Chinese Painting Is Essentially a Comprehensive Art

Maybe you would like to know why I have chosen Chinese painting as the main medium for this cross-cultural and comprehensive art project.

First of all, Chinese painting was essentially a comprehensive art form:

—Chinese painting is made up of poetry, calligraphy, painting ,stamp and so on.

—Chinese calligraphy and painting come from the same rootstock, a good Chinese painting should be“written out”, instead of“painted out”. Every brush stroke in a Chinese painting should be similar to the Chinese calligraphy's brush stroke. In professional Chinese painting circles, one of the standards to judge a Chinese painting is by the brush strokes, to see whether they have used Chinese calligraphy style very well.

—Chinese painting theory emphasizes that a good painting should include the artistic conception of a poem and a good poem should include the artistic conception of a painting.

Secondly, poetry is the core and the soul of a Chinese painting, the poetry can be written on a painting directly, and also it can be a poetical overtone and be expressed by the picture.

Since a Chinese poem could be sung in the ancient times, it has been connected to music; since a Chinese poem could be written on the painting, it has been connected to words /characters and language; since any poem includes some feelings or some background, it has been connected to culture, history...

Thirdly, painting is the best and most direct bridge to help people to understand the ideas of an artist who is from other culture, to touch the other culture itself.

Therefore, I try to start from Chinese painting, the poetry on the picture, to integrate them with music, literature, language and culture background together, to create a new and unique comprehensive art.

I do hope what I thought, researched and explored will be of some help for   you in learning Chinese culture and language.

If you have any questions or comments, you are welcome to contact me via www.ebridge.cn or write to shirley @ edridge.cn directly. I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Shirley Yiping Zhang
Dec 3, 2017
April, 2013