Chinese art had a significant influence on western world

Dear Friends,

There are no boundaries in art. Despite differences in our cultural backgrounds, we can all study and learn from each other's knowledge about forms, lines, colors and movement in art.

During the T'ang Dynasty (7th century A.D.), for instance, people from Japan, Israel and many other countries went to Chang- An, the modern Xi-An, to study Chinese art and science.

After the Renaissance in Italy, Western art started to become influential in the East. In the 20th century, many students went to Paris to study Western art.

However, at the same time, Chinese art has also had a significant influence on the Western world, notably in the following aspects:

1. Use of Black -- Black had never been considered a color in the West until the Impressionists became fascinated by some Japanese prints brought back by Dutch sailors. They adopted black as a color too. Today, popular manufacturers such as Rowney Cryla & Winsor & Newton (check name) produce very good Mars & ivory black paints. Every artist in the West now uses black in his or her art. Franz Kline of the New York School in his last years painted in nothing but black. Black is the strongest color. It has an infinite range of varieties -- from the deepest black to the gradation of grays.

2. Empty Space -- The empty space in Chinese painting is the white paper left unpainted in the background of a painting. To Easterners, the empty space is not really empty; it has the function of denoting something present which has not been painted in. The same is true in Chinese theater. An actor may swing his whip to indicated that he is mounting a horse -- but of course there is no horse on the stage.

Since the 20th century, Western artists have also learned to leave empty space in their canvases. Among them were Picasso, Matisse and especially those of the New York School, namely Jackson Pollock, Motherwell, etc. The Chinese theory of suggestive negative space has had a profound influence on Modern Art.

Since Oriental Art is so influential, it is worthwhile to study and understand it for both art appreciation and collection purposes. Thus, before I go into the discussion of Contemporary Art, I would like to introduce some of the basic philosophy and techniques of Chinese art.

Chinese art is known as an art of lines, so I would like to start my introduction on Chinese brushwork by looking into the historical development of the art of brushwork.

When one looks back 5000 years into Chinese history, the data one can gather suggest that the Chinese brush has a longer and more continuous affiliation with calligraphy than with painting. The evidence of brushwork may be traced back to the Shang period (14th century B.C) in calligraphy, whereas the earliest trace of painting can be found only in rubbings of pottery tiles, tomb frescoes and painted lacquer baskets in the Han Dynasty (3rd century B.C.-3rd century A.D.).

One may conjecture, however, that as new uses of the brush were developed with the passing of time, these techniques would have been applicable equally to painting and calligraphy. For this reason, I decided to offer a short historical overview of Chinese calligraphy in order to provide the background of Chinese brushwork.

Before I continue with the overview, I believe it will be necessary to give the reader some facts which will be discussed more elaborately latter.

Chinese artists have relied on a single tool -- the brush -- which over the centuries has proved its versatility. The supple Chinese brush with its black ink can produce unlimited variations of lines and dots, as many as the artist can manage (see Fig. 1). A dot in Chinese art is understood to be a dab with the brush, resulting in a point, a hook, or a small touch of color.

Chinese art is an art of line.

Until next time.

-- Kwo Da-Wei