Fresh Ink: Ten Takes on Chinese Tradition

Contemporary Chinese society has been called a culture at the crossroads of the past and the future, and nowhere is this tension more apparent than in Chinese ink painting today. Artists working in this highly traditional medium draw from a wealth of ancient themes, but must resolve them within contemporary Chinese culture. In Fresh Ink, ten of China’s leading contemporary artists engage directly with the past by creating ten new works in response to older masterpieces, ranging from classical Chinese scrolls to a scholar’s rock to a drip painting by Jackson Pollock. Their personal visions reflect diverse concerns and influences, whether Xu Bing’s play on the absurdly monumental, Qin Feng’s system of communicative signs, or the keen eye for society evident in the work of Li Jin, Yu Hong and Liu Xiaodong. An adventurous pairing of contemporary artworks with their forbears, Fresh Ink blurs the boundaries between traditional and contemporary, East and West.