Contemporary Nihonga Red Fuji Aka Fuji Watercolor Gold Leaf Ningshu Fang 2017 20"W LS#168

Ningshu Fang — 吉祥赤富士 (Kichijō Aka Fuji / Auspicious Red Fuji) — 2017, painted in Portland, Oregon USA

Contemporary, 2017

Red Fuji — the iconic view of Mount Fuji suffused in the crimson light of dawn — is among the most auspicious subjects in Japanese visual culture, rooted in the Shinto tradition of Fuji as a sacred peak and amplified by Hokusai's celebrated treatment of the subject. Here Portland-based artist Ningshu Fang works in the nihonga tradition, combining mineral-pigment watercolor with applied gold leaf to render Fuji rising from a sea of clouds against a saturated golden sky, dark pine-covered ridgelines anchoring the foreground. The gold leaf is applied to the four diagonal corner registers of the square composition, creating a kakegaku-style framing device that situates the image within the classical Japanese painting format while giving the piece a contemporary luminosity.

The inscription at right reads 吉祥赤富士 (Kichijō Aka Fuji — "Auspicious Red Fuji"), followed by the artist's red oval seal. The work is signed on the verso: Ningshu Fang / Red Fuji (2017) / in Portland.

• Title: 吉祥赤富士 (Kichijō Aka Fuji — Auspicious Red Fuji)
• Artist: Ningshu Fang
• Date: 2017, Portland, Oregon
• Medium: Watercolor and gold leaf on paper
• Dimensions: Approx. 20" W × 14" H (51 × 36 cm), framed

Condition: Very good; framed under glass.