The history of ink painting in early modern China is often told as a history of uninterrupted lineages and seamless transmission through time. There were, however, passages in that history when transmission was not so certain, and artists developed modes of painting that put under pressure teachings and standards inherited from the past. This was the case of Zheng Xie (1693-1765) whose monochrome ink orchids were conceived as a string of tiny but effective disruptions of the technical and aesthetic principles of monochrome ink painting. Focusing on Zheng Xie’s late production, this talk explores what glitches, errors, and flaws tell us about mid-Qing artists’ attitudes toward the legacy of the past and the value they assigned to defective hands and imperfect tools to engage with a crumbling world.

Zoom webinar registration at: https://umich.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Aqz73aUHScy8WtkDk28yhQ

Michele Matteini is Assistant Professor at New York University. He specializes on painting and antiquarian culture of the Qing period. His book, "A Ghost in the City: Luo Ping and the Craft of Painting in Eighteenth-Century Beijing" is forthcoming later this year.