‘Experimentality’ was a quite undefined, yet widespread term in painting or drawing in China in the last decades. Contemporary ink artists used it as an important means to develop the New Ink Painting in Hong Kong and the Contemporary Ink in the Mainland. Even the master Zhang Daqian explored its possibility to develop the techniques of splashed ink/colour (潑墨/潑色) in the early 20^th century by combining the style of the ancient legendary artist Wang Qia (王洽). This course aims to explore ‘experimentalism’ in the area of ink art based on the traditional techniques of gongbi (工筆) and xieyi (寫意).  

The course content is broadly structured in two parts. The first part is to explore the style of the New Literati Painting (新文人畫) by mixing gongbi with the experimental techniques. Then the course will investigate the vast possibilities of xieyi techniques in the manner of xieyi artists in the past and the Abstract Expressionists of the last century. Cross-cultural referencing is essential to this part. Through training in both approaches, students will be equipped with the elementary techniques to further develop contemporary ink art.  

The majority of the course is dedicated to skill-based training, but the course project also requires students to execute their ideas through integrating different techniques based on a well-planned creative strategy.