The secret vibration of things
I recently visited the beautiful exhibition “Space is Silence” by Zao Wou-Ki at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
Special issue Knowledge of the Arts
The Chinese artist, who settled in Paris in 1948, combines Asian and European influences in his paintings.
I ended my visit with a quick stop at the museum shop and found some interesting books on Chinese art including Empty and Full: the Language of Chinese Painting by François Cheng. An essential book for anyone who wants to understand Chinese aesthetics a little better.
Below are my favorite quotes from this reading.
"We have to avoid focusing on doing a too precise and too finished work in the drawing of shapes and the application of colors, as well as on showing off the technique too much, depriving secret and aura in doing so." — Chang Yen-Yuan
“All things under Heaven have their visible-invisible. The visible is its external appearance, it is its yang; the invisible is its internal image, it is its yin.” — Pu Yen-T'u
"The painter's gaze is turned inward, since after a slow assimilation of external phenomena, the effects of the ink that he creates are nothing more than the nuanced expression of his soul." — François Cheng
"When you draw a tree, you should gradually feel that you are rising." — Old Chinese proverb
"To paint the mountain and the water is to make the portrait of man, not so much his physical portrait, but even more that of his spirit: his rhythm, his gait, his torments, his contradictions, his fears, his peaceful or exuberant joy, his secret desires, his dream of infinity, ..." — François Cheng
"There are painted landscapes we go through or contemplate; others we walk in; and others we would like to stay and live." — Kuo Hsi
“Too many elements is the danger of clutter; too few is the danger of slackening.” —François Cheng
“In the outside, take the creation as a model; in the inside, follow the source of soul.” — Chang Tsao
“Create an atmosphere of mystical romanticism.” — François Cheng
Empty and Full: the Language of Chinese Painting by François Cheng on Amazon.