The ink painter who drew inspiration from the resilience of life

The popular subjects depicted by Qi Baishi (1864-1957), a leading painter of the 20th century, include shrimp, birds, chickens, fish and other animals, which he drew on to playfully celebrate the essential beauty of nature.

Qi also left a body of figurative paintings, some in which he imagined celestial figures in folk tales, imbued with his observation of human nature. For example, he revisited Tie Guaili, an immortal who carries a gourd around filled with medicines to relieve pain, and Zhong Kui, "the king of ghosts", who hunts evil spirits and protects people and their houses. He also made a seal on which he engraved these words: "I'm old, in good health, and not envious of (the benefits of) being an immortal".

The painter experienced the vicissitudes of 20th-century China — from social instability and wars to peace — but in good or bad times, he celebrated the vigor of nature and the resilience of life through his fine brushwork.

The Beijing Fine Art Academy, where Qi was the first honorary chairman and which houses a collection of his work, has taken the painter's animated world of living things and his philosophical outlook on life to San Francisco's Asian Art Museum.

Nearly 50 paintings and correspondence with friends and collectors are on display in the exhibition Qi Baishi: Inspiration in Ink, which runs until April 7. It will travel to Boston afterward.

Qi has been exhibited before in San Francisco. The de Young Museum organized a solo exhibition of his work in 1960, showing over 150 pieces.

The current exhibition continues the Beijing Fine Art Academy's endeavors to commemorate the 160th anniversary last year of the painter's birth, and to raise his international profile.

According to Du Yuxin, a curator at the Beijing Fine Art Academy, the show illustrates Qi's efforts to achieve artistic creativity. "Born of humble country origins in Xiangtan, Hunan province, he was first a carpenter, a portrait maker, then a seal engraver in Beijing. He reformed ink art and became accomplished."

Du says that all his life, Qi was down-to-earth and sincere. "He was determined to depict whatever he saw and felt, his strokes hail the greatness of nature, mountains and rivers, and also the small things, like insects and flower buds, revealing life's simple pleasures."

Interactive installations and workshops are also part of the show. One experience is Letters from Baishi, in which dozens of envelopes have been hung in midair for visitors to take as souvenirs. Inside, there is a letter containing images of paintings, seal impressions and greetings from Qi.

Right next to it is another installation, Time-travel Postbox, which permits visitors to send him their replies. One visitor named Yognandam Maharaj wrote: "Thank you for creating your art. It reminded me that this is where we come from. The foundation of human culture is art. It is our duty to create and share. This is resistance, perseverance."

Wu Hongliang, director of the Beijing Fine Art Academy, says they have held 20 exhibitions to mark Qi's 160th anniversary, some of them abroad, and they are seeking possible collaborations with overseas museums that also have pieces of Qi's art in their collections.