The Impressionistic Spirit of Xu Wei's Flower and Bird Paintings

Xu Wei is a legend of freehand brushwork painting in Ming Dynasty. He is proficient in all kinds of poetry, calligraphy and painting, especially good at wild cursive which is freely writing with wanton vertical and horizontal genre. He focused more on the play of subjective feelings and literati's interests, so he was not restricted by the form of natural images. He dared to "break all forms" and was familiar with "casting forms and pleasing shadows". The impressionistic spirit of Xu Wei's flower-and-bird paintings has influenced a large number of later literati artists.