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china is the only culture where painting was, from almost the beginning (tang, and then even more with the sung), seen and reflected as the most noble of human activities (actually the most noble was calligraphy, but painting is an extention from it.) in the west, such a seriousness about painting didn't appear until leonardo; and perhaps it was more *his* seriousness - and, later, cézanne's - than that of the general culture. the latter just became *less* negligent, in my opinion. the sung men - particularly earlier sung men - emptied themselves before nature completely, but the yuan, and, even more, the ming and ching, had a conception of painting as a quite free creation not achieved among us until the modernism. ana ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Jones" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 4:24 AM Subject: East Asian painting This wiki quick gloss over monochrome landscape painting in Japan and China seems worth following up on. (Some of the aesthetic is to do with accidents which are perfect... side note) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_painting an austere monochrome style of ink painting introduced from Sung and Yuan dynasty China largely replaced the polychrome scroll paintings of the previous period, although some polychrome portraiture remained – primary in the form of chinso paintings of Zen monks.Typical of such painting is the depiction by the priest-painter Kao of the legendary monk Kensu (Hsien-tzu in Chinese) at the moment he achieved enlightenment. This type of painting was executed with quick brush strokes and a minimum of detail. Does anyone know of better URLs? best, cj (had enough of typing my name.)