Event Blog 2

This week I visited the Brush and Ink exhibit at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park (see photo above for proof of attendance). This exhibit contains a collection of hundreds of Chinese ink paintings spanning 500 years. Brush and ink is a fascinating art medium for its bold blacks and whites, use of negative space, and variety of textures and shapes. To me, the art looks foreign and fluid, lacking in concrete form, yet still capturing motion, activity and tangible scenes.

What is so unique about this medium is that it is an ancient art form that has developed and continues to develop today. The exhibit contains a collection of ancient pens and ink bottles alongside contemporary tools for the artists exploring and evolving this ancient form.

So many ancient art forms have been lost overtime, and I wondered while studying these paintings why this tradition has survived for centuries. While brush and ink painting is distinctly artistic, it requires immense focus, training and precision to learn the techniques and motions. The slightest variance in pressure, wetness and speed can chance the color and texture of a brushstroke. There is great importance not only in the inspiration behind the work, but also the tiny technical details, the science behind contrast and ink mixing, what paper holds the ink without curling or tearing. It is the details that come together to create something as unique and seemingly immortal as this art form, and I am certain it would not be alive today if not for the combination of the arts and sciences.

Works Cited

Snow, C. P. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. New York: Cambridge UP, 1959. Print.

Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between.” Leonardo 34.2 (2001): 121-25. Web.