Guo Xu
Bold, free Ming painter and calligrapher
Guo Xu(郭詡) (1456–1532), courtesy name Renhong(仁弘), art name Qingkuang Daoren(清狂道人), was from Taihe, Jiangxi, and was a painter and calligrapher of the Ming dynasty. He excelled in landscapes and figure painting, with a style that was both bold and delicate, ranking alongside Wu Wei, Du Jin, and Shen Zhou. His representative work *Album of Miscellaneous Paintings* is now housed in the Shanghai Museum and includes eight pieces such as *Women and Children among Banana Rocks* and *Frogs, Grass, and Butterflies*. *Pipa Performance Painting Scroll* is in the Palace Museum in Beijing, using a layout that combines poetry and painting. Another important late work is *Polishing the Mirror*, made when he was seventy-three. In addition, the scroll *Four Views of Jingling* is regarded as a national first-class cultural artifact. As a youth, Guo Xu gave up the imperial examinations to focus on painting, advocating that “it doesn’t have to follow the rules; painting is about feeling it.” He drew inspiration from traveling to famous mountains. During the Hongzhi period, he was summoned to the capital and offered a post as a member of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, which he firmly declined. He refused the patronage of Prince Ning Zhu Chenhao and other powerful figures. Once, when a noble requested a painting, Guo Xu stared without responding and even ran away; when Prince Ning tried to recruit him, Guo Xu fled Jiangxi after committing a minor offense, relying on Wang Shouren to get out of trouble. Later, he attached himself to Wang Shouren and inscribed poems on his paintings to express his ideals. In figure painting, he was skilled in the bai-miao (outline) technique, with styles ranging from coarse to fine, as in *Portrait of Zhu Wenzheng Gong*, where features are outlined in light ink and highlighted in dark ink. His flower-and-bird paintings broke with traditional methods, using only colors for strokes and shading. Guo Xu considered himself a disciple of Wang Shouren and liked to inscribe poems on his own paintings.