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Li Kui Reciting Poetry with Difficulty
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Description
Li Kui is a famous character from The Water Margin. As his nickname ‘Black Whirlwind’ indicates, he is always depicted as a muscular man with a dark complexion and fiery eyes. His other nickname is ‘Iron Ox’, as he has a short temper and is tough and stubborn as an ox. Li is known as an illiterate warrior, but ironically the painter Huang Yongyu depicts him here reciting poetry. In the inscription, Huang Yongyu comments: ‘Nowadays many poems are in the style of Li Kui’s works. Isn’t it a pleasure to read his original work?’.
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Details
- Associated place
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Asia › China › Hebei province › Beijing (place of creation)
- Date
- probably 1984
- Artist/maker
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Huang Yongyu (born 1924) (artist)
- Material and technique
- ink and colour on paper
- Dimensions
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frame 123.4 x 85.4 x 2 cm (height x width x depth)
painting 67.4 x 68 cm (height x width)
- Material index
- Technique index
- Object type index
- No. of items
- 1
- Credit line
- Presented in honour of the forthcoming 70th birthdays of Jose Mauricio and Angelita Trinidad Reyes, 1995.
- Accession no.
- EA1995.198
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Further reading
Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 24 September-1 December 1996, Modern Chinese Paintings: The Reyes Collection in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Vainker, Shelagh (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1996), no. 32 on p. 34, illus. p. 34 fig. 32
Past Exhibition
see (1)
Location
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- currently in research collection
Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.
Publications online
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Modern Chinese Paintings: The Reyes Collection in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Li Kui is a rough and ready outlaw in the 14th century popular novel Shuihu zhuan (The Water Margin), a fighter rather than a poet. Huang Yongyu laments in the inscription that Li Kui's poems were never written down, while those of his modern equivalents abound. Huang Yongyu painted at least two more versions of this subject in the same year, 1984, while in Beijing.
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