Literati Painting
文人画 / 11th century– / Style / East Asian Painting
Painting made by scholar officials rather than professional painters, not to sell but to show their own spirit. It valued the spirit of the brush above skill and treated poetry, calligraphy, painting and seal as equals on one sheet. At the core of the style is a refusal to fear looking unskilled.
Withered line from a dry brush / Poem, calligraphy and seal sharing one sheet / Pale gradations of ink / A stance that never displays skill
Dictionary entry
- Best used for
- Making an image that puts attitude ahead of skill · Placing writing and image on one sheet at the same rank
- Type
- Treat calligraphy as part of the picture and use the seal as the keystone of the composition.
- Composition
- Let the void take the lead role and push the subject into a corner.
- Material
- Hold the gradations to a minimum with a dry brush and pale ink.
- Caution
- Feigning clumsiness is the opposite. The substance is a witheredness reached by standing on technique and stepping down from display.
- Further study
- Su Shi's idea of scholar painting / The Four Masters of the Yuan and the transmission into Ming and Qing / Its spread into Nanga in Japan