Image: Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo
The session also draws on the East Asian tradition of the Peach Blossom Spring, a story about a mythical place where people can briefly escape everyday life. It begins in the exhibition ‘Van Gogh, al onze schilderijen’, where participants discover more about Van Gogh’s flowering peach trees and the ideas behind the masterclass, before beginning their own work.
Using breathing exercises, brush and ink, and Jang’s meditative method ‘one breath, one stroke’, participants paint trees, mountains, water and flowering peach trees. They then bring these separate elements together in their own Peach Blossom Land: a personal dream landscape painted on traditional Korean paper, or hanji, and made as a hanging scroll.
Jang works from Seoul and Amsterdam, and Peach Blossom Spring—an imagined paradise hidden in the landscape—is a recurring theme in her artistic practice and research. Alongside her art practice, she teaches Korean ink painting and East Asian art history, developing a meditative approach in which breathing, concentration and brush movement are closely connected.
No painting experience is required, and the masterclass is taught in English.
