Foreword
Sensory Knowledge Halts, and Spiritual Impulse starts
Essays
The Greatest Form Follows Shape: The Painting Art of Xu Shanxun
How Painting Captures the Contemporary Era
Art Begins with Artist’s Cognition
The “Form” and Freedom of Lines
Artist Profile
Chronology of Works
Artist Statement
My Paintings on Mental Imagery
Volume I
Essence In the Greatest Form
Prologue
Xu Shanxun’s Paintings and Calligraphy
Transcending Forms to Gain Essence: On the Life of Inquiry of Master Shanxun
Mind Imagery and the Path to Enlightenment:
Xu Shanxun’s Solo Exhibition at the West Bund Art & Design
Series of Works Lines of Plant Ash
Hongmeng (Primal Chaos)
Realm of Sentient Beings
The Ladder
Fireworks
Epilogue
The Great Form Has No Shape: Reading Paintings at MoGu Art Museum
The Entirety of Hongmeng
Volume II
All Things as One
Prologue The Resplendent Eclipse
Series of Works
Cursive Script Human Forms Spirit-Inhabited Bodies
Human Bodies
Watercolor
Finger Painting Sketch
Epilogue
The Lyrical and the Intent: Defining Xu Shanxun’s “Mental Imagery Painting” New Pathways of Movement and Xu Shanxun’s Painting
Volume III
Sketches of Xu Shanxun
Prologue
Subtle Ripples as the Mind Writes Exchanges on Xiejing: A Dialogue Between Xu Shanxun and Xu Xiaoli
Series of Works Daily Sketching Practice
Epilogue Fifty Years of Quick Sketch
Afterword Interview: The Art of Xu Shanxun
