Artists Around the World

Artists Around the World — page 3 — y Lone l Lan a p es Xia Gui is known today as one of China’s greatest masters of sc d landscape painting He painted rapidly using short sharp strokes of the brush Most of his landscapes were done in shades of black but a few had light washes of color added to them Xia was probably official court painter to either the emperor Ningzong or the emperor Lizong or maybe both That means he would have lived about the end of the 12th century to the beginning of the 13th century Together with his friend and fellow artist Ma Yuan Xia DID YOU KNOW Xia Gui and his fellow artists used a dramatic kind of brushwork called ax stroke It was named this because it looked like the chop mark of an ax on wood founded the Ma-Xia school of painting This group followed a tradition of very simple landscape painting with little happening in the landscape and few details By showing only selected features such as mountain peaks and twisted trees they aimed to create a feeling of unlimited space and quiet drama The Ma-Xia school had a great influence on later artists Most of Xia’s surviving works are album leaves These were usually square-shaped and they were occasionally glued onto fans The paintings were done on silk mainly in shades of black ink Each landscape showed distant hills in the upper left corner and a closer view of land in the lower right corner In the center groups of trees reach into the empty space all around The empty space was always an important feature of Xia’s work Xia was also a master at composing works on the hand scroll These are rolls of paper that are viewed by unrolling the scroll from one end to the other then rerolling the scroll as you view it The effect is like a continuous imaginary journey through the scenery of nature S EA R C H LIG H T Fill in the blanks Xia Gui made his paintings on album leaves and _______ _______ 6 LEARN MORE READ THESE ARTICLES BASHO MICHELANGELO VINCENT VAN GOGH The painting here known as Swinging Gibbon is said to be by Xia Gui The next generation of painters did not value Xia’s work But about 50 years after that one critic wrote His works have an exciting stimulating quality a remarkable achievement Attributed to Xia Gui active c 1180 1224 China Southern Song dynasty Swinging Gibbon Album leaf ink and color on silk 24 8 x 26 5 cm The Cleveland Museum of Art 2003 John L Severance Fund 1978 1

Artists Around the World — page 4 — XIA GUI Answer Xia Gui made his paintings on album leaves and hand scrolls 7

Artists Around the World — page 5 — The Sadat Resthouse built in Garf Huseyn Egypt in 1981 shows some of Hassan Fathy’s trademark features Here you can see the thick walls and air scoops that help cool the building naturally DID YOU KNOW Hassan Fathy is quoted as having said Architecture is music frozen in place and music is architecture frozen in time What do you suppose he meant by this 8

Artists Around the World — page 6 — HASSAN FATHY C u l ture-ConsciousArchitect Hassan Fathy is famous as a humanitarian architect He built homes and buildings that put people’s needs first Fathy was born in 1900 in Alexandria Egypt He studied there and began his career in Egypt Fathy’s goal was to build affordable housing for local S EA R C H LIG H T Egyptian people He felt that many European building methods and designs that had come into his country weren’t right for it He thought houses should be built from local materials according to local designs and with traditional methods By building this way he lowered the cost of his houses and respected the culture of the area as well In addition traditional methods and materials tended to suit the local climate best The New Gourna Village was built of a sticks b straw c mud Because Egypt is a very hot country it is important to make houses as cool as possible Fathy’s buildings often had thick walls to keep out heat surrounding interior courtyards Air scoops on the roofs caught winds from the desert and funneled them down through the buildings By these natural methods Fathy managed to keep the houses cool inside One of Fathy’s most famous creations was the New Gourna Village near Luxor Egypt The original village was near the archaeological digs of ancient Luxor and had to be relocated Fathy trained the local people in the ancient tradition of mud-brick construction The people then built themselves new homes that were almost entirely of mud bricks and that kept all the good features of their former homes Hassan Fathy Courtesy of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture Fathy died in 1989 but his work has inspired many young architects in the Middle East He promoted ideas that adapted traditional styles and methods to the needs of the present day C o u r t e s y o f t h e A g a K h a n T r u s t f o r C u l t u r e LEARN MORE READ THESE ARTICLES CHARLES DICKENS NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN MICHELANGELO Answer c mud 9

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