Contemporary Chinese Ink Wash Painting by Li Jin

A contemporary ink painting on paper by Chinese artist Li Jin (1958-) presented in a white shadowbox frame. Entitled in English "Morning Practice in California", this series of work was painted in 2017 when the artist resided in US. The Chinese title inscription is "Blossom Branch" with artist's name signed in both Chinese and English. The painting is considered "Expressionistic-abstract". Using only various shades of ink, the poetic work depicts a large lotus flower with the pistil in the center composed of clusters of mediating arhats, the beings who have gained nirvana through Buddhism practice (known as Luohans in Chinese). There is a strong association of lotus flower and purity in Buddhism. The wisdom one can possibly achieve may be considered omnipresent and morphogenetical quantum and be part of everything around us. The image size is 13.5" x 13.5".
Provenance: Purchased in 2017 from the Ink Studio at West Bund Art and Design Fair, Shanghai, China.
Li Jin (1958-, Tianjin, China) is an ink master who draws from the tradition of Chinese literati ink painting and creates contemporary works celebrating all aspects of everyday life. Having explored color washes for two decades, Li Jin has translated them into a masterful control of tonality-the "five colors of ink"-in a series of monochrome paintings in the expressionistic-abstract "Da Xie Yi" manner. Through the ink medium's inherent sensitivity and ambiguity, they evoke the nuances of human existence and raise profound questions about self-representation and subjectivity. Trained at Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts (graduated in 1983) and has been a leading figure in contemporary Chinese ink art since the 1980s, Li Jin was awarded the Annual Ink Artist at the 2013 Award of Art China and was the only ink artist selected by the authoritative publication L'OFFICIEL Art in 2019. In 2015, his major survey show "The Sensory Life of the Mass: 30 Year of LI Jin" was exhibited at the Long Museum, Shanghai. His works have been exhibited globally and are in the collections of major institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Art Museum of China, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Seattle Art Museum, and Hong Kong Museum of Art.