ICHINESE T
In the style…
As a new display goes on show at the British Museum this month, expert Chinese ink painter Jane Dwight explores the history of the medium and demonstrates a few simple techniques
he British Museum’s new display will include 40 pictures that illustrate the development
in traditional ink painting and calligraphy during the last 100 years. The earliest known examples of
Chinese ink painting are the silk banners in the Hunan Provincial Museum. Discovered in Han Dynasty burial chambers dating from 206BC, the banners depict dragons and birds surrounding the person buried. Traditionally a Chinese artist would
sit or stand to paint at his (or her) table, known as a ‘Scholar’s Desk’. On the desk will be the ‘Four Treasures’ – the materials required to produce an ink painting. The first of the Four Treasures is
the brush. The artist’s ‘best friend’, the brush will express his or her spirit on the paper. Made from natural hair, Chinese brushes traditionally have a carefully graded ferrule stuck with glue into a hollow bamboo handle. The brush holds more liquid than we are used to in the west, and comes to a finer point. The second treasure is the paper.
The famous papermaking town in China is Xuan, near to the Yellow Mountains in the Jiang Xi Province. Sandalwood, bamboo and mulberry trees, among others, are used to make fine papers of all thicknesses. Cotton and hemp are used too. Traditionally the pulped wood is dried in sheets and can be purchased, cut and rolled into a scroll. Chinese artists have been making
and using ink for more than 6,000 years. A traditional ‘ink stick’ is made by gathering soot from burnt pine, charcoal or lampblack, then mixing it
70 Artists & Illustrators NK PAINTING
with glue. In the past, ingredients have included gold dust, snake bile or crushed pearls. Now just a little pine fragrance is stirred in before putting the mixture into moulds to dry. Moulds are sometimes shaped but more commonly they are formed into a solid stick – about 10cm high and richly decorated with calligraphy or pictures – that is known as the third treasure. In order to grind ink from the stick
a fourth treasure is needed: the ink stone. Fragrant, thick, sooty black ink is made when the ink stick is rotated, in a little water, on the ink stone. Traditionally the best ink stones come from Shiao-hing in the Kwangtung Province, but the Cantonese Duan stones and the Tao Stones of Gan Su are also highly prized. A good stone has a fine texture on which to grind ink smoothly and an accompanying lid, to keep the ink fresh. The various colours of ink can be
best seen in the work of Liu Dan, who features in the British Museum display. His detailed work is a fine example of the genre. One of the most famous Chinese artists working in ink today is Qu Lei Lei. His huge figures and portraits on thin Xuan paper are an advance both technically and historically for China. His works show lights and shadows in the ink that are unusual in eastern art. I find it extraordinary that a humble
substance like sooty ink can be used to create such unimaginably beautiful pictures. It is any wonder that the Chinese adore their ink paintings? Chinese Ink Painting and Calligraphy runs from 3 May to 2 September at the British Museum, London WC1.
www.britishmuseum.org
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