Autumn Wind

The foundational image in Hao Boyi's Autumn Wind series, this print addresses the seasonal winds that sweep across the flat Beidahuang terrain each October, stripping color from the landscape and driving migrating birds south. Hao's carving translates kinetic energy into the frozen moment of the print: grasses register the wind's direction and force through their angle and degree of bend, while open sky areas provide the tonal contrast that grounds the composition. The Beidahuang school's approach to nature was documentary as well as expressive — artists who lived and worked in Heilongjiang Province brought direct observation to their subjects rather than relying on inherited pictorial conventions. This print reflects that commitment to specificity, presenting a wind-defined autumn landscape rooted in lived experience of the northeast.