Ink is Tate’s first ever exhibition dedicated to the enduring and profoundly philosophical practice of ink painting. Serving as an introduction to this beautiful, intricate artform, the show highlights key ideas within the ink tradition, including its sense of historical continuity and relationship to the natural world.
Organised around three themes ‘Life’, ‘the Garden’, and ‘Breath’, the exhibition features around 80 works. While ink painting is widely practiced across East Asia and its diasporas, the show focuses on key artists in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan who helped reinvent it for the twentieth century. Each found new ways to honour the tradition while pushing it forward - boldly experimenting, yet staying true to its core principles. By tracing the connections between these artists, Ink reveals a vibrant regional network and challenges familiar Western narratives of modern art, including ideas of originality, expressionism and the avant-garde.
Ink is presented in the Eyal Ofer Galleries. Research supported by Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational in partnership with Hyundai Motor.
