Water Life

Qi Baishi Chinese

Not on view

This set of paintings—of the familiar creatures of the pond on one hand, and a studied evocation of the work of the seventeenth-century monk-artist Bada Shanren on the other—demonstrates the broad appeal of Qi Baishi's work. The sweeping tendrils and crusty shell of the shrimp, the structure of the crab, and the moist flesh of the frogs poised to spring are rendered with the greatest economy of means. The paper becomes the pond in which elemental life is stirred by the brush. This is the calligrapher's art at its best in painting.

Water Life, Qi Baishi (Chinese, 1864–1957), Set of four hanging scrolls; ink on paper, China

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