Introduction

Mo Litang Art Exhibition

"There was once a man named Litang in Hunan province, who was not only talented but also modest”. As the founder of Hunan Artists Association, Mo Litang not only participated in the preparation of the association, but also served as the executive director of it for a long time, and then worked in Hunan Provincial Mass Art Museum (now Hunan Provincial Culture Centre), carrying out professional counselling for art cadres in the Hunan province. In the art of calligraphy and painting, he studied under the famous painter and art educator Gao Xishun. In Mo’s early years, he liked to depict the new appearance of his hometown with colourful ink. In the 1980s, Mo became a renowned painter of landscape painting in Hunan. In his later years, he specialised in calligraphy, and he created the “Axe Chopping Style”, which has a majestic atmosphere, and is a perfect complement to his painting. Strict and modest, Mo took “Sharpening your axe will not delay your job of chopping wood”as his motto, and after retirement, he still kept going back to the tradition, refining his heart and brushwork, and living in semi-seclusion in his own study, “Paddy Garden”, painting and practising calligraphy for his own amusement, thus forging the literati character in the eyes of others.

As a representative of elder generation of Hunan artists, Mo had a deep affection for his hometown and has created many paintings concerning Hunan. He was one of the earliest artists who depicted the landscapes of Zhangjiajie and was famous for his description of strange and perilous mountains and rivers of Zhangjiajie. Its landscapes are the testing ground for his freehand brushwork paintings. Since the 1980s, he had been exploring the unique style of freehand landscapes with heavy ink and sharp brushwork by copying the stone springs and gullies of Zhangjiajie. A major feature of Mo’s painting is that it is grounded in solid sketching, and not only his landscapes, but also his highly refined flower and bird paintings, his vivid cavities and eagles, shelled chicks, etc. are the embodiment of his exclusive brushwork and in-depth observation. In the field of painting and calligraphy, Mr. Mo has spent his life’s work to pursue the saying of “bizarre ink makes brilliant painting”, and we believe that he has not only achieved it, but also finally formed his one-of-a-kind artistic style.

Mo’s family donated more than 100 pieces of Mo’s paintings and calligraphy as well as his manuscripts to the Hunan Museum in 2022. These works have been incorporated into the collection system of Hunan Museum, which not only enriches the “Hunan Painting and Calligraphy Celebrity Collection”, but also extends the material of Hunan regional art history. It takes the donated works as the main body, shows his art talent from landscape painting, flower and bird painting, and calligraphy, and outlines the general lineage of his artistic development, which is the presentation of the result of the preliminary research of Mr. Mo’s art works. This exhibition pays tribute to Mr. Mo’s contribution, and we hereby express our thanks to his family for their generous donation!