Pan Yuliang The Impossible Nude Analysis

Pan Yuliang: The Impossible Nude?

Introduction

The study of the Chinese nude has been hindered by an illusion of absence. In their focus on dynastic pictorial art, works such as Francois Jullien’s The Impossible Nude and John Hay’s The Body Invisible in Chinese Art obscure the nude in modern Chinese art. Considering the nude to be impossible has led us to ignore an important historical moment in early twentieth century history, and added to the impression that Chinese culture is unchanging. Reframing the nude is crucial because the conception of its absence is hinged upon a problematic binary between the East and West. This division disregards the bilateral capacity of cultural osmosis and the possibility of internal-local variance. While

In fact little of her work alludes to her personal life and that which does is rarely mournful or romantic. For example, Pan’s Nude by a Window (1946) is a self-portrait which depicts Pan staring at a photograph of her husband Pan Zanhua. The 2006 Christie’s auction catalogue for this piece comments that “the relaxed yet elegant pose of the subject, the painting’s thoughtful mood, and her longing gaze at the photo beside her all contribute to a sense of the loneliness of a creative artist in a foreign land.” While the richly woven layering and vivid coloration of the furnishings, both typical of her style in the 1940s, highlights by contrast the softness of the human form, insinuation of loneliness is an over-reading. The posed, angular shape of the body and its dominance despite the weight of the background suggest an evocation of strength, rather than weakness, mindfulness rather than nostalgia. The nude form has a cogency lacking in the simplistic depiction of the flowers and furnishings, the glowing green tone applied to the left side of the body, reflecting the vibrant green of the chair, serves to accentuate female form from the point of the pedicured foot to the stiff extension of the arms. Because she appears to be performing, the gaze is shifted; she is not gazing at the photograph, rather she is posing for the simultaneous gaze of the audience and the man pictured. Overall, Nude by a Window is far from depicting a woman made frail by passion or sorrow. Though does raise interesting questions about the male