Fantastic Brush

The 23 ink paintings featured in Fantastic Brush: Twentieth-Century Chinese Ink Art from the Robert and Lisa Kessler Collection are generously lent by the Denver-based eminent collectors Mr. and Mrs. Kessler. Works on view showcase some of the most important artists in twentieth-century China, including Zhang Daqian, Qi Baishi, Xu Beihong, Wu Changshuo, and Wu Guanzhong.

The collection includes examples by teachers and students, friends, and colleagues. The artists come from very different backgrounds: some traveled to Europe to study Western art, some went to Japan to study Japanese art and Western art as filtered through Japanese experience, and others never went abroad. Nevertheless, all were well versed in traditional Chinese ink art. All, moreover, were confronted with rapidly changing times and found their own unique interpretation of what it means to produce ink art in the twentieth century.

After 1949 and the establishment of communist government under Mao Zedong, some artists left mainland China, moving to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other countries. For those who stayed on the mainland, their art and lives were significantly altered by the political climate, especially during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 70s. Their art at different periods of their careers reflects not only their personal journeys, but to a large degree responded to the larger socioeconomic seismic shifts they witnessed during their lifetime. Collectively, the works on view manifest some of the most important transformations in Chinese ink art in modern times.