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Chinese Painting Style: Media, Methods, and Principles of Form
Westerners seeking to appreciate and understand Chinese art have long felt the need of a fundamental book that explains both the technical means used by Chinese artists and the traditional stylistic modes of artistic expression. In Chinese Painting Style Jerome Silbergeld addresses this need, beginning with a discussion of basic materials and methods and continuing with in-depth studies of the complex paintings created by these methods. No other work so thoroughly or systematically describes the Chinese artistic processes, ranging from the distinctively Chinese manner of handling the brush to the blending of brushlines, wash, color, and texture into a painted composition. The final chapters examine Chinese composition in terms of naturalistic representation and of abstract expression.
Throughout the book, artistic problems are set against a background of Chinese history, ideas, and geography. The illustrations include drawings that reveal the principles of Chinese brushwork, together with a broad range of Chinese paintings and calligraphy. A unique feature is the precise coding of text and illustrations, by which the reader is invited to inspect the specific turn of the brush or adjustment of composition by which the artist achieves his effects.
Chinese Painting Style provides a penetrating look into the formal basis of this age-old art, and one that will be useful and engaging both to the general reader and to the serious student.
Throughout the book, artistic problems are set against a background of Chinese history, ideas, and geography. The illustrations include drawings that reveal the principles of Chinese brushwork, together with a broad range of Chinese paintings and calligraphy. A unique feature is the precise coding of text and illustrations, by which the reader is invited to inspect the specific turn of the brush or adjustment of composition by which the artist achieves his effects.
Chinese Painting Style provides a penetrating look into the formal basis of this age-old art, and one that will be useful and engaging both to the general reader and to the serious student.
132 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
19 people want to read
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February 12, 2016
Originally written for undergraduate university students, Professor Silbergeld has gifted the world with a gem of a book--a basic introduction to Chinese painting that first introduces the basics of its tools (brushes, ink, paper, seals) and formatting (wall paintings, screens, hand scrolls, albums...) before venturing further into its elements (line, wash, colour and texture), and various aspects of composition.
It does this through a careful selection of around 40 Chinese paintings that it repeatedly uses to illustrate points carefully demarcated for viewers by thin red lines and reference letters (a, b, c...) so each painting is used to illustrate a diverse range of points. This makes the book leaner than many introductions to Chinese painting (68 pages plus plates), but the result is one turns the last page with a surprising depth of knowledge of how classical Chinese paintings were constructed by their artists and an intimate knowledge of some of the most familiar Chinese paintings (for example, Ni Zan's "The Jung-shi Studio" and Liang Kai's "Huineng Tearing Sutras").
Regardless of one's exposure to classical Chinese painting (however faint or broad), there is plenty to learn, whether it is the date when paper was "first consciously championed as a medium for painting promoted by the Chinese gentry" (11C, page 9) or how to date paintings by how artists depicted a facial characteristic (pre and post-late 8C, page 47). Each reading will reveal more depths of fascinating information, just as each viewing reveals more secrets in a painting.
Highly recommended to anyone wishing to learn more about Chinese painting, and the short but excellent Bibliography at the end will show you the way ahead. One last point--while the text refers to artists by their Wade-Giles names (still preferred in Taiwan), the Index provides its Pinyin (PRC) equivalent, so any reader encountering an unfamiliar name can refer to the Index to discover that Tao-chi is Daoji.
It does this through a careful selection of around 40 Chinese paintings that it repeatedly uses to illustrate points carefully demarcated for viewers by thin red lines and reference letters (a, b, c...) so each painting is used to illustrate a diverse range of points. This makes the book leaner than many introductions to Chinese painting (68 pages plus plates), but the result is one turns the last page with a surprising depth of knowledge of how classical Chinese paintings were constructed by their artists and an intimate knowledge of some of the most familiar Chinese paintings (for example, Ni Zan's "The Jung-shi Studio" and Liang Kai's "Huineng Tearing Sutras").
Regardless of one's exposure to classical Chinese painting (however faint or broad), there is plenty to learn, whether it is the date when paper was "first consciously championed as a medium for painting promoted by the Chinese gentry" (11C, page 9) or how to date paintings by how artists depicted a facial characteristic (pre and post-late 8C, page 47). Each reading will reveal more depths of fascinating information, just as each viewing reveals more secrets in a painting.
Highly recommended to anyone wishing to learn more about Chinese painting, and the short but excellent Bibliography at the end will show you the way ahead. One last point--while the text refers to artists by their Wade-Giles names (still preferred in Taiwan), the Index provides its Pinyin (PRC) equivalent, so any reader encountering an unfamiliar name can refer to the Index to discover that Tao-chi is Daoji.
Displaying 1 of 1 review