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ART OF BOULDER
BOY AND GIRL KNITTING ⎔ HORSE AND TRAIN ⎔ MYSTERIES ⎔ NAPOLITANO POSTCARD ⎔ NEIL THE FROG ⎔ OLD RALPH POSTCARD ⎔ WOMAN AND TERRIER
LANG SHINING BANNER?
A total guess, but the Asian scroll here could very well be the work of Lang Shining, an Italian Jesuit missionary (Giuseppe Castiglione) who went to China in the early 18th century and served as an artist at the imperial court of three emperors. His style became a midpoint between cultures, and he took the name Lángshìníng (or Lang Shining) to integrate with Chinese society. The film contains the work of another westerner deeply influenced by Asian style, so this isn’t a remote consideration, though I think the pun might be a little too tacky for Kubrick, and a little too disconnected from the history of the other artworks (to be fair, I haven’t looked that deeply into Castiglione). Since the painting of the Mandarin Ducks seems to reference a specific period in Chinese history (the 1920-1930s), I wouldn’t be surprised if this banner does something similar.
I’ve recently poured through roughly 60,000 such paintings (no joke) and turned up nothing but lookalikes. So this one might take a while, but I’m less confident than ever in my earlier guess. What I am noticing is that there are certain artists who show up consistently doing rosy-hued blossom trees with blue birds around the middle branch. These include Qi Baishi, Yan Bolong, Shu Qi, and Zhang Daqian. With the exception of Bolong, these artists all have “qi” somewhere in their name, and since the shot before this shot was of the escape key on Danny’s door (“qi” sounds like “key” in English), I’m now pouring through a database of artists with “qi” in their name (there’s hundreds, many of whom painted hundreds or thousands of paintings) to see if I can get a match that way. It also occurred to me that many Asian artists have “Pu” in their names, and Wendy is connected to Pooh bear (“Pu” sounds like “Pooh” in English), but that search turned up nothing. In any case, I’m increasingly piqued by the idea that this piece will prove to serve as a connection between mother and son, and a connection to the Mandarin Ducks painting in room 237.
MYSTERY GRECO-ROMAN BANNER
The Torrances have this strange banner in the living room that always made me think of Greece, though, honestly, it could be anything.
Given the recent One By One revelations, I’m wondering if it’s some kind of racing poster, like, cars seen from above waiting to race, or some such. A recent quick search through some hundreds of banners, posters and wall hangings has turned up no hits, however.
Next art reference: Woman and Terrier
MAIN PAGE ⎔ SECTION PAGE ⎔ SITE MAP ⎔ GLOSSARY
OTHER MAIN PAGES FOR SHINING ANALYSIS
THE MIRRORFORM ⎔ THE BEATLES ⎔ THE RUM AND THE RED
BACKGROUND ART ⎔ OVERLOOK PHOTOGRAPHS ⎔ GOLDEN SPIRALS
PHI GRIDS ⎔ PATTERNS ⎔ VIOLENCE AND INDIGENA ⎔ ABSURDITIES
THE STORY ROOM ⎔ ANIMAL SYMBOLS ⎔ THE ANNOTATED SHINING
EYE SCREAM 