Discarding the Brush: Gao Qipei, 1660-1734
弃笔：高其佩与18世纪的中国指画

Gao Qipei (1660–1734) was a groundbreaking artist in eighteenth-century China. Gao advocated the abandonment of traditional painting rules and conventions, such as using paint brushes, and he embraced the use of his hands. Gao used his fingers, nails, palms, and the backs of his hands to paint. Thus Gao created a range of sharp or rugged, sometimes crumbling, irregular, and unpredictable lines—initiating a virtual revolution in Chinese painting style. His method of painting strongly influenced later painters, including the minimalism of the Qing Individualists and the bird and animal paintings of the well-known Eccentrics of Yangzhou. This exhibition showed forty-one Gao Qipei paintings from museums in Liaoning Province, consisting of both hanging scrolls and album leaves.