Art I like - Liu Dan

The British Museum's show of modern Chinese ink painting has a section with Liu Dan's work. This artist is new to me and I'm bowled over by his skill and especially the size of his Dictionary -

81 x 121 inches

According to the interview with the artist here, it took him five months to paint -- and is his first watercolour.

The dictionary is one belonging to his family and is from the pre-communist era. It opens  naturally to the page on jade; the other page shown is for water, and the combination sums up a lot of cultural history.

Other works on show are a huge painting of a poppy (this article puts it in context)

and some of his exquisite "portraits of stones". Here he is at work on a scroll -

He lived in the US for many years, and in 2006 returned to Beijing. The exhibition at the British Museum runs till September.