 |
| Detail from Fang Zengxian's Shai Fo Festival. (Shanghai Art Museum.) |
At the China Art Museum, Shanghai, Fang Zengxian’s Shai Fo Festival (2009) stretches nearly nine meters across the wall. The monumental horizontal scroll depicts a dense gathering of Tibetan figures, most seen from behind, their bodies compressed into an almost continuous mass of dark ink. From a distance, the painting resembles a weather system moving across white paper. Only when we stand closer does the mass separate into people, shoulders, backs, wrapped heads, heavy collars. Their bodies overlap until it becomes difficult to tell where one person ends and another begins.
