Recently, I went to a Qi Baishi’s exhibit with Sunny and her dad at the Asian Art Museum. Honestly, I didn’t really know much about him. Maybe I’ve seen his stuff in textbooks and google searches but I wasn’t really knowledgeable about him. Sunny and her dad seemed to know him quite well. 

When I first walked into the pavilion, I saw  these cute and sort of sloppy paintings of people, along with calligraphy on the side. I thought they were cool but not something I’ve never seen before.  I was like “hmm I see”. I was not super impressed but also kinda inspired by  how simple and bold they were. But then walking deeper in, I see more landscapes and bold calligraphy that I guess sort of abstract. 

They were abstract, visionary and vague. As I spent more time with these paintings, I started to understand a little bit more. This guy can do both picture perfect and abstract, child-like artworks. The totality of it all shocked me. It reminded me of people like Picasso, Duchamp, Mondrian, and such who are more famous for their quote on quote odd and unique works but in reality they can also do traditional drawings and paintings. 

I came out of this exhibit inspired and curious, but also not really a path forward in my mind still.