The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of July 16, 2025

Print in black ink on a long and narrow hanging scroll with a full moon in the upper center and the central two-thirds a mountain covered in trees and shrubbery. The lower half is bisected by a light, winding stream that branches in three as it flows into calm, dark water at the bottom of the print.

Listening to the Sound of the Spring

2002
(Chinese, b. 1963)
China
Multiblock woodcut printed with water-soluble ink, mounted as a hanging scroll
image only: 182 x 33.5 cm (71 5/8 x 13 3/16 in.); Overall (no knobs): 245.5 x 56 cm (96 5/8 x 22 1/16 in.)
Edward L. Whittemore Fund 2022.8
© Chen Qi
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The strong contrasts in bright and dark shades of ink evoke the atmosphere of a night scene immersed in moonlight.

Description

Chen Qi is an internationally recognized print artist who represented China at the 2019 Venice Biennale. While having ventured into other media, he mostly produces monochrome prints enhanced by the subtle use of water-soluble ink, using traditional woodblock printmaking methods. Here he depicts a waterfall in softly layered and contrasting shades of bright and dark ink. With its rushing cascades of water reflecting in the moonlight, Chen gives the night scene a magic aura.
  • 2002–2013
    (An Li Gallery, Beijing, China, sold to James Sören Edgren)
    2013–2022
    J. Sören Edgren, Princeton, NJ, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2022–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Burg, Christer von der, Bin An, Julia Frances Andrews, David Barker, Ellen Johnston Laing, Frances Wood, and Hwang Yin. The art of contemporary Chinese woodcuts [中国当代木板艺术 = Zhongguo dang dai mu ban yi shu]. London: The Muban Foundation, 2003. p. 114
    Chen, Qi 陈琦. Shi jian jian pu: Chen Qi 1983-2013 [时间简谱 : 陈琦 1983-2013 = Notations of time: Chen Qi 1983-2013]. Beijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe, 2013.
  • Modern Impressions—Light and Water in Chinese Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 4, 2022-May 7, 2023).
  • {{cite web|title=Listening to the Sound of the Spring|url=false|author=Chen Qi|year=2002|access-date=16 July 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2022.8