Imre Jakabffy (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 8. (Budapest, 1984)

CHIA-JEN KECSKÉS, Lily: Art and connoisseurship of the ink

cleansing.

29 It was apparently of different composition from that of Chinese ink which can not be washed off or removed. Ink in the West is made and considered exclusively for practical purposes, without any artistic and literary properties attached to it. Chinese ink, however, plays a more important role in Chinese culture. Old and well executed ink is one of the treasured items of collectors and is comparable with gold and jade. Chinese ink is not only a work of art, but also a work of scholarship. The exquisite designs on Chinese ink were often made by renowned artists; the inscriptions by poets, calligraphers or scholars. Ink had been collected and preserved for man's appreciation. Together with paper, writing brush and inkslab and all other accessories connected with writing and painting, such as brush-stands, paper-weights, paper-knives, rulers, seals and seal-pads, ink is one of the most cherished objects Chinese scholars and artists have ever near at hand. And to top its ubiquity, ink in China was used as medicine up till the most recent times. Thanks to the fine quality of ink and paper, many of the works of famous calligraphers and painters produced a thousand years ago have survived entirely the passage of time, retaining the freshness of color and tones. It is the permanence of Chinese ink which makes these cultural relics unique in Chinese heritage. 158