Ni Zan was a Chinese painter and poet of the Yuan Dynasty.
Background
Ni Zan was born into a wealthy family in the Jiangsu province of China in 1301. When his father passed away at a very young age, his older brother took his place as the man in the family, who greatly influenced Zan. Growing up his life was fairly easy, he would spend his days reciting poetry and painting while traveling and conversing with other artists.
Education
Because of his families wealth, Ni could afford to go to school and get a good education that was uncommon at that time.
Career
Instead of serving the foreign Mongol dynasty of the Yuan, Ni Zan chose to live a life of retirement and cultivated the scholarly arts (poetry, painting, and calligraphy). He collected artistic works of the past and associated with those of a similar temperament. Toward the end of his life, Ni Zan is said to have distributed all of his possessions among his friends and adopted the life of a Daoist recluse, wandering and painting in his mature style in the Lake Tai region near his hometown.
Throughout the 1340s, the Yuan imposed oppressive taxes on the rich landowners of the region in order to cover the cost of these natural disasters. There are many divergent opinions concerning Ni Zan’s reaction to these taxes and his ensuing actions are unclear. However, it has been established that he distributed all of his possessions to his friends and moved into a houseboat. He left on the eve of the millenarianist Red Turban Revolt and traveled throughout the relatively peaceful southeast while various revolutionary parties tore through his region of origin. It was at this time that Ni Zan developed his distinctive style.
The art of Ni Zan and his peers in the Yuan dynasty was opposed to the preceding standards of the Southern Song academy, whose art immediately appealed to the eyes through obvious displays of virtuoso brushwork and a convincing pictorial reality. Ni Zan’s new style demanded concentrated viewing so that the larger and, in fact, more complex plays of ink could be perceived.
Generally, it may be said that in his paintings, usually landscapes, he used elements sparingly, used ink monochrome only, and left great areas of the paper untouched, which suggests the expanse of water. There is often a rustic hut, without any further suggestion of human presence, a few trees and other scant indications of plant life, and elemental landforms with a somber quiet throughout. Those sparse landscapes defy many traditional concepts of Chinese painting.
Many of his works hardly represent the natural settings they were intended to depict. It was in 1372 that he painted the "Rongxi Studio", which epitomizes his style. He also painted rocks and bamboo with the same delicate touch. A typical example is "Bamboo, Rock and Tall Tree", created in 1348, painted shortly before Ni Tsan left his home in Wuhsi. Ni Zan is regarded as one of the “Four Great Masters of the Yuan”, alongside Huang Gongwang, Wu Zhen, and Wang Meng. The artist died in 1374, only three years after returning to his home.
Views
Ni Zan advocated that painting should be used to express personal emotions, rather than to depict physical resemblance.
Quotations:
“I use bamboo painting to write out the exhilaration in my breast, that is all. Why should I worry whether it shows likeness or not?”
Membership
Ni Zan was the member of the artistic group “Four Great Masters of the Yuan.”
Personality
Ni Zan was characterized by his contemporaries as particularly quiet and fastidious, qualities that are found in his paintings.