Running Horse 1936

Xu Beihong made this painting of a running horse using ink and brush, with a limited palette that really sings. The making of art is so much about the process, right? And you can really see it here in how the ink moves. Check out the horse’s mane – those strokes are so expressive, like the brush just danced across the paper. And then you have the body, where the ink is allowed to pool, creating these wonderfully subtle gradations and textures. There’s a real physicality to the medium, you can almost feel the artist’s hand guiding the brush, pushing and pulling the ink to create this sense of movement. It's like he’s in conversation with other artists throughout time like Franz Marc, both preoccupied with capturing the spirit of animals. But where Marc goes for bold color, Beihong keeps it simple, proving that less can definitely be more. Art's all about ambiguity, not fixed meanings. It is open for interpretation, let’s let it be.