The Charming Cicada Studio: Masterworks by Chao Shao-An

Chao Shao-an is especially noted for his talent in depicting birds, flowers, and insects. The renowned living master of the Lingnan school, an early in 20th-century movement to modernize Chinese painting, Chao Shao-an now lives in Hong Kong. The 80 paintings illustrated in this handsome volume include album studies, water buffalo, great bursts of azaleas, landscapes, and a portrait. The works are arranged chronologically within subject category, and represent a personal assessment of his achievements in visual effects, pictorial concepts, and scale. They record the artist's convictions about Chinese painting of the modem age and the Lingnan school.