Chapter 6 | WORKS OF ART
Chinese artist Ni Youyu makes several paintings of forests. The first image is called Forest 2, a huge painting of 200 x 440 cm.
In Forest 2 the trunks are at about the same distance from each other. There are no branches or leaves painted. The drawing in the trunks is very realistic. The forest seems to continue endlessly into the distance. The further away, the thinner, vaguer and lighter gray the trees are painted. The front tree runs all the way from bottom to top; we do not see where it stands in the ground. We can see where the trunk of the other trees comes out of the ground, each time a little higher to show that a tree is further away. The ground is almost empty. Ni Youyu calls this imaginary forest 2 European. He suggested by this that Europe is rather manageable compared to some other parts of the world.
The same artist painted a completely different kind of forest that he called Hideaway. What looks like a frame with the title is also painted. In this forest, many trees have been cut down and there are branches lying everywhere on the ground. The trees are crooked and closer together. It cannot be otherwise than that the branches of these trees are completely intertwined. You cannot automatically see from the image what the actual size of this painting is. This work of art is only 24 x 35.5 cm. in size! In which forest would you feel most or least at ease, the European forest or the Hideaway forest?
