Au Printemps
Photograph
Au Printemps
1941
Gelatin silver print
Image: 27.6 x 20.4 cm
Mount: 45.5 x 36.7 cm
Gift of Mary Ann Giglio, 2008
2008.0329.0003
Inscriptions recto: [stamp with Chinese character]
verso (printed label): Au Printemps (1941) [inscriptions in Chinese characters] 'Description: The title is taken from one of Gounod's songs "For the Spring." Everything is evidently there to form part of a great design: Spring. Now for the Westerners, they will probably be surprised to find the greater part of the picture white: to them it may seem rather empty. Nevertheless, our Western friends must also be aware that all Chinese traditional pictures are done with a white background: something like pictures in high key. We must understand that "Suspense" is one of the qualities which the Chinese traditional artists seek to produce in their works; with a white background, even things with the lightest touch will leave a mark on it and which might sometimes give you an impression poetic as well as mysterious. It is also because of this that we find clouds in most Chinese paintings. With clouds there, you may imagine a perfect setting behind them according to your fancy, so you will find more things and more meaning in a picture than it usually gives you. Art is communication. But to a Chinese, it is more than communication; it is collaboration between the imaginations and experiences both of the artist and the man who enjoys it. /
Comment: "The beautiful example of the author's reproduced on the opposite page (Au Printemps) shows him an adept in the manipulation of combination printing, and it is interesting to see how successfully a process long practiced by photographers in the Western hemisphere has been adapted to conform to the traditions of Chinese art. We are confident that our readers will be interested in the following article by Mr. Ching-San Long which relates how happily combination printing responds to these traditions." from "The Photographic Journal” February 1942. Accepted and hung at: Harrisburg, 1941, Springfield, 1946, Philadelphia, 1947, Tops in Photography U.S.A., 1948
verso (printed label): Au Printemps (1941) [inscriptions in Chinese characters] 'Description: The title is taken from one of Gounod's songs "For the Spring." Everything is evidently there to form part of a great design: Spring. Now for the Westerners, they will probably be surprised to find the greater part of the picture white: to them it may seem rather empty. Nevertheless, our Western friends must also be aware that all Chinese traditional pictures are done with a white background: something like pictures in high key. We must understand that "Suspense" is one of the qualities which the Chinese traditional artists seek to produce in their works; with a white background, even things with the lightest touch will leave a mark on it and which might sometimes give you an impression poetic as well as mysterious. It is also because of this that we find clouds in most Chinese paintings. With clouds there, you may imagine a perfect setting behind them according to your fancy, so you will find more things and more meaning in a picture than it usually gives you. Art is communication. But to a Chinese, it is more than communication; it is collaboration between the imaginations and experiences both of the artist and the man who enjoys it. /
Comment: "The beautiful example of the author's reproduced on the opposite page (Au Printemps) shows him an adept in the manipulation of combination printing, and it is interesting to see how successfully a process long practiced by photographers in the Western hemisphere has been adapted to conform to the traditions of Chinese art. We are confident that our readers will be interested in the following article by Mr. Ching-San Long which relates how happily combination printing responds to these traditions." from "The Photographic Journal” February 1942. Accepted and hung at: Harrisburg, 1941, Springfield, 1946, Philadelphia, 1947, Tops in Photography U.S.A., 1948
