Mountain Villages

During her intensive travels in mainland China and Taiwan in the 1970s and 1980s, Chang Shangpu was deeply touched by the people who lived in rural villages, by their simple spirit and way of living in harmony with nature. She approached her subject from the perspective of isolation from urban civilization. In the work shown here Chang nestled remote villages within the crevices of towering mountains in a grand vista.

In this painting the artist focused almost exclusively on the undulating array of mountain ranges, downplaying the villages and their inhabitants through the use of paler tones. By situating the villages between columns of heavily worked dark mountains, Chang emphasized the sense of isolation.