Dresden at Dusk was painted by Li Keran in 1957, the same year he traveled to Europe, using ink and paper. The painting is black and white in traditional style, but its subject and execution breaks away from traditionist painting, as the name may suggest. Instead of a landscape with mountains, rivers, and trees, the main subject is a building. The building appears western in style, with European style roofs, towers, and steeples, at the upper levels dark windows can be made out. The building is stretched from the bottom of the painting to top, giving it a grand yet fantastical feeling. The building is accented with delicate strokes of white, giving it the feeling of a distant mirage. On either edge of the painting darkly shaded trees frame the lower floors and the small open area with several people standing still. The people are amorphous, glowing with a subtle white aura around them, making them appear like specters. The lower right corner fades away into whiteness, just as the building’s roofs and steeples give way to an empty white sky. The whole work appears frozen in a single moment, with shadows pushing in. The painting gives the feeling of looking at a fantasy, with nothing being solid or completely there except the trees and ground.  While the painting appears traditionalist, there are definite western influences on it. The work appears similar to Monnet’s Rouen Cathedral, both in style and subject. Li Keran painted this during some of the peak years of Mao’s reign. Some of his work had already been criticized by the communists. Dresden at Dusk returns to more traditional medium and style, while still being modern and novel. Using both traditional brushstrokes to build up form in the trees and foreground and western strokes in the building in the back, traditional Chinese style exists alongside both impressionism and expressionism. By incorporating all these styles, Li Keran pays tribute to traditionalist roots but also continues his experimentation with western styles. 1957 marked the beginning of severe criticism from the party of certain artists, but Li Keran and several others refused to back down and continued their work. Dresden at Dusk is a work that combines traditional Chinese medium and style with modern western style and subjects. This work exemplifies Li Keran’s dedication to both modern western styles and honoring his traditionalist roots.

Bibliography:

Andrews, Julia Frances. Painters and Politics in the People’s Republic of China, 1949-1979. Los Angeles: University of California, 1994.

National Museum of China. Art of Li Keran. National Museum of China. http://en.chnmuseum.cn/tabid/520/Default.aspx?ExhibitionLanguageID=75.

Claude Monet – Rouen Cathedral, evening, harmony in brown 1894. Art-Monet.com. http://art-monet.com/1890_71.html.

Andrews, Julia Frances.. The Art of Modern China. Berkeley : University of California Press, c2012.

Hawks, Shelley Drake. The Art of Resistance. Seattle: University of Washington, 2017.