Ink art, reframed approach

Qi Baishi rose from being a humble carpenter in the countryside of his native Hunan province to be one of the most prominent and internationally renowned artists of Chinese ink tradition in the 20th century.

Recurring subjects under his strokes, which have achieved wide popularity, are those common, inconspicuous aspects one can find in any garden in the world: the flowers, vegetables, armies of insects, birds and aquatic creatures.

He depicted them with fine brushwork and in a colorful and free style, not only just as a reminiscence or reminder of the simple, peaceful rural life he was raised up in. Also, he built this microcosmic world through which he expressed the vibrancy and also the fragility of life.

Before he was recognized by the art world, Qi once described himself as "eking out a life at the grassroots" to imply his underprivileged situation and his uncertainties of the future, just like those small lives he painted which encountered struggles but still were determined to succeed.

Qi once wrote in a poem: "The garden is thriving, and all the plants are interlinked."

It inspired curators at the Beijing Fine Art Academy to mount an art museum exhibition, titled Flourishing Lives, Interconnected Cultures, to celebrate the vigorous world in Qi's oeuvre.

The Beijing Fine Art Academy, established in 1957, the year Qi passed away, was built upon a donation from Qi of his works and collections for future research. The master artist is remembered as the academy's first and only honorary president.

The exhibition, running until Dec 25, also marks the China-Italy year of culture and tourism, using Qi's depictions of insects and plants as a channel for a dialogue between the two cultures.

Curators juxtapose Qi's paintings and poems, in the academy's collection, with images of the Cocharelli Codex, a 14th-century Italian collection of manuscripts.

Made in Genoa, in northern Italy, commissioned by the Cocharelli family, some of the Cocharelli Codex chapters were also richly illustrated — circling the words and in between them — with a variety of insects as representations of virtue and vice.

The display shows the differences and similarities of the cultural meanings embedded in small animals, in the East and West.

Qi viewed the flowers, insects and birds as forming an inseparable body in his work. He said: "When depicting flowers, one should also add insects and birds to give life and invigorate the composition."

He used accurate brushstrokes to detail insects, while the loose, carefree style of lines and contrasting colors were used to portray flowers and plants. His techniques of mastery came from his early experience of prolonged observation of them. Meanwhile, he implied in his vivid depictions a Taoist take on life and morality.

For example, Qi often coupled butterflies and moths in his paintings. His presentation of the butterfly shows an influence of Zhuangzi Dreaming a Butterfly, a famous story associated with Zhuangzi, a philosopher and pivotal figure of classical Taoism living in the third and fourth centuries BC.

Qi indicated a blurring distinction between reality and illusory scenes, as being expressed in the story, as well as a hint of a lifestyle embracing one's pleasures.

When he drew moths, Qi thought about the Chinese idiom, "a moth darts into the flames of fire", and expressed a tender feeling for the flying insect.

As one will see in a Cocharelli Codex leaf on show, moths and butterflies decorate texts which condemned moral failings in Genoa, then a flourishing city. It is believed the animals symbolized rejection of depravities and reawakening the consciousness of morality, according to Wang Yanan, the exhibition's curator.

Li Jun, a professor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, says Qi captured the vigorous moments of those common lives normally seen, while he portrayed them in a manner of careful consideration. "In his work, Qi sought extraordinary qualities from those rather ordinary things and creatures, and he spoke for them, hailing their spirit so that viewers of his works would notice."

To echo the exhibition at the Beijing Fine Art Academy, an exhibition of Qi's art, Grand Aspirations, is being held at Fabbrica del Vapore (Steam Factory Cultural Center) in Milan through Nov 26, with a display of his landscapes, flower-and-bird and figure paintings also from Beijing Fine Art Academy's collection.

Maria Fratelli, director of Fabbrica del Vapore, said at the exhibition opening that Qi never forgot about his cultural traditions, neither did he overlook the trends and needs of his time. The exhibition at her museum is sourced from the depth of traditional Chinese culture, and in a modern space of art, it shows to the Italian audience the scope and poetry of Chinese painting and calligraphy.

Wu Hongliang, director of the Beijing Fine Art Academy, says Qi led a legendary life and was creative and accomplished in art. "The exhibition (in Milan) brings people to Qi's realm of 'discovering the rules of the universe in a flower, a leaf or an insect', feeling his childlike innocence, his care for nature and all lives, and his pursuit of being extraordinary."