Seizing The New World

Katelyn Crockett

It was difficult to pick a piece of art. There were all so amazing and I spent so much time looking at each one. I was disappointed though, because I was not allowed to take pictures in a lot of the museum. I did get pictures of some beautiful jade art sculptures though. Anyways, I chose a piece of art by Yang Jin Long, from the Seizing The New World exhibit in the Crow Collection of Asian Art. Yang Jin Long seems to incorporate the Chinese zodiac into much of his work. He also uses mostly oil on canvas. The piece I chose was called Autumn. It was part of a set of season pieces. There was one called Winter, Spring, and Summer as well.



All of his pieces looked like this. There are so many things in this painting that make it totally amazing. Looking at this photo up close, I could see all of his beginning lines that he did with a pencil. But it added to the entire piece. It almost gave it a raw feel. As far as shape goes, he uses a lot of curved and circular figures. It gives it a wonderful flow. It makes the things in the piece so fluid and meld together to so well. Also, almost every spot on this canvas has been filled with something. Although it seems like things are clustered together, I do not see cluster. This painting definitely projects into our space. Some of the objects seem to almost jump out at you. This painting, as well as most of his others, is huge. I felt so small next to them, and I was. This piece was quite a few feet taller then I was, and I’m five feet five inches. You can also see the light he added to the painting. I can mostly see it in the women’s skin. He uses different tones in their skin to go with the angles they are standing at. The colors he uses in this piece are amazing! He uses many bright colors, which include: different shades of blue, green, yellow, red, pink, purple, brown, orange, and more. Although it is hard to tell there are some blacks and grays. He has also combined colors to make other brighter colors. The white shows the highlights. The texture in this piece is nothing but smooth. Although it is an oil painting, it did not seem like oil. I always see oil painting with lots of texture and paint kind of protruding from the canvas. This painting almost seemed like acrylic. I was surprised when I read that it wasn’t. On the other hand, the paint was a thick as far as color goes. Another thing I noticed and liked about this piece is that it was on two different canvases that were put side by side. That made this piece all the more interesting and seemed to really make this piece what it is. And aside from incorporating the Chinese zodiac into his pieces, he also incorporates a lot of traditional Chinese or Asian elements. Overall I do not think any of his pieces are better then the others. It took me a while to pick one and it was difficult to find one online. Again, I was not allowed to take pictures of these pieces. I will include some pictures of the other jade sculptures though.