Ink painting is a traditional Chinese art form. Water and ink are mixed on an inkstone to create different shades of black, then applied with a brush to hand-made bast paper. The amount of water, the brush and the stroke itself control the ink’s intensity and width.
Traditional ink painting usually joins image and poem. Making an ink painting is like writing, which is why it is also called literati painting—scholar painting—characterized by freehand lyricism. This is very different from Western painting's focus on geometry and perspective.
Ink painting pursues the mood of poetry and a sense for nature. Between being and not-being, fullness and emptiness, yin and yang, it expresses the relationship of humans and nature, change of time and space, and the unity of the substance and its boundary. It is closer to philosophy and culture. The beauty of ink painting is not just visual, it is spiritual.
Fan Xueyi likes the uncertainty of ink. It is like life: fluid, seemingly there and not there. As ink changes, the mind perceives the relationship between oneself and nature. What flows from the tip of the brush is a map of the heart. In today's flood of multimedia, this traditional medium lets us wander through mountains, rivers, trees and flowers—between heaven and earth. Gaining the power of wisdom through this process is simply an elegant way of living, a pursuit of Zen.
Fan Xueyi & Wolfram Anders
Fan Xueyi 范学宜 (*1969, Heilongjiang) has been writing poetry since childhood. After several years of curating art exhibitions, she established XYZ Gallery in Beijing’s 798 Art District in 2006 and began painting in 2008, mastering both Chinese literati ink and traditional oil painting techniques. On Bada Shanren (2025) shows her in dialogue with prominent Ming artist Zhu Da. Further Than North (2026) tells of her and her brother’s experiences in their home in China’s Northeast (Manchuria). Drawings made during the pandemic and short poetry make up her Album of Evening Fragrance (2025). She has written lyrics for several Chinese TV dramas and the music album Singing in the Wind (2004). Since 2020, she has served as literary and artistic consultant for the China National Opera and Dance Drama Theater. She lives and works in Beijing, China.
