Lotus 1977

Lin Fengmian gave us this painting of ‘Lotus’ at some point in his life using, it looks like, oil paint. The way Fengmian puts the color down feels spontaneous, very much about the movement of his hand as he built up these floral forms, like calligraphy. If you look closely, you can see how the paint is applied in small, choppy strokes, giving the surface a kind of broken, shimmering effect, and these thick strokes of white and yellow really make the flowers pop against the dark, moody background. There’s a certain tension between representation and abstraction, where the lotus flowers are recognizable, but the way they're painted leans into pure, expressive form. I can’t help but think of Emil Nolde, with the way Fengmian uses color as a way to express an inner emotional state, a kind of personal symbolism where the natural world is a mirror reflecting the artist’s soul. Ultimately, it's up to us to decide what this is telling us.