Amid the warm, gentle winds of spring, flowers burst into bloom and insects stir to life.
Such scenes of natural vitality once delighted Qi Baishi (1864-1957) as he observed the small world of flora and fauna at his siheyuan courtyard home, in one of Beijing's hutong alleyways. Growing up in rural Hunan province, the master ink artist is known as an ardent lover of nature, who transformed his close observation of small creatures and his childhood memories into exquisite brushstrokes.
Leaving behind a rich and varied oeuvre, from landscapes to shrimp, Qi is especially beloved for his depictions of small animals. These works are not only admired for their meticulous fine-line precision, akin to that of a zoologist, but also for the sense of wonder they convey toward the resilience of small lives, however humble or inconspicuous, and their determination to create a niche in the world.
Wen Chong (Ask Insects), an ongoing exhibition running until Oct 11 at the Art Museum of Beijing Fine Art Academy, invites audiences into an affectionate dialogue between Qi and insects in the warm embrace of spring. It presents Qi from the dual perspectives of an artist and an entomologist — it is said that Qi is one of the most prolific painters of insects, capturing the likenesses of dragonflies, grasshoppers, moths, cicadas, mantises and bees, to name but a few. The paintings on show are displayed with specimens of their subjects, with text explaining each insect's physical traits and habits. There are also audio players that allow people to hear the sounds the different bugs make.
Moving to Beijing in 1919, Qi formed a deep bond with the capital. He was elected honorary president of the Beijing Fine Art Academy upon its establishment in 1957, and over decades the institution has researched his work and built a significant collection of his art.
Qi was well-versed in both the gongbi style of accurate delineation of subjects and the xieyi style of smudging. His depictions of invertebrates celebrate his masterful command of the former technique: he defined their heads, legs, and cross-connecting veins on their wings as if producing anatomical drawings.
Qi's paintings of these humble creatures, which he sometimes paired with flowers and vegetables painted in the freer xieyi manner, frequently take the form of ceye, or album leaves. They visually chronicle the seasonal markers throughout the year, just as he once summarized in a poem included in an album of his insect paintings: "Insects circling flowers add delights to springtime, the chirping of summer insects makes the heat more intense. Who can count how many autumn insects softly cheep? Asleep in winter, insects are known only through references in herbal texts."
Qi preferred mineral pigments and colors such as green and cinnabar, with which he recreated the sense of weight and density of beetles' hardened, shell-like forewings. His masterful variations in brush pressure produced long, smooth lines to depict the suppleness and vitality of katydids.
Wu Hongliang, president of the Beijing Fine Art Academy, says that from the beginning, "the exhibition's curatorial team adopted a cross-disciplinary approach to show the beauty of these small lives in Qi's brushwork, and wanted to expand people's knowledge and widen their vision of the world".
The exhibition came from a curatorial idea proposed by students and teachers at Shandong University of Art and Design in Jinan. The proposal won the team the grand prize in the Qi Baishi category at the fourth Global Virtual Curatorial Competition for College Students, an annual initiative organized by the Central Academy of Fine Arts.
"Qi Baishi conducted remarkably detailed research on insects. After consulting museum records, we found that the moths in his works alone encompass eight or nine species," says Wu Leping, a member of the curatorial team from Shandong University of Art and Design. The team also sought advice from the Insect Enthusiasts Association at China Agricultural University.
Xu Jun, an associate professor at the Shandong university and the mentor for Wu's team, says, "In art, Qi Baishi pursued truth, and so does natural science. The exhibition demonstrates that the paths of art and science ultimately converge in the pursuit of goodness and beauty."
Last year, the same museum presented The Small Fish Cares, which was based on an award-winning proposal from the third Global Virtual Curatorial Competition, an initiative designed to identify potential future curators and connect them with cultural institutions like the Beijing Fine Art Academy to bring their ideas to life.
Kang Li, from CAFA's School of Art Administration and Education, which oversees the competition, says such collaboration will "harness the energy and fresh perspectives of the younger generation, while expanding the influence of masters like Qi to wider audiences, and carrying their legacies into the future".
