ZENG XIAOJUN (b.1954) Ancient Wood from Horyu Temple in Nara, Japan No. 2, 2004ZENG XIAOJUN (b.1954)Ancient Wood from Horyu Temple in Nara, Japan No. 2, 2004Ink on xuan paper, framed. 182cm long x 126cm wide (71 3/4in long × 49 1/2in wide). 曾小俊（1954年生）奈良法隆寺古木，日本No.2 水墨紙本 鏡框 2004年作 Published, Illustrated and Exhibited: Chinese Ink Painting Now, New York, 2010, p.62.Michael Goedhuis, The Ink Art of China, London, 2019, pp.10-11.展覽著錄：《當代中國水墨畫》，紐約，2010年，第62頁Michael Goedhuis著，《水墨中国》，伦敦，2019年，第10-11頁Zeng Xiaojun was born in Beijing in 1954. He graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, in 1981, specialising in mural painting. He moved to the United States in 1983 and lived for the next fourteen years in Boston, where he exhibited and taught until 1997. Drawing inspiration from the literati landscape painting tradition, especially works by Shen Zhou (1427–1509) and Wen Zhengming (1470–1559) of the Ming dynasty, Zeng extracts rocks and trees from the context of landscape and depicts them as isolated objects. Zeng Xiaojun collects antique furniture, scholar's rocks and grotesque roots which the Chinese literati have long held the tradition of depicting.Employing a delicate balance between dry and wet, lines and dots, his meticulously executed paintings remind us of the Chinese scholars' fascination with these subjects as embodiments of their own spiritual perseverance in times of difficulty and turbulence. Together with the work of Liu Dan, Zeng Xiaojun's ink paintings are a powerful example of how the high culture of traditional China can be reinvigorated for contemporary society.See a related painting by Zeng Xiaojun, 'Wild Spirit Screen No.2', 2013, which was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 28 May 2018, lot 858.