Landscape 1909

Qi Baishi painted this landscape in ink, and the initial impression is like a memory, something fleeting and dreamlike, captured in monochrome washes and decisive brushstrokes. I imagine Qi Baishi standing there, poised with his brush, really *feeling* the texture of the paper beneath his hand. Each stroke seems so intuitive, like he's dancing with the landscape itself, abstracting forms into these bold, almost architectural shapes, and letting the ink bleed and blend to create atmosphere. Look how the mountains rise up like stacks of minimalist blocks, and that little moon hanging in the sky! It’s so subtle, yet it anchors the whole composition, right? It makes me think about the conversations painters have across time, how someone like Agnes Martin, with her quiet abstraction, is in dialogue with these earlier masters who found abstraction in nature. It’s a constant exchange, each artist finding new ways to see and feel the world, and I reckon Qi Baishi would have liked Agnes' work. Painting is this ongoing quest, where we embrace the unfinished and the uncertain, allowing for endless possibilities.