Art Reboot

98 interpretation as they were each tersely expressed in only four characters, but the first has usually been translated as ‘Spirit Resonance’, or something to that effect. This is taken to mean vitality, but seems to me to imply the transcendent quality of art in acting as a conduit between the apparent world and the transcendent Dao or source. I suspect he meant something in- describable, since in summing it up he noted that without this quality there would be no point in looking further at the work. It is the only one of the six that does not refer to the technical or formal qualities of a painting. The second principle is ‘Bone Method’, which concerns structure in the use of brushstrokes. Calligraphy can be wildly cursive and painted human figures can be ‘wonky’, but they are strong and convincing when ‘bone method’ is present. It is per- haps analogous to ‘draughtsmanship’ in the West, which does not require ‘realistic’ representation, but does demand underlying craft, discipline and understanding. Egon Schiele’s paintings of the human body are a fine example: distorted and exaggerated, but with a secure knowledge of the three-dimensional structure, relationship and articulation of head, torso and limbs. In con- trast, children write and draw without ‘bone method’, though they have a directness akin to that of the mature artist. Once again, we have three stages: childish directness without skill; skilled but fettered craft; directness beyond skill. When Xie finally gets around to noting subject matter, it is the need for ‘Correspondence to the Object’. But even that does not mean mimesis. Technical values such as skill and mimesis were considered useful but not essential in Chinese art. In a well-