The Way of the Brush by Fritz van Briessen

Author:Fritz van Briessen
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8048-3194-9
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

OPENING AND CLOSING. What might be called a further, or a higher, development of the host-guest principle, is one called k'ai ho: the opening and closing of a painting. In this too we find the opposing pairs which become identical on a higher level. If the host-guest principle deals with the relation of individual parts of a painting, the concept of opening and closing is concerned with the relating of all parts together into one great whole, from the beginning to the end of the painting. If one were to indicate the principles by tracing lines across the face of a painting, it would be found that, whereas the lines of the host-guest principle would be relatively short, those of opening and closing would be quite long, traversing the entire painting surface.

According to this k'ai ho principle, some elements open up the painting and let it fly free, while opposing elements close it down again and hold it fast. The elements involved can be as a few as two, or there can be many of them. But always they complete the picture, standing in contrast to each other. K'ai and ho usually face each other, or turn toward each other. Our examples will perhaps make this clear.

In Fig. 125 a single k'ai opens up the picture at the lower left, and a single ho closes it again at the upper right. This is the simplest, and perhaps the commonest, form of composition in China. By means of the structure and the turning toward each other of the two elements, the empty space in between is threaded with invisible links—with dragon veins. And the distant forms of pagoda, sail, and moon are used as space symbols to create the illusion of depth, thus producing a third dimension.

In Fig. 126 two pairs of k'ai and ho stand opposed to each other. The opening k'ai in the bottom right corner releases the composition with a scene facing left and upward, the scene then being closed downward by the rocky shoreline reaching from the left into the center of the picture. At the same time the top part of this promontory opens up the top area of the picture facing half right. The picture is then finally closed by the top right area, which is connected with the center by a bridge and faces toward the middle left. Thus it can be said that the center of this picture has a double face, with its downward eyes closed and its upward eyes open.

In Fig. 127 the principle works in a more complicated way. The several sectors of the picture have the Janus-headed character just mentioned. They close one section of the picture in one direction, and open another section in the opposite direction. The separate groups can be put together in such a way that the whole picture resolves itself into several pairs of k'ai ho.

As shown in Fig. 128, there may be compositions in which the k'ai ho is not at first apparent.

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