Chinese Paintings of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1982)

Second-Hand (Hardcover)

Excellent condition

Any comparison between a Chinese painting, whether a 12th, 15th, 18th or even a 20th century example, and its Western contemporary is a compelling indication of the gulf which separates the cultural and artistic traditions of the Far East from those of the West.

Indeed, in the West the evolution of artistic expression has been characterised by periods of radical change prompted by reaction to established notions, rather than by the more gradual evolutionary changes which are familiar to the Far East.

The concept that painting was a means whereby the thoughts, feelings and aspirations of individual man might be expressed is an enduring feature of the art in China from early times. In any representational art the subject is visually described and interpreted, but artistic theory and philosophy in China recognised the need for personal  expression far in advance of any such recognition in the West.

Painting in the West has been rooted to the concept of fidelity to subject, whereas, it could be said, painting in China is equally founded in the concept of fidelity to the spirit. From these foundations Western artistic traditions concerned themselves with the problems of representation of form, volume, light and colour in their quest for verisimilitude.

In China the quest was to capture the spirit or essence of the subject and from this emerged an art composed around the exploitation of expressive line.