Qi Baishi’s Inspiration in Ink: A Culturally Immersive Experience

On view for the first time in the United States, Inspiration in Ink presents around 50 works that comprise themes such as landscapes, animals, and flowers. The exhibition also includes a reconstruction of a traditional Beijing hutong—the narrow streets typical of the Chinese capital—and its sounds. 

Visitors can therefore immerse themselves in an environment that allows them to experience life in Beijing at the end of the 20th century. Walking through a hutong surrounded by the sounds of traffic, street vendors, and Beijing opera is an additional, more comprehensive lens through which visitors can view and appreciate Qi’s art and style. 

Qi Baishi was born in 1864 in Xiangtan, a city in the southern province of Hunan, to a humble family. Although he initially trained as a carpenter, Qi learned how to paint in his free time by reproducing the images of flowers and animals found in Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden, a book on Chinese painting created during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). 

Over time, Qi became unsatisfied with his art and decided to leave Hunan to begin a peregrination around the country in search for inspiration and guidance from older artists. In 1919, at 55 years old, Qi settled in Beijing in order to foster and further promote his artistic career. 

Although the initial reception of his work was tepid and snubbed because of his humble origins, Qi’s introduction to high society by a famous opera performer changed his fortunes. Thanks to new relations among the cultural elite and his innovative combination of freehand brushwork, bright colors, and folk subjects, Qi became one of the most well-known and sought-after artists in China.

His paintings were acquired by Chinese politicians, business people, and high-ranking government officials and gradually made their way to Japan, Europe, and America.  

The interest in Qi’s art was such that, in 1948, Life Magazine sent a photography team to Beijing to take pictures of the artist in his studio. 

Fan Jeremy Zhang, curator of Chinese art at the Asian Art Museum, recalls that one of the photographs was “the black and white photo of his creation of shrimps and crabs in the studio that we often see online. This was also many Americans’ first exposure to this Avant-Garde artist. Qi was regarded as one of the best contemporary artists of the time, with innovative work echoing modern art movements in the West.” 

Qi Baishi is, to this day, one of the top selling artists worldwide, with auction prices that reach eye watering sums. For instance, in 2016, a set of ink brush paintings titled Twelve Landscape Screens was sold for over $140 million. Zhang remarks, “Qi is one of the few Chinese modern artists who has global fame.”

Even in his old age, Qi Baishi remained a prolific and commercially successful painter—it is estimated that he created between 8,000 and 15,000 pieces throughout his life. He was also a poet, a master calligrapher, and an expert in seal carving. 

Because of his humble roots, mundane subject matter, and widespread acclaim, Qi was hailed by the Chinese Communist Party as a master of traditional Chinese painting and, in 1953, was made president of the China Artists Association.

Qi Baishi was perhaps the only modern Chinese artist who embodied groundbreaking modernity within tradition. His minimalistic paintings were not simple, but the result of skilful observation in the pursuit of the essence of the surrounding world. 

He died in 1957 at 93 years old, leaving behind an extraordinary legacy. 

“This show invites the audience to have a conversation with the artist, to learn about his unique vision of nature and takes in art. [...] It is something of a homecoming as the de Young Museum was the first major U.S. public museum to host a solo exhibition of the artist in May 1960.” 

The curator notes, “We aim to encourage the audience to have rich experiences that transcend cultural barriers and better appreciate and understand ink art from East Asia.” Inspiration in Ink is therefore an exhibition that celebrates an incredible artist who, from his ordinary studio in Beijing, found beauty in all things, even shrimps swimming in a bowl.