What's up guys and gals, I thought I'd tap into the endless resource that is Clutchfans.net and see if anyone might be able to help me track down a particular piece of art I saw on television one night. I'd like to buy a reproduction as the center piece of my living room. This particular piece was oriental in nature and looked to be drawn on rice paper; it depicted a man leading a donkey through a mountain pass, the signifigance of the piece for me was the way it was shown on the television screen when I first saw it I thought it was a painting of the man leading his donkey but as the camera pulled back and back some more the whole scene became clear. To me what the artist was trying to express was how small we really are in the grand scheme of things and to me the artist captured it perfectly with this single man and his donkey in the middle of the pass with these mountains towering over him on both sides. I have looked high and low on the net for something that might point me in the right direction but i have not had any luck. I believe I first saw the painting on one of the HD channels timewarner offers but I haven't been able to catch that program again. It's a long shot but with CF.nets wide scope of interest I thought maybe someone might be able to help. TIA
On a serious note, art historians please correct me. But I believe this was a popular theme in Chinese art for a certain period. Many paintings depicted large landscapes w/ people interspersed. Their purpose was as you described. I don't know where you would even start to look for examples of this art, but I think you would find many paintings w/ a similar theme.
Rimmy, it was a while ago but if I recall correctly it was just a show about that region in general, it did have a particular amount of time spent on the art from that region. Most of the art was done on rice paper in what looked like black ink. The show was just about the Orient's history in general.
I love thegary's The Donkey Man. He exudes such peace. I want to own it for my living room's center piece
I believe the artist you're thinking of was Katsushika Hokusai from his series of woodblock prints named "Thirty six views of Mount Fuji." He used a recurring theme of demonstrating man's insignificance against nature in images such as the ones below. I don't think that any of these is exactly what you were looking for; however, I believe I have seen that image. When I get home tonight, I will check the Hokusai book I have to see what the name of the image is.
Sorry to get PC on you but the term "oriental" is better applied to rugs. Also in art oriental could apply to everything from Turkey to Japan from your description it sounds you are looking for something done in East Asia and likely China, Korea or Japan.
Thanks Wangdoodle, I am looking through google images at some of Katsushika Hokusai's work and I really like a lot of it, I haven't found the particular piece but some of these are just as nice. I'll keep looking. I knew the oriental thing wasn't pc when describing acestory but thought I had the context in which I used it correct... my bad there.
