Image 1: The Virtuous Being, Hao Liang (Chinese, born 1983), 2015, China

Medium: Handscroll; ink and color on silk, plus research materials of mixed medium,15 3/16 in. × 30 ft. 2 3/16 in. (38.5 × 920 cm),15 3/4 in. × 43 ft. 9/16 in. (40 × 1312 cm)

Image 2: View of Tide, Yang Yongliang (Chinese, born 1980), 2008,China, Inkjet print, 17 3/4 in. × 32 ft. 9 3/4 in. (45 × 1000 cm)

Image 3: Lam Tung Pang, History and Imagination, Whampoa Station Platform

Image 4: Lam Tung Pang, Centuries of Hong Kong, 2011, Acrylics, charcoal and pencil on plywood, 7170mm x 4250mm x 50mm

Image 5: Bingyi, The Impossible Landscapes: Heaven in a Cave, 2018, ink and alcohol

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the authority of the “ink art” tradition in China has been met with an increase of challenge by the practices of the West and the introduction of new media. The intrusion of foreign influences has created a dichotomy in the realm of Chinese art between guohua (Chinese-style painting) and xihua (Western-style painting). This distinction in category between guohua and xihua continues to persist in art academia today; however, since 1980’s a third separation of Chinese art has been made. This third distinction has been identified as shiyun shuimo (experimental ink painting) and may be defined as “globalized” art in China. The artists who practice this type of art making seek to modernize Chinese art through Western conventions while still retaining the traditional materials and tools used by traditional Chinese artists (Hearn 2014). These modern Chinese artists continue to build upon and innovate traditional ideas. Primarily through the alteration of the traditional handscroll format, artists are able to create new narratives showing the evolving societal and architectural Chinese landscape while maintaining Chinese conventions and culture.

In order to understand how modern Chinese artists have created new mediums and formats for shiyun shuimo (experimental ink painting), it is first important to understand the history and traditional settings of the Chinese handscroll.

Hidden away in wooden boxes, rarely viewed by the public are the intricate paintings of traditional Chinese artists. Contrasted with Western art that demands the attention of the viewer while continuously hanging on the walls of museums, homes, and offices, the occasional viewing of Chinese art has nothing to do with perceptibility and everything to do with format. The most predominant format of Chinese painting is the handscroll, a long roll of paper or silk varying in length that when unrolled bares a painted image and often times text. (Deblanco 2008).

The unrolling of a handscroll is an intimate experience. Its size and format limit its audience to one or two members. The process of viewing a handscroll begins by unrolling it from right to left, taking pauses to contemplate each shoulder-width section. As the scroll proceeds to the next section the previous section is rerolled (Cahill 1997). This process allows for a continuous narrative to be presented before an audience. This viewing is a progression of both time and space created through the telling of a narrative and the physical space depicted by the image on the scroll. An intimate relationship between the viewers’ experience and the unfolding of a narrative in the painting creates a resemblance to reading a novel for the first time (Murray).

The birth of the Chinese handscroll format lies in the storage of ancient Chinese texts and documents. Throughout the Han Dynasty (206 BC- 220 AD) texts were inked on slips of bamboo or wood. For the sake of accessibility and organization, these slips were bound together with cords to form a series of texts or documents that could be rolled up and easily stored. As the Han Dynasty progressed, the use of paper and silk became a more practical and popular method. These modern advanced handscrolls would then be mounted to a wooden roller (mu-kun) to form an axis for which to roll the scroll around. This method created the basis for the traditional format of handscrolls. Handscrolls remained as the primary format for texts, documents, paintings, and calligraphy up until the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD) (Fong 1996).

Although it may no longer be the primary format for text, paintings, and documents, the Chinese handscroll format is constantly evolving through its use in modern art. Some artists use the handscroll as more a traditional method to explain more radical or modern ideas. This use of incorporating traditional technique or media with modern media and technique is known as experimental ink painting but is also commonly referred to as “Contemporary Ink”. So how are modern Chinese artist utilizing contemporary and experimental ink.

Created in 2015, Hao Liang’s The Virtuous Being is a 30ft long painted handscroll depicting the progression of time and the altering of space within a Chinese landscape. Just as traditional handscrolls are meant to be read from right to left, this modern handscroll continues to follow that tradition. The top and bottom edges of the entire scroll are framed by narrow black borders similar to borders seen in other traditional Chinese handscrolls. Liang begins his scroll with Chinese script that varies in size and color. As the scroll continues to progress past the script, Liang's painted image appears. The first portion of the handscroll containing the image depicts an entirely grayscale, barren and desolate mountain landscape with rocks scattered in various places. This landscape contains no evidence of life: human, animal, or vegetation. This lack of life most likely illustrates the beginning of China before civilization. As we fast forward through Liang’s work, we can see the rise and fall of cultivated farmland, the establishment of expanding communities, and the gradual depletion of the natural environment. Liang’s narrative of societal evolution begins to come to a conclusion through the depiction of an eerie scene of technology obscuring nature. In the final few scenes of the work, Liang creates a small, full-color area of land with trees, hills, and humans juxtaposing a large Ferris wheel spinning off of its axis. Liang’s piece is a primary example of modern contemporary ink artists using traditional standards and mediums to promote or convey a modern and contemporary.

While Liang’s piece uses the medium of ink traditionally to paint a modern landscape, Artist Yang Yongliang’s artwork demonstrates the inverse. Yongliang creates photo collages that combines the visual imagery of a premodern landscape of mountains and trees with current digital technological techniques to create a piece that contrast innovation and tradition. Created in 2008, Yongliang’s Viewing the Tide is a 32ft long handscroll that follows the composition of traditional Chinese landscape handscrolls such as Zhao Fu’s (tenth century) Ten Thousand Li of the Yangzi River. At a distance this piece seems to be a tradition ink painted handscroll on paper however upon further inspection it can be seen that the mountainous landscape is a composite of multiple high-rises and skyscrapers. The vegetation in the landscape are photo collages of powerlines and construction cranes. This inkjet print of a digital photographic collage alters the traditional media of the Chinese handscroll through using inkjet printers opposed to a hand painted ink images. However, it continues to maintain traditional compositions and conventional premodern Chinese landscapes through visually resembling traditional handscroll architecture and foliage.

Another modern Chinese artist who seeks to build upon traditional Chinese art conventions while experimenting with more western art conventions is Lam Tung Pang. Lam tung Pang is most notably recognized for his extremely long murals. His medium is not traditional rolled handscrolls but rather large-scale murals that follow the composition and scale of the traditional handscroll format. Lam Tung Pang’s History and Imagination is a mural on display at the Whampoa Station platform in Hong Kong. This mural is colorful and heavy in line work. The piece depicts the constantly reinvention of the city of Hong Kong through the perspective of its citizens. Lam Tung Pang created his piece through digitally combining his artwork with the artwork of the local people to create a narrative of the evolution of Hong Kong. The piece is almost as if a handscroll has been blown up and mounted onto the wall. Similar to this piece, Lam Tung Pang’s piece Centuries of Hong Kong is a more traditional piece compared to History and Imagination. The color palette of this painting more closely resembles the muted and minimal palettes of historical Chinese handscrolls; however, it does have a more colorful section on the right panel. While this piece is not explicitly a handscroll and does not follow the handscroll format, it does compositionally resemble the premodern landscapes of historical Chinese handscrolls. The subject of this painting is the progression of time throughout Hong Kong. The left side of the painting is an untouched landscape and as the painting progresses to the right it slowly transforms into a cityscape. This painting is very similar to Hao Liang’s The Virtuous Being in both color, composition and narrative but the narrative of this piece is read in the opposite direction.

All the artworks we have looked at so far have been objective representational pieces that depict how China’s landscape has evolved. The last piece we will look as is an abstract work that embodies a utopian landscape and the ideals of a perfect and unattainable Chinese landscape. Chinese artist Bingyi uses traditional Chinese ink and silk or paper to create what she has title as “Impossible Landscapes”. These landscapes are monochromatic black and white and are created using ink and then diluting it with alcohol. This dilution creates an image that resembles a topographical map or a grouping of cells under a microscope. These natural flowing shapes in Bingyi’s work exemplifies the fluidity of China’s past and future. The Chinese terrain is constantly changing and adapting to new innovations and creates and Bingyi’s work displays this phenomenon.

The alteration of the traditional handscroll format has been the primary facilitator when it comes to creating new narratives depicting the evolution of the Chinese landscape and its urbanization. Western globalization has invaded China and its artist in numerous ways. The rise of contemporary ink and experimental ink is evident in almost all of China’s modern artists. These artists are not only caring on tradition and culture, but they are also building upon and innovating the definition of Chinese art.

Works Referenced

Murray, Julia K. "What Is "Chinese Narrative Illustration"?". The Art Bulletin 80, no. 4 (1998): 602-15. https://doi.org/10.2307/3051315. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3051315.

Delbanco, Dawn. “Chinese Handscrolls.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/chhs/hd_chhs.htm (April 2008)

Cahill, James "Approaches to Chinese Painting." In Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting, by Richard M. Barnhart et al., pp. 5–12. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997

Fong, Wen C., et al. Possessing the Past: Treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996.

Hearn, Maxwell K., and Wu Hung. Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China. Yale University Press, 2014.