Rhyme of Lead Series - This Is Not Ink Wash 1
Jiang Di
姜迪
Production date
2012
Object Detail
Media
pencil on paper
Measurements
70 x 70 cm
Notes
At first sight Jiang Di’s work appears to be a detail of a traditional ink-wash painting seen in extreme close-up. It bears all the hallmarks of a gestural sweep of a soft brush loaded with ink and water, sweeping across the paper and bleeding into the fibres of the paper at its edge to create a watery stain. Far from the spontaneous, ‘qi’-filled gesture of a xie yi ink painter, however, this is actually a pencil drawing that with careful, painstaking patience applies the gradations of graphite to imitate the viscosity and fluidity of ink-wash painting. It could be interpreted as a homage to American Pop artist, Roy Lichtenstein, and his ‘Brushstroke Series’ of 1965-66, a series of paintings depicting large, apparently expressionist brushstrokes rendered flat and depersonalised, where the motif was ironically appropriated from a printed comic book. Is Jiang Di making an ironic comment about the way literati painting is venerated in China? Perhaps, rather, his meticulous graphite gradations are a form of meditative practice inflected by Daoist philosophy.
Accession number
2013.033