is in the best position, but in fact is in a lot of danger, if she loses this round, she will give up her position as a world power. Russia is the most sinister, playing along with both sides, much like when China was de-occupied, she leaned towards the USSR and then towards America; as she did not have the ability to survive on her own, she had to weave between both sides in order to survive and develop.

There are too many of China’s tiles that we cannot see. Perhaps suggesting that China has several hidden aces? Additionally China is also exchanging tiles with Russia, while America can only guess from Taiwan’s expression of what actions have transpired between Russia and China. Japan on the other hand is completely oblivious, still focused solely on her own set of tiles.

Taiwan stares coldly at the game from aside. She sees everything that the players at the table are doing, she understands everything that is going on. But she doesn’t have the means or permission to join the game, she isn’t even given the right to speak. Even if she has a dearth of complaints, she cannot voice it to anyone, all she can do is to be a good page girl, and bring fresh fruit to the victor.

The final victor lies between China and America, this much is apparent. But look closely; while America is capable, they are playing Chinese Mahjong, not Western Poker. Playing by the rules of China, how much chance at victory does America really have?

Journal 14-12-2012

As usual I am suffering from jet lag, waking up in the middle of the night, feeling sleepy in broad daylight. Sniffy too, and coughing a lot. Cold! But no snow.
On Tuesday I was invited for dinner by Inez. I found a fleece and an old winter jacket in a cupboard, gloves, and a head cap. I went on my bike to Inez, where I arrived half-frozen.

Winter in Holland

But the company of Inez and the nice, typical Dutch dinner (and a few glasses of wine) brought me back to life soon…:-)

IMG_1995

 

IMG_1996

 

 

The next morning it was raining, and I seriously considered to stay in bed the whole day…:-) Here is the view from my bedroom window.

Bedroom window view

But in the afternoon the rain stopped, fortunately, because I had planned to go to the University, where an ex-colleague of me was giving a farewell/retirement party. It was nice to meet many people I had been working with, ten years ago.

Farewell party

I could not stay long because I had invited Yolanda, Paul’s sister for dinner.

Dinner Yolanda

And the next day my brother Pim came to my place, also for dinner. As I wrote in an earlier post, I will gain weight during these few weeks…:-)

Dinner Pim

Today I have visited the recently re-opened Stedelijk (Municipal) Museum of Amsterdam, my favourite Modern Art Museum. It was closed for renovation for about nine years. What a pleasure to see again many of the famous paintings of this museum, for example this Mondriaan. Click here for a detailed report

Mondriaan

I will end this post with a bit of Malaysian news. Just before I came back to Amsterdam, I realised that my road tax and car insurance were about to expire. So I asked Aric to renew it for me. He came back to me with a shocking discovery!

Do you know that you have not  renewed it December last year? So for one full year you have been driving without insurance and without road tax. Quite a miracle that you have not been caught by the police!

Here is the old sticker, expiry date December 2011!

Car Sticker

The Hudson River School

Now that I have migrated my Multiply albums to my own website and also created my blog on the Stuif site , it is time to get my website out of its hibernation. Because for a long time I have not really maintained it.

So long that I had almost forgotten what I had put into it. Like for example my Virtual Museum. I created it in 2002 as a collection of some of my favourite painters. A very personal choice, often they have not created many works of art, so it is a pleasant surprise when you visit a museum and find out that they have a  Balthus or a Delvaux or a  Cole .

A Cole? Maybe you have never even heard about him.

Thomas Cole (1801-1848) was the founder of the Hudson River School, an American school of Romantic landscape painters. They started painting in the Hudson Valley (New York) although later they also visited other regions.

This is one of Cole’s paintings, created in 1826. The Falls of the Kaaterskill in the state of New York.

As romantic as it can be. Click on the picture to enlarge it and try to find the single person depicted, to show how fragile a human being is.

With my waterfall addiction I was of course curious to find out if waterfalls were a common topic for these landscape painters.

And indeed, they were..:-)

 

This is my favourite painting, by Albert Bierstadt, 1830-1902. He was born in Germany but emigrated, one year old, with his family to the USA.

It is called “Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains” and dates from around  1868. The Sierra Nevada is a mountain range in California, culminating in Mount Whitney at 4421 m.

California? It looks more exotic, like a landscape in Avatar..:-)

And that was indeed a criticism of his contemporaries, that he was not realistic enough. People were also critical about the size of his paintings, that they were dwarfing the works of his fellow-painters. This one measures (including the frame) 245 x 367 cm !
A beautiful painting.

Here is another one, by Thomas Hill (1829-1908). Also a landscape in California, named Great Canyon of the Sierra, Yosemite. It dates from 1872. Also here signs of human life, an Indian tipi. Keep in mind that this part of the USA had only been recently explored and basically was still Indian territory.

One more, by Thomas Moran (1837-1926). In 1871 he joined, as a guest artist, an expedition to Yellowstone, until then an almost unknown part of the USA.

Back to the East Coast, the Niagara Falls, painted in 1857 by Frederic Edwin Church (1826 – 1900). Church was one on the most influential painters of the Hudson River School.

A final one by Church, possibly his most famous one, an impression of the Andes in South America, where he had traveled to Equador and Columbia a few years earlier. It was completed in 1859 and a huge success on its first exhibition  in New York, with people queuing and paying money to view the painting. Zoom in on the painting and try to find the village with the church, and other details.