Message for Fan Chang Tien exhibition catalogue

Firstly, he was one those rare artists who encompassed the scholarly ideals of the ‘Three Perfections’（三绝）. Within the tradition of literati painting, the best artists were celebrated for their proficiency in poetry, calligraphy and painting. All three art forms were regarded as vehicles of self-expression. Literati-artists sought to integrate calligraphy, poetry and painting in a single work, such that writing, poetic imagery, and pictorial form worked together to express the artist’s mind and emotion. These artists valued spontaneity in execution over laborious creation, and subjective expression over objective depiction. For them, painting, through its interplay of ink and brush, was an outlet for expressing their thoughts and emotions, free from worldly concerns. In this regard, Fan was a master exponent of all three art forms. In many of his artworks, he often inscribed an original poem to accompany his painted image. Through the union of poems and paintings, Fan’s personality is clearly reflected. For instance, one senses his resoluteness in maintaining the Chinese ink painting tradition despite the challenges of modernity. In an inscription in 1973, Fan had noted whilst there was constant pressure to change, he did not see a good reason for changing tradition. Yearning for a simple life, Fan also placed great emphasis on personal values such as integrity and humility. This could be seen through his use of seals, carved with phrases like ‘in pursuit of neither fame nor fortune’ (不逐名利之客) and ‘knowing that beauty rests in simplicity’ (知美在拙), on a number of his paintings.