Yu LanYing (Lavinia Yu) — Contemporary Ink Painter. She is a renowned Taiwanese artist, born in 1943, currently lives and works in California, United States.

Ink painting has a very long tradition in Asia. It was used in art and calligraphy, for over 2 millennia. However, in the 1980s, the artists reinvented traditional ink art by adopting influences and practices from the West. Chinese painters started to experiment with the media. That’s how the New Ink Art movement was born. New Ink Art combines contemporary painting with the ancient art of calligraphy and traditional Chinese painting.

In traditional ink painting, the brush is more important than the ink, since ink follows the brush to create a line. Contemporary Ink Artists, like Yu LanYing, separated the ink from the brush, thus introducing the abstract into Ink Art. Creative process includes pouring, splashing and rinsing large areas of ink or even using airbrush application to create figurative forms.

The New Ink Art movement has gained international recognition with both Christie’s and Sotheby’s organizing Contemporary Ink painting auctions in 2013 and 2014 with prices ranging from several hundred thousand to several million dollars.

WATCH Interview with Yu LanYing: https://youtu.be/OQdfM98wTmI