Exhibition highlights prominent ink painter's pursuit of pictorial poetry, Lin Qi reports.

Wang Mingming focuses on creating paintings inspired by, and inscribed with, ancient poems written in the style of Chinese calligraphy. His works, based on poems by (from left) artist Wang Xizhi, poet Li Bai and Li Zhiyi, are on display in Beijing. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

The close association between painting and poetry has been reiterated in both Eastern and Western cultures.

Greek poet Simonides of Ceos, for example, once said, "painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting with the gift of speech".

Guo Xi, the noted Chinese painter and art theorist from the 11th century, mentioned in one of his influential texts, titled The Interest of Lofty Forests and Springs, "painting is a poem with form, while poetry is a picture without form".

In classical Chinese painting, the role of poetry is vividly represented. After completing a painting, the artist would write down poetic verses on liubai (the blank spaces left intentionally) on paper, or sometimes ask friends to write. By doing so, the poetry would enrich the composition and reinforce the painter's erudition.

Even today artists are inspired by poems. And they combine the figurative and semi-abstract strokes in paintings to accentuate an intensively poetic atmosphere.

Wang Mingming focuses on creating paintings inspired by, and inscribed with, ancient poems written in the style of Chinese calligraphy. His works, based on poems by (from left) artist Wang Xizhi, poet Li Bai and Li Zhiyi, are on display in Beijing. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Between 2003 and 2019, for example, Wang Mingming, an ink artist and former head of Beijing Fine Art Academy, created a body of such paintings inspired by, and inscribed with, ancient poems written in the style of Chinese calligraphy. It is a statement of one of the rules at the heart of Chinese art, the union of painting, calligraphy and poetry. It is done in the medium-size ceye ("an album of pages") format, a special structure in Chinese painting that allows viewers an intimate feeling when turning every page.

A selection of 100 paintings from this collection of works by Wang is now on show at A Mood Beyond Poetry, an exhibition at Beijing Fine Art Academy through Sunday.

Wang's interest in art was carefully cultivated by his father, a lover of Chinese painting and calligraphy, who was on good terms with prominent Chinese artists of the 20th century. Wang was introduced to such painters to study under their guidance. His childhood paintings were exhibited in the country and abroad, and he was seen as a prodigy.

Wang became a resident artist at Beijing Fine Art Academy, a hub of creation and studies of classical Chinese art, in the late 1970s. Over the decades, he has been in search of the characteristics of Chinese painting to distinguish it from other types of painting－the representations of the mood of ink art and the revival of paintings with a poetic sense－essential to the genre of literati painting that somehow declined over the past century, he says.

Wang Mingming focuses on creating paintings inspired by, and inscribed with, ancient poems written in the style of Chinese calligraphy. His works, based on poems by (from left) artist Wang Xizhi, poet Li Bai and Li Zhiyi, are on display in Beijing. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

His poetry-inspired works on show reflect such efforts through the years, aiming to "usher the audience into the state of mind of intellectuals of ancient China, being touched by the spirituality of Chinese cultural traditions", Wang says.

His works incorporate the techniques of three main categories in Chinese painting: mountain and water, flower and bird, and figures. They also show Wang's endeavor to carry forward the style of literati painting, which prioritizes personal expressions to accurately represent the subjects.

"It is a celebration of a scholarly taste that is in the heart of literati painting. It is the process of balancing emptiness with details in a composition, the realistic and imagined parts with which Chinese artists show the position of people in nature and the universe," Wang says.

Of the many seal impressions on his works, one reads "le gudu (enjoy being alone)", in which Wang says he has tried to follow ancient artists while painting. He says he doesn't work to cater to the demands of the art market, but wants to make works that appeal to both refined and popular tastes.

Wang says he is currently painting a series centered on classic Chinese gardens, another tradition of well-educated groups since ancient times who tried to re-create the atmosphere and philosophies of nature in an artificial space of refinement.

Contact the writer at linqi@chinadaily.com.cn