Landscape 1909

Qi Baishi made this landscape painting with ink on paper, and it feels like a dance of restraint and release. The brushwork here is so direct, so confident. Look at how he builds up the mountains, one blocky stroke at a time. It's all about the push and pull of the brush, the way the ink bleeds and feathers into the paper. The whole thing has this feeling of being built up, layer by layer, like the mountains themselves. See that small, bright moon? It is placed so perfectly between the peaks! I love the way he leaves so much of the paper untouched, letting the white space breathe and shimmer. It reminds me a little of Agnes Martin, in how she uses the grid as a starting point for something more fluid and intuitive. It's like he's saying, "Here's the world, but it's also just ink on paper." And that's the magic of painting, isn't it?