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Exhibit shows how ‘meticulous’ painting revived
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A show at the Dushikuaibao Art Center demonstrates some bold new styles emerging in one of the most traditional and unchanging forms of traditional Chinese art.
Portraying nobles and beauties in a realistic way was one of the main historic functions of Chinese traditional “meticulous” painting, which like calligraphy, is done with a brush dipped in black or colored ink.
Unlike other schools of painting, which have evolved and become more varied, many meticulous painters seem to be stuck in time.
The show taking place through next Monday exhibits the works of 27 artists, including both traditional and modern.
Gongbi, or meticulous painting, uses highly detailed brush strokes that delimit details very precisely.
Some 1,500 years ago, it encompassed themes as varied as everyday life and even political issues, but with “more restrictive politics as well as the bloom of Chinese freehand painting, it became increasingly less important,” said Sun Zhijun, vice president of Beijing Chinese Meticulous Painting Association.
The art form was at an especially low ebb after Western art was introduced to China.
Over time, “Chinese meticulous painting drew mainly good-looking men and women, and today, still many draw ancient good-looking men and women, but that needs to be developed,” said Jin Sha, secretary general of Beijing association.
In the 1980s, some leading meticulous painters in the country started a movement to modernize the traditional art, leading to a revival.
The exhibition shows the art form’s elegance and possibilities.
The work “Warm Moon” by Chen Mengxin shows a rich gradient of velvet-and-blue colors and slightly exaggerated figures. It uses some techniques from oil painting to make shades on human bodies.
“The Beauties” by Yu Xiaorong, unlike many traditional paintings that arrange beautiful women standing amidst scenery, shows a collage of three women in different styles — elegant, sad and happy.
“The composition of paintings can be very different from before, from background to clothes,” Yu said. “And I do not think by learning new symbols we will lose the poetic flavor of Chinese meticulous paintings.”
Besides contemporary works, traditional works created from the 1950s to the 1980s are also exhibited to show differences and development in past decades.
Meanwhile, the neighboring Hangzhou Arts and Crafts Museum is holding the Nine-City Group Exhibition through next Monday.
The annual art event arrived in Hangzhou after visiting Chengdu, Beijing, Xi’an, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Ji’nan, Shanghai and Shenyang cities, with almost 500 pieces of artwork, including paintings and porcelains, by 260 artists.
At the entrance is an invitational exhibition of Zhejiang oil painters, and visitors also can see woodblock painting, contemporary porcelain and works of emerging artists and Zhejiang Chinese traditional painters.
Over half of the exhibits are for sale, and the prices vary from tens of yuan to hundreds of thousands of yuan.
• The Revival — Chinese Meticulous Painting Exhibition
Date: Through September 23, 9am-4:30pm
Venue: Dushikuaibao Art Center, 334 Xiaohe Rd
Admission: Free
• Nine-City Group Exhibition
Date: Through September 23, 9am-4:30pm
Venue: Hangzhou Arts and Crafts Museum, 336 Xiaohe Rd
Admission: Free
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