Ink Wash and Empty Space: What Korean Ink Painting Leaves Unpainted
Most paintings try to fill the page. Korean ink painting often does the opposite. A mountain is a few dark strokes, the mist around it is bare paper, and the painter stops long before the surface is covered. What is left out matters as much as what is painted in. One stick of ink, many shades Ink painting in Korea is called sumukhwa (수묵화), "water and ink painting," and its main material is very simple. The ink, meok (먹), is a solid stick made from soot, traditionally from burned pine, bound with animal glue, pressed into a mold and dried slowly. To use it, the painter grinds the stick against an inkstone with a little water. Brush, ink, paper and inkstone were the four essentials of a scholar's room, known in Korea as munbang sau , the "four friends of the study." With nothing but black ink and water, the range has to come from tone. Add more water and a stroke turns soft grey; load the brush with ink and it turns deep, glossy black; let the brush run ...