Artwork Description

Title: Flowers and Birds
Artist: Mo Xiong
Date: n.d.
Medium: Ink and watercolour on paper
Dimensions: 27.6 x 53.5 in (70 x 136 cm)

Artwork Identification
This exuberant ink and watercolour painting on paper by Mo Xiong presents a lavish thicket teeming with rhythmic foliage and lively birds. Two birds in mid-motion animate the upper registers of the composition, while vibrant floral growth, rendered in dense overlapping washes and energetic splatters, anchors the vertical composition. Set against a backdrop of warm sienna and cool verdant tones, the work glows with visual vitality and harmonious tension.

Artistic Style and Influences
Mo Xiong’s signature fusion of Chinese brush traditions with expressive modernist color fields is evident throughout. Drawing upon classical Chinese bird-and-flower painting (huaniao hua), the artist reimagines the genre through Western abstraction, evoking a dialogue between tradition and innovation. His technique of layering saturated washes with stippling and splattering recalls the gestural spontaneity of Abstract Expressionism, while preserving the symbolic language of Chinese painting.

Historical Context
The revitalization of ink painting in post-Cultural Revolution China saw artists like Mo Xiong turning to global influences while maintaining cultural lineage. Created within this context, the work is emblematic of late 20th- and early 21st-century Chinese artistic reformation—an era where cultural hybridity and technical expansion redefined national aesthetics and elevated contemporary ink painting on the world stage.

Provenance
Provenance documentation can be provided upon contact.

Condition and Conservation
The artwork is in very good condition. There is no visible foxing, paper warping, or pigment loss. Minor creasing to the sheet is present but does not detract from the visual integrity of the piece.

Artistic Significance
Mo Xiong’s Flowers and Birds compositions are widely celebrated for their lyrical intensity and compositional complexity. This work exemplifies his masterful approach to layering pigment and gesture, capturing nature not as static subject but as a living, pulsating presence. As a leading educator and contributor to contemporary Chinese art, Mo Xiong's works remain both academically significant and highly sought after in the international market.