Modern Literati Arts

Literati arts are very significant in China’s art history. From Tang Dynasty’s Wang Wei, literati paintings have gradually become the mainstream in China’s painting history. The techniques are still strongly influencing today’s painting practice in China. However, in today’s Chinese paintings, we can merely see the technical influence of historical literati paintings, but the spirit has been lost. This is similar for music. Folk instruments such as the guzheng and dizi have flourished with quite a number of modern repertoires, whereas instruments for literati music, mainly the guqin and dongxiao, have lost attention.

There are many reasons contributing to this. The influence of Western culture, of course, accounts for it to a great extent. However, the more direct reason is the way of modern life. Today literati are no longer a group that focuses on literature and social science. They also include scholars, academics, engineers, and officers from a large number of disciplines. Meanwhile, paintings and music are conducted by professional painters and musicians rather than literati who are not professional artists. They can easily inherit the techniques, but it is hard to inherit the inner spirit. 

This drives me to think of new approaches for literati arts. 

Yesterday, I painted a picture about an ibis eating crumbs on a dining table. The ibis was rendered with traditional Chinese expression painting skills, whereas other objects and the background were painted with Western watercolor skills. This combined approach to painting is my early attempt at modern literati painting.