Art Reboot

99 known and frequently cited passage from Lidai minghuaji ( Record of Famous Paintings Through the Ages ) by Zhang Yanyuan, a work with a preface dated 847 ce, Zhang records that even long before his time ancient paintings need not prioritise likeness: Esteem bone-breath and seek images outside of verisimilitude. The famous literatus, Su Shi (1037–1101), confirmed Chinese art theorists’ view of subjugating art to reality: If anyone discusses painting in terms of formal likeness, his under- standing is nearly that of a child. He continued: If when someone composes a poem it must be a certain poem, he is definitely not a man who knows poetry. There is one basic rule in poetry and painting: natural genius and originality. That last might be part of what Xie implied with his first principle, if we accept ‘originality’ as referring to originality of expression, of character, rather than of subject matter. The West achieved scientific perspective in the Renaissance, and has widely considered its absence in Chinese painting a failure or weakness. But in China a focus on rational reality was inhibiting. Scientific perspective was not only limiting for a painting tradition that aspired to unfettered expression, it was antithetical to some of the most sophisticated pictorial formats