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Speaking of the direction of Chinese reading, I was recently on tour at a gallery in Taipei, and when we entered one exhibition room and the group of Westerners started to disperse to view the pieces, the curator brought us back and made sure we viewed the exhibition in counterclockwise fashion, thus ensuring that we approached each piece from its right side and "read" it right to left. (I'm not speculating -- the curator explained what he was up to.) This seemed reasonable, especially owing to the presence in Chinese collections of much ancient calligraphy, written in vertical, right-to-left columns.
Interestingly, it is now perfectly acceptable and, in my limited experience more common than not, for Chinese characters to be written left to right, a modern "Westernization" of the written language that was, some explain, compelled largely by the global language of mathematics, computer language, and modern finance, which generally require a left-to-right reading. I wonder if the change in directional sensibilities will work its way into Chinese art?
I don't know the psychology behind such preferences, don't know why a portrait subject facing my left seems to be engaging me and one facing my right seems simply to be looking at something else (someone more interesting, likely, which makes me want to turn and look, too!) The unprovable theory I have about myself concerns my substantial hearing loss in my left ear, so that if the "reading" of a painting forces me to turn my head to the right, I wind up putting a deaf ear, and perhaps a "deaf eye", to the painting.
I was working on a pastel head study some time ago, the subject facing my right, and the "problem" with that pose was raised. The "stopper" that was suggested and successfully introduced was simply to have the subject keep his head in the same position but turn his eyes to look at me. It's nearly impossible to fall unwittingly out of a painting in which the subject has you in his or her sights.
And though when once living in a Commonwealth country I very quickly adapted to driving on the "wrong" side of the road (and preferred it and had an awful time unlearning it when I returned to the U.S., much to my passengers' consternation), I never did get the hang of looking the "wrong" direction when stepping off a curb. I suppose the "good news" is that if I had stepped out in front of a city bus, I would never even have heard it coming.
Steven
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