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Photos document past art masters
By Shi Xiaohan |
August 2, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINESE ink painting had its last glorious period when a generation of masters born in the late 19th and early 20th century entered the international stage. In the late 1980s when they were all more than 80 years old, Chua Soo Bin, a Singaporean photographer, decided to document their generation, lives and character in photos.
The exhibition "Legends: Soo Bin's Portraits of Chinese Ink Masters," running at the Zhejiang Art Museum from Thursday, presents a selection of 84 photographs of the 14 Chinese ink masters.
Born in 1932, Chua developed an interest in art and photography when he was a child. After studying at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, he worked as an art director for an international advertising firm, where his interest in photography developed from hobby to profession.
In the mid-1980s, Chua was sent to China on a commercial photography assignment to shoot the culture and landscape of the country to promote it as a tourism destination.
While taking photographs relating to Chinese art, Chua found many Chinese art masters had already passed away without having their lives well-documented.
So he decided to start documenting the essence of the Chinese masters in order to pass their spirit on. "I wanted to document the true life of the masters," said Chua.
With the help of the Chinese artist Huang Miaozi, he contacted 14 masters - Zhu Qizhan, Liu Haisu, Li Keran, Ye Qianyu, Wu Zuoren, Lu Yanshao, Xie Zhiliu, Li Xiongcai, Tang Yun, Guan Shanyue, Huang Junbi and Chao Shao-an from China, Chen Wen Hsi from Singapore and Chi-Chien Wang in New York.
In order to capture the most representative moments of these ink masters, Chua made numerous trips between 1985 and 1988 to their homes and studios. "The masters did not know me. So I needed to gradually gain their trust, one by one," Chua said.
He studied the masters' art, extensively researched their hobbies and talked to their friends, families and students. He learned how Guan Shanyue, known for his landscapes and plum blossoms, liked to read with a book in one hand while grinding his ink stone with the other; and why Lu Yanshao, known for his unique use of color and strong interest in clouds, cherished a collection of seven pebbles that accompanied him through the darkest period of his life.
Chua ended up shooting more than 200 rolls of black-and-white film of these artists, reflecting his understanding of their past, present and future. One portrait of Ye Qianyu exemplifies the photographer's attention to detail. Ye had already stopped painting, spending most of his time writing his memoirs. Chua shot him through a brush stand, buried deep in his memories.
Date: August 4-12
Venue: Zhejiang Art Museum, 138 Nanshan Rd
Tel: (0571) 8707-8700
The exhibition "Legends: Soo Bin's Portraits of Chinese Ink Masters," running at the Zhejiang Art Museum from Thursday, presents a selection of 84 photographs of the 14 Chinese ink masters.
Born in 1932, Chua developed an interest in art and photography when he was a child. After studying at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, he worked as an art director for an international advertising firm, where his interest in photography developed from hobby to profession.
In the mid-1980s, Chua was sent to China on a commercial photography assignment to shoot the culture and landscape of the country to promote it as a tourism destination.
While taking photographs relating to Chinese art, Chua found many Chinese art masters had already passed away without having their lives well-documented.
So he decided to start documenting the essence of the Chinese masters in order to pass their spirit on. "I wanted to document the true life of the masters," said Chua.
With the help of the Chinese artist Huang Miaozi, he contacted 14 masters - Zhu Qizhan, Liu Haisu, Li Keran, Ye Qianyu, Wu Zuoren, Lu Yanshao, Xie Zhiliu, Li Xiongcai, Tang Yun, Guan Shanyue, Huang Junbi and Chao Shao-an from China, Chen Wen Hsi from Singapore and Chi-Chien Wang in New York.
In order to capture the most representative moments of these ink masters, Chua made numerous trips between 1985 and 1988 to their homes and studios. "The masters did not know me. So I needed to gradually gain their trust, one by one," Chua said.
He studied the masters' art, extensively researched their hobbies and talked to their friends, families and students. He learned how Guan Shanyue, known for his landscapes and plum blossoms, liked to read with a book in one hand while grinding his ink stone with the other; and why Lu Yanshao, known for his unique use of color and strong interest in clouds, cherished a collection of seven pebbles that accompanied him through the darkest period of his life.
Chua ended up shooting more than 200 rolls of black-and-white film of these artists, reflecting his understanding of their past, present and future. One portrait of Ye Qianyu exemplifies the photographer's attention to detail. Ye had already stopped painting, spending most of his time writing his memoirs. Chua shot him through a brush stand, buried deep in his memories.
Date: August 4-12
Venue: Zhejiang Art Museum, 138 Nanshan Rd
Tel: (0571) 8707-8700
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