survey_15 — Contemporary Chinese Ink
1. Li Jin — 李津 (b. 1958, Tianjin)
Graduated from: Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, 1983
Ink painting about food and pleasures: feasts, markets and everyday life painted with a lively brush.
- Feasts and banquets— food, wine and company as the main subject: for the first time ink speaks about everyday life so directly.
- Lively brushwork — a free brush instead of academic rendering, colour applied generously.
- Diary-like quality — a multitude of small sheets on which the artist paints his own life.
2. Liu Dan — 刘丹 (b. 1953, Nanjing)
Stones and objects under a magnifying glass: ink brought to optical precision.
- Scholar's rocks (taihu) — multi-tonne stones drawn with precision down to the last vein.
- Optical precision — a technique that demands months of work on a single sheet.
- A return to tradition — the reconstruction of the canon of Chinese painting under modern conditions.
3. Yang Jiechang — 杨诘苍 (b. 1956, Foshan; lives in Paris and Heidelberg)
Graduated from: Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, 1982
Ink and body: ink runs, palms and texts addressed to the limits of language.
- “Earthly Roots” (地脉) — paintings of 1985–1999 in which ink flows across the paper like blood.
- Imprints and palms — the body leaves a trace instead of the brush.
- Working between cultures — a life between China and Europe as a condition of the method.
4. Su Xiaobai — 苏笑柏 (b. 1949, Wuhan; Shanghai and Düsseldorf)
Graduated from: Central Academy of Fine Arts; Düsseldorf Art Academy, 1987; 1992
Lacquer and asphalt: ink, paint and lacquer coating as the material of painting.
- The lacquer layer — a multi-layer coating polished until it becomes a surface.
- Form and colour — simplified volumes instead of a figurative task.
- The Düsseldorf school — training at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.
5. Peng Wei — 彭薇 (b. 1974, Chengdu; lives in Beijing)
Ink on things: shoes, dresses and scrolls as supports for traditional painting.
- Ink on shoes and clothes — painting moves from paper onto an item of dress.
- Scrolls and books — working with the format of the classical scroll as a way of speaking.
- Education — painting and aesthetics at Nankai University (1997, 2000).
