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The Beauty of Blackness in Landscape Painting

Landscapes IV: The Beauty of Blackness (1983–1988)

Entering the Dark Mountain

This group from around 1983–1988 reflects Friedrich Zettl’s intensive study of Huang Binhong’s landscape painting. Repeated ink marks and layered brushwork create dense mountain surfaces, while small areas of open paper preserve light and distance within them.

1. Accumulated Ink (Ji Mo)

Layer upon Layer (Ji Mo 积墨)

Accumulation is visible in the overlapping contours, dots and short strokes. In some sheets the marks nearly merge into a continuous dark surface; in others, fine lines remain distinct enough to reveal rocks, trees, paths and buildings.

Dense mountain brushwork with trees and small buildings beside a pale vertical passage
Fine overlapping contours around rocks, trees and a small building
A densely worked horizontal mountain landscape of dark ink marks and winding pale passages
Tall dark mountain forms rising behind densely marked foreground trees

2. Darkness and Light

Dense Marks, Open Passages

Darkness takes different forms across the selection. A crowded horizontal landscape leaves little unworked space, while a vertical composition sets a dense foreground against pale distant peaks. The contrast determines the viewer’s route through the image.

A small pale building below dark brush-built mountains with broad open sky
Dark foreground rocks and trees separated from distant hills by open water
Layered black foliage and fine contours beneath an upper inscription
A group of trees and small houses beneath outlined mountain forms

3. Chaos and Order

Disordered Order

The apparently tangled surfaces retain a clear organisation. Open water, a winding path or the pale walls of a small building can separate groups of marks and make the depth easier to follow.

Dark and blue-grey mountains surrounding small pale buildings and open water
A tall dark central mountain above small buildings and a pale foreground
Warm lightly tinted rock contours with foreground trees and a winding open passage
A horizontal landscape of clustered mountains, trees and small buildings in fine dark marks

Night Walk

These works offer a denser counterpart to the more reduced Structural Landscapes. The later Dreamscapes develop a different kind of density through flowing ink.

Related articles: The Chinese Turn | The Structural Landscape | Dreamscapes

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