Discretion, Thrift and Virtue 1871 - 1933

This ink tablet, Discretion, Thrift and Virtue, was made by Jian Guzhai, but we don’t know when, or even what with! The whole thing is essentially monochrome, and reminds me of the drawings of the American artist, Cy Twombly. Both are less concerned with what they are depicting and more interested in the act of depicting itself. The piece is carved, a removal of material, rather than an application, and I feel like I can almost feel the texture of the piece. The Chinese characters are crisp, precise, whereas the images of plants are softer, more organic. It is like a snapshot of a moment; I wonder if the same artist carved both aspects of the tablet, or if one informed the other. Overall, the piece is an exercise in the material of the tablet and the artist’s ideas about this material. Like all great art, it raises far more questions than it answers.