Chinese art explained

For centuries, Chinese and western art led separate lives. Until the Jesuits arrived in China in the 17th century there was no cross-pollination, no western artistic influence on China – or vice versa. Europe imported Chinese silk and porcelain, but no painting or calligraphy. The west was ignorant of Chinese art. And when the Jesuits first brought vanishing-point perspectives to the east, the Chinese made fun of them. In the west, artists worked on wood and canvas; in the east, on silk and paper – after all, a Chinese invention. The Chinese never had a problem putting words into pictures conceptually – very different from the west. Also, western art related to science, from the renaissance onwards, while Chinese art was more influenced by the humanities and poetry. But the west has been slow to recognise the freedom in Chinese painting, its adventurous exploration of a whole gamut of possibilities that western art only tackled in the 20th century. It is a list that includes the ability to see paintings as a process of making abstract marks on a flat surface, as symbolic representations and as a series of gestures. This last came naturally to a culture which thought highly of calligraphy and used the same means – brush and ink – for both. More at http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/sep/29/history-of-china-art Masterpieces of Chinese Paintings: 700-1900; at the V&A from 26 October 2013 to 19 January 2014.