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Gooey ink meets magic realism in exhibition
By Wu Huixin |
August 8, 2012, Wednesday
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After a year of planning, organizing and selecting, 300 artworks out of 9,127 entries were selected for the Fourth National Youth Fine Art Exhibition tour in Zhejiang Art Museum, which runs until August 15.
Exhibits include traditional Chinese ink paintings, oil paintings, calligraphy, woodcuts and sculptures, covering themes such as revolution and history, emotional expression, modern life and landscapes.
The first National Youth Fine Art Exhibition was held in 1957, and the second one in 1980. Renowned oil painter Zhang Qinruo and Luo Zhongli, the president of Sichuan Academy of Art, first found acclaim at these two exhibitions.
However, the exhibition discontinued after the 1980 show. Then in 2008, the China Artists Association revived the show, deciding that the National Youth Fine Art Exhibition would be held regularly.
Among the 300 works on display this year, about a tenth are created by Zhejiang Province artists.
"Zhejiang has strong artistic community, because the China Academy of Art is here. And locals have a tradition of adoring art and considering art as a local brand," Liu Jian, secretary general of the China Artists Association, told Qianjiang Evening News.
Among those featured is Huang Jun, one of the older artists whose work is on display.
Huang, born in Pingyang, Zhejiang, is deputy director of the public art department of the China Academy of Art at Hangzhou. He studied in China and Europe and is well-known for paintings using Chinese materials but featuring a strong Western spirit.
His bold and abstract ink paintings use super-dense, super-gooey ink - seldom used in Chinese paintings and calligraphy - to render traditional subjects such as mountains and rivers in landscapes, as well as human figures.
One of Huang's recent projects is a series of close-up portraits of Chinese miners. Huang captured different facial expressions: some pleased; some scared; some confused; and some with ambiguous looks that visitors may read differently.
And all of the faces are dark, featuring dark eyes, noses, mouths and ears, set upon an even darker background. Due to the thickness of ink applied, some parts of the surfaces are cracked - a rare occurrence in usually delicate Chinese ink paintings.
Another participant is Zhu Zhengming. Born in Quzhou, Zhejiang, in 1979, she graduated from the China Academy of Art in 2004 and is now a lecturer at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology.
Her series of works "One Hundred Years of Solitude" - a nod to Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez's magic realist classic - are in sharp contrasting with Huang's work.
Zhu paints on silk paper, a traditional medium in Chinese art. Her work features human figures, together with animals such as butterflies, snakes, monkeys and elephants, and natural objects, including shells and lotus leaves and flowers.
An absence of backgrounds creates an almost supernatural dimension - Zhu's own magic realism.
Although Zhu depicts figures in a realistic manner, she doesn't simply copy from life. By recreating, then integrating with illusion and painting in light colors, Zhu places her figures in their own world.
Xue Guangchen's series "Chinese-style View," which has been shortlisted in Italy Arte Laguna Art Prize, is also on show.
Xue's oil paintings depict Chinese-style landscape in an innovative fashion, rendered a carefully nuanced style.
Date: Through August 15
Address: 138 Nanshan Rd
Tel: (0571) 8707-8700
Exhibits include traditional Chinese ink paintings, oil paintings, calligraphy, woodcuts and sculptures, covering themes such as revolution and history, emotional expression, modern life and landscapes.
The first National Youth Fine Art Exhibition was held in 1957, and the second one in 1980. Renowned oil painter Zhang Qinruo and Luo Zhongli, the president of Sichuan Academy of Art, first found acclaim at these two exhibitions.
However, the exhibition discontinued after the 1980 show. Then in 2008, the China Artists Association revived the show, deciding that the National Youth Fine Art Exhibition would be held regularly.
Among the 300 works on display this year, about a tenth are created by Zhejiang Province artists.
"Zhejiang has strong artistic community, because the China Academy of Art is here. And locals have a tradition of adoring art and considering art as a local brand," Liu Jian, secretary general of the China Artists Association, told Qianjiang Evening News.
Among those featured is Huang Jun, one of the older artists whose work is on display.
Huang, born in Pingyang, Zhejiang, is deputy director of the public art department of the China Academy of Art at Hangzhou. He studied in China and Europe and is well-known for paintings using Chinese materials but featuring a strong Western spirit.
His bold and abstract ink paintings use super-dense, super-gooey ink - seldom used in Chinese paintings and calligraphy - to render traditional subjects such as mountains and rivers in landscapes, as well as human figures.
One of Huang's recent projects is a series of close-up portraits of Chinese miners. Huang captured different facial expressions: some pleased; some scared; some confused; and some with ambiguous looks that visitors may read differently.
And all of the faces are dark, featuring dark eyes, noses, mouths and ears, set upon an even darker background. Due to the thickness of ink applied, some parts of the surfaces are cracked - a rare occurrence in usually delicate Chinese ink paintings.
Another participant is Zhu Zhengming. Born in Quzhou, Zhejiang, in 1979, she graduated from the China Academy of Art in 2004 and is now a lecturer at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology.
Her series of works "One Hundred Years of Solitude" - a nod to Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez's magic realist classic - are in sharp contrasting with Huang's work.
Zhu paints on silk paper, a traditional medium in Chinese art. Her work features human figures, together with animals such as butterflies, snakes, monkeys and elephants, and natural objects, including shells and lotus leaves and flowers.
An absence of backgrounds creates an almost supernatural dimension - Zhu's own magic realism.
Although Zhu depicts figures in a realistic manner, she doesn't simply copy from life. By recreating, then integrating with illusion and painting in light colors, Zhu places her figures in their own world.
Xue Guangchen's series "Chinese-style View," which has been shortlisted in Italy Arte Laguna Art Prize, is also on show.
Xue's oil paintings depict Chinese-style landscape in an innovative fashion, rendered a carefully nuanced style.
Date: Through August 15
Address: 138 Nanshan Rd
Tel: (0571) 8707-8700
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