Shi jian dian zhe

In the text at the top of the scroll Huang compares the merciful Suputra, which means an excellent son in Sanskrit, a dutiful and affectionate son in Marathi, and a worthy son in Kannada, and Mr Dongguo, the man in the well-known Chinese tale The wolf of Zhongshan, who saved the life of a wolf that turned to attack him. The former sacrificed himself by swallowing a poisoned arrow to save the commoners, while the later claimed to be the saviour of the world but escaped from disasters before others and abandon justice in front of benefit.

The centre of the lower section is a hunchbacked man seated in contemplation. A recurrent figure in Huang’s paintings, he is referred to as Jianjiang or Hongren (1610–63), a Buddhist monk and painter. The inscriptions surrounding the man express Huang’s admiration for the great literati artists Xu Wei (1521–93) and Yan Zhenqing (709-785), while emphasising his own attachment to worldly pleasures and suggesting that in doing so, he and his fellow artists have betrayed their ethics.

Huang Yonghou, whose brother Huang Yongyu (b. 1924) was also an artist, began his career in a military academy during China’s anti-Japanese war in 1940s, before training at the Central Academy of Fine Art. Following China’s literati tradition, he combines calligraphy, poetry or prose with paintings, mostly of historical figures. His calligraphy and painting are executed in spontaneous and expressive strokes, revealing philosophical reflections and social commentary, such as what he wrote in the scroll as his observation of the art scene in China: ’ How ironic! The busier we are, the further away we are from our goals. We artists have betrayed our ethics’.

A&L report, June 2023