The book examines the technical characteristics of bimo (Chinese ink and wash painting) and discusses the theoretical implications of its core features. This book approaches bimo outside the box of dominant academic concerns in order to engender fresh methodological approaches, aiming to enrich the global study of art by offering a vocabulary for understanding the formal language of bimo. The author argues that the technology and rules of brush and ink, that is, the subtle changes in visible lines and shapes, brush tone and brush texture, have importance in themselves, quite apart from any suggestions of pictorial imagery. The author divides the elements of bimo into five types: simple lines, combined lines, bimo style, bimo composition, and bimo inscriptions that constitute the basic structure of brush and ink painting. On the other hand author narrates the history of Chinese brush and ink, showing how bimo came to be informed by China’s humanistic tradition and the cultivation of personal disposition so important in Neo-Confucian philosophy and gradually developed a unique visual hermeneutics based on literati ethical ideals and philosophical principles selected from Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism. The book will be valuable to scholars, students and readers interested in Chinese art, culture and philosophy.

Gongkai Pan is a renowned artist, theoretician, and educator. Pan served successively as the President of the two major art academies in China- CAFA (Central Academy of Fine Arts) in Beijing (2001-2015), and the China Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou (1996-2001). He was awarded an Honorary PhD from San Francisco Art Institute in San Francisco, in the US; the University of Glasgow (Glasgow School of Art) in the UK; Maryland University in Maryland, US; and from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada. In the last ten years, Pan’s research has focused on Modern Chinese art, yielding a monograph and an anthology of essays. His installation Melting was shown at the 54th Venice Biennale. His large ink paintings are full of energy, retaining core features of taste informing traditional literati ink and brush painting. Pan’s ink and brush paintings have been exhibited in the Paris UNESCO Headquarters and in major art museums in the world.