{"id":80456,"date":"2026-06-10T00:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T00:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/80456\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T00:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T00:50:12","slug":"how-3-artists-redefined-the-traditional-chinese-art-of-ink-at-art-basel-hong-kong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/80456\/","title":{"rendered":"How 3 artists redefined the traditional Chinese art of ink at Art Basel Hong Kong"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ink has been at the heart of traditional Chinese art for centuries. Cultural ideals, aesthetic perception and the literati artistic tradition are deeply rooted in the use of ink \u2013 whether in calligraphy, landscape painting or, in many cases, a combination of both.<\/p>\n

Today, the art form continues to be a medium for artists to explore the shape-shifting nature of language and aesthetics, with contemporary artists rethinking and redefining how brushstrokes \u2013 sometimes bold, at other times delicate \u2013 are interpreted.<\/p>\n

At Art Basel this year<\/a>, examples of contemporary interpretations of ink are found across the Kabinett, Discoveries and Insights sectors. From works that examine the relationship between art and language in the Tang Chang estate to Xu Jiong\u2019s ink landscapes that combine brushwork with Western sensibilities, these pieces reveal the evolving conceptual appeal of ink art beyond mountainscapes and Tang poetry.\"AA work from Xu Jiong\u2019s Spring Monster series. Photo: Handout<\/p>\n

Each Modern gallery brings Xu Jiong\u2019s works to the Insights sector this year, including the Spring Monster series. Born in Hangzhou in 1983, Xu trained as a calligrapher, which lent him a strong foundation in traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting from a young age. He injected elements of Western contemporary art into his works, exploring and expanding the literati art genre through a Western lens.<\/p>\n

Through his vivid, dynamic brushwork, Xu blends the spirit of Chinese artistic traditions with Western visual language, reimagining landscape and calligraphy within a contemporary framework. Each Modern\u2019s catalogue says: \u201cHis work constitutes a declaration that the future of Eastern aesthetics lies in unleashing its intrinsic energy and actively shaping new forms within the contemporary context.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past decade, Xu\u2019s artistic evolution has unfolded through several phases \u2013 Cursive (2012\u20132016), Jia Dao (2016\u20132018), Spring Monster (2017\u20132018), Collage (2019\u20132024), and the ongoing New Cursive series begun in 2020.<\/p>\n

The artist\u2019s quadriptych Spring Monster \u00b7 Youthless explores self-discovery and personal growth through the physical act of calligraphy. Rhythm, breath, the motion of the wrists, and ultimately, the release of energy from brushstrokes on paper are expressed as a lived experience of calligraphy rather than merely as a means to convey a narrative. His bold, almost spontaneous strokes express the gentle landscape of Jiangnan and the vastness of northern China, and the layering of flowers captures the passing of seasons and Xu\u2019s nostalgic longing for bygone youth, transforming calligraphy into an act of meditation on time, possibility and resilience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ink has been at the heart of traditional Chinese art for centuries. Cultural ideals, aesthetic perception and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8],"tags":[38064,22519,1377,41771,77,41775,1808,41778,197,41777,41774,41772,2521,41773,41770,41776],"class_list":["post-80456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basel","tag-abstract-expressionism","tag-alisan-fine-arts","tag-art-basel","tag-bangkok","tag-basel","tag-chao-chung-hsiang","tag-chinese","tag-eastern-aesthetics","tag-europe","tag-hangzhou","tag-jiangnan","tag-kabinett","tag-new-york","tag-tang-chang","tag-taoist","tag-xu-jiong"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116723072568179364","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}