Nici Jost

“Silent Pink” was created during a six-month artist residency at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai. It is a light pink shade, a synthesis of observations and historical research. Even though pink seems omnipresent in Chinese culture, art, history and modern daily life, it is not talked about as a color; there is no word for the color pink in Mandarin - it is a “silent color”. In Chinese characters, pink is described as; powder red or powder color, red grey, crape myrtle color, rose or peach color.

Curiously, pink is used in Chinese paintings as early as the 15th century. In early works, black ink lines and distinguished brushstrokes dominate and use of color is rare. Cinnabar and azurite were the first commonly used minerals to manufacture red and blue pigments. The most popular subjects in Chinese paintings were scenes of daily life, landscapes, flowers and birds. Quite often, women, noble figures and flowers were tinted with a hue of cinnabar, which appears as a light pink on paper. 

Pink is also found on Jingdezhen porcelain ware, for example the traditional “nine peach” design vase and the vase with Fencai design of eight immortals, both from the Qianlong reign during the Qing dynasty between 1736 and 1795.

In the 20th and 21st centuries, pink is widely used in advertisements, on poster designs, and various propagandistic paintings and illustrations.