Drinking under the moon

'This painting, a freely rendered ink-play, reflects the persistence of tradition in late-twentieth century China despite increasing diversification into experimental and installation art. He Jianguo - a talented, idiosyncratic, self-taught painter - seeks to revitalize the centuries-old, literati tradition of the intuitive, amateur painter, while subversively spicing it with lessons from Western artists such as Picasso, Cézanne and Kandinsky. His brushstrokes, calligraphy and sense of composition and space are remarkably free and novel, and point the way to the revitalisation of literati painting. The inscription, in his strong and emphatic style, reads:

'We gathered in the mid-Autumn Festival to drink to the moon until drunk and fell all over the place.''

'Asian Art', AGNSW Collections, 1994, pgs. 208-209.