Playing with ink

A Beijing show displays ink paintings late artist Zhu Xinjian created with his left hand, which some critics say are much closer to Zhu's artistic pursuit of simplicity and genuineness.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Zhu once said he wanted to "live like an immortal", treating everything except food with a playful attitude.

Painting, including depicting nudity and sexuality, was like a game to him, says Chen.

Ma Jianpei, an old friend of the artist, says Zhu's left-handed paintings are as good as the pieces he did with his right hand because to paint without a technique is the "highest level of art".

Although Zhu was famous for nude portraits of women, none of the exhibits in the current display are related to the subject. They instead focus on men in martial-arts costumes from ancient China and were drawn in Zhu's rough ink strokes.

Chen, also the show's curator, says the theme of the exhibition echoes the launch of The Works of Zhu Xinjian series.

The first volume is a picture book of nearly 300 of his paintings on performers of Chinese opera and other cultural figures, mostly in ancient costumes.

The series has six volumes in total, with each volume presenting a detailed catalog of Zhu's works, including portraits of women, flowers and birds, landscape and calligraphy, and oil paintings.

All books in the series will be published by Beijing-based Rongbaozhai publishing house.

"To hold a show of his left-handed paintings and to publish his works were among Zhu's last wishes," says Chen.

The compiling of Zhu's works owned by many private collectors in China was a big project.

It took seven art critics two years to select some 2,000 of his works from tens of thousands.