Frozen Landscape

Yangzhou-born Hung Hsien studied classical Chinese painting as a teenager in Taipei with Pu Xinyu [Pu Ru] (1896–1963), cousin of the last emperor of the Qing dynasty. When she moved to the Chicago area in 1958, she began exploring the connections between traditional Asian brushwork and Western abstract art.

In this painting, she used the traditional Chinese hanging scroll format and calligraphic brushstrokes to create an abstract landscape of rocky, icy forms.