The “Eight Brokens” (bapo)
Maker
Gu Wukan
(Chinese, active early 20th century)
Date1929
MediumFan: ink and light colors on paper
Dimensions8 7/8 x 18 7/8 inches (22.5 x 47.9 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineAcquired through the Membership Purchase Fund
Terms
- Paintings
- Fan
- Colors
- fan painting
- Ink
- ink and light colors
- Calligraphy
- Envelopes
- Fables
- Letters (Correspondence)
- Manuscripts
- Prints
- Rubbings
- Trompe l'oeil
- Paper
- Chinese
Object number81.059
Label CopyBapo appeared in various formats, from scroll and fan paintings to decorations on plates, bowls, and snuff bottles. Bapo was a commercial genre fashionable among those familiar with but not necessarily members of the literati class. In this way, bapo painters paid tribute to the cultural memory of the past, while also highlighting their own technical mastery. In addition to fragments of paintings, book pages, rubbings from bronze sculptures, and burnt calligraphy, the artist even includes the smallest details, such as postage stamps, seals, and the tears and folds of paper.
Collections
Unidentified artist
19th century
