High Mountains 1569

Curator: Hou Maogong’s "High Mountains," dating back to 1569, really draws me in. It feels…peaceful, almost meditative. A calming visual breath. Editor: Calm is an interesting choice. The verticality dominates, wouldn't you say? It's all stark angles pointing heavenward, a rigorous visual structure defined by sharp contrast in texture and tone. Look how the dark pines in the foreground lead your eye upwards to those almost ethereal peaks in the distance. Curator: Exactly! And it’s the way the mist softens those peaks. He's using ink to create this hazy dreamscape and it makes the imposing height almost forgiving. Doesn't it invite your imagination to wander? To get gloriously lost? Editor: Undoubtedly. His control of ink wash is remarkable, look how he models the form of each tree using only delicate modulation. Note the human figures, barely rendered, nestled at the bottom. Are these shapes meant to illustrate the relationship between man and nature, the transient placed against the immutable? Curator: Perhaps! Or maybe just a moment caught in time. The reddish tint to that one figure – is it a cloak? Is he simply sitting still amongst nature or seeking enlightenment? It reminds me of being outside, overwhelmed and delighted by the vastness, the complexity of the wilderness around us, where every element speaks volumes! Editor: I find his composition reveals its deliberate artifice upon closer viewing. While initially suggesting boundless depth, notice how strategically the painter manipulates spatial recession—flattening planes and compressing forms as they ascend. What emotional impact does that compressed view yield? Is it reverence, humility, awe, perhaps? Curator: I love that. And yes, all those emotions. Hou is essentially creating his version of paradise, a journey with purpose – an ascension into the sublime. In viewing “High Mountains” here at the Met, it almost feels as though, with every brush stroke, he’s allowing us into his heart, and urging us to discover our own heavens here on Earth. Editor: Precisely. A study in pictorial construction yielding a transcendent effect, that, in a nutshell, would seem to summarize the power this piece still holds today.