Artwork Title New Peaks (《新峰》)
Artist Peng Xinfeng (彭新峰), member of the modern artists collective Jianghan Eight Fellows (江汉八友)
Date 2025
Medium Ink on premium cardboard
Dimensions Approx. 50 cm x 54 cm
Description Peng Xinfeng’s New Peaks reimagines classical Chinese landscape painting through a contemporary lens, blending meticulous brushwork with audacious composition. The work unfolds in three tiers: in the foreground, rustic dwellings with vermilion-tiled roofs cling to a verdant slope, embodying humanity’s fragile symbiosis with nature. Central to the composition are jagged cliffs rendered in aggressive, ink-saturated strokes, their tectonic power contrasting with the ethereal mist that dissolves distant peaks into abstraction. The artist’s restrained use of color—swaths of malachite green against ink-wash grays—evokes the monochromatic austerity of Song dynasty masters while embracing modernist spatial ambiguity.
Material and Technique Executed on archival-grade cardboard, an unconventional support that paradoxically enhances traditional methods, Peng employs cun texture strokes to animate cliff faces and pomo (broken ink) washes for atmospheric depth. The cardboard’s absorbent surface amplifies the ink’s tonal range, from dagger-sharp lines defining roof tiles to featherweight gradations in cloud formations. Two crimson seals punctuate the lower register, their geometric precision counterpointing the organic chaos of the landscape.
Cultural Dialogue This work embodies the Jianghan Eight Fellows’ manifesto of “rooted reinvention.” While structurally referencing Guo Xi’s Early Spring (1072), Peng subverts the literati tradition by flattening pictorial space—note how the foreground houses scale incongruously against the cliffs, creating visual tension between representation and abstraction. The mist, a conventional symbol of cosmic qi, here becomes a conceptual void, challenging the viewer’s search for meaning in an increasingly fragmented world.
Contextualization As part of the Jianghan Eight Fellows’ 2025 Ink Alchemy series, New Peaks responds to China’s rapid urbanization by reconfiguring the shanshui (mountain-water) genre as environmental critique. The collective, based in Wuhan’s industrial heartland, often juxtaposes traditional media with industrial materials—here, the cardboard substrate subtly evokes both the ephemerality of consumer culture and the resilience of craft. Peng’s work builds upon precedents like Li Huasheng’s grid-based landscapes yet introduces a tectonic violence absent in classical depictions.
Exhibition Note The work’s square format—a departure from traditional scrolls—invites contemplation of how digital-age visual consumption shapes artistic production.
Suitable for permanent collection galleries or thematic exhibitions on eco-aesthetics. Conservation advisory: light levels below 50 lux due to cardboard sensitivity.