Talk:Chinese painting

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Can anyone tell me what the red and black caligraphy is on most chinese painting?

If this isn't mentioned in the article I might add it tomorrow. If you look at many of the Chinese paintings you'll notice that an area near the top, or sometimes side, is kind of without imagery and instead has calligraphy. This is intentional. Chinese painting was often both painting and poetry. Hence you'll fine many of the pre-Republican era painters were also poets because the two were often fused as one art. This is because, unlike with most Western languages, Chinese is ideographic. Therefore having a poem in a painting doesn't have to take up that much room, but sometimes it does. Long story short the calligraphy in Chinese paintings is usually a poem, as well as a demonstration of calligraphy in itself, and the poem is often by the painter.

The description of Chinese as "ideographic" is considered somewhat passe - "logographic" is often prefered these days - but both are still encountered with some frequency. NGDR

Poems were not customarilly added to paintings by the painter until the 13th century - calligraphy that appears of painting prior to that was often added by later collectors or connoisseurs. Very often the inscription is not poetic, but rather is an appraisal of the painter or the painting by the collector or one of his friends. On occaision the appraisal includes an attribution of authorship on an otherwise annonymous painting. Nangua Daoren 11/20/2006

Another curiosity is that, somewhat less commonly, Chinese painters intentionally kept areas blank of calligraphy and painting. These blank spaces were filled by later painters of their school, sometimes over generations. This made the painting, in a sense, a "living art" which could change over time. Somewhat like how some folk songs are expanded or given additional verses over generation.(These analogies are a tad inelegant, I'm not a morning person)--T. Anthony 13:46, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

T. Anthony - I can think of no examples of the practice you descibe. Though it is true that paintings were on occaision done in concert with friends or colleagues - this was done more as a group activity - on occaision one artist would send an "unfinished painting" to a friend to complete - but the idea that they would be completed by future generations is not supported by any research that I am aware of. (though I am hppy to be shown wrong on this point - becuase its kind of a nice idea)It is true that schools styles were continued in a multi-generational way and that the copying of older paintings by successive generations kept those works in the public eye - but these were not the kind of "joint productions" you describe. Nangua Daoren 11/20/2006