From 4 to 25 September, Christie’s will stage a private selling exhibition of Chinese contemporary ink paintings at their Hong Kong headquarters. Featuring over 40 works by Xue Liang and Jiang Hongwei, “Silent Songs” explores the rich history of ink and brush painting through the lens of two of its foremost contemporary practitioners. The two artists emerge through similar trajectories: both were born in the second half of the 1950s in the eastern coastal province of Jiangsu, graduated from the Nanjing University of the Arts several years apart, and continue to live and work in Nanjing to this day. They refine the tradition known as the fine brush (gongbi), where meticulous brushwork and precise realism are prized, to convey a sense of tranquility that appeals to the contemporary viewer. Xue Liang’s surreal, phantasmagorical landscapes are created using a familiar visual
