Religious Art & Worldviews · Artists
The court painter who walked away from the academy to become 'Madman Liang', inventor of the splashed-ink immortal.
Tagged: Painting Medieval Devotional Iconic Chan Painting Buddhist Zen
Liang Kai, a Southern Song court painter at the height of official favor, is said to have left his gold belt hanging at the academy and gone to live among Chan monks. His abbreviated style — a figure summoned in five strokes — became the visual signature of Chan spontaneity.
The pictured album leaf shows the mode: the drunk immortal as a few decisions of wet ink, nothing correctable, nothing missing.
References
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