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A lifetime spent capturing nature on paper
By Wang Jie |
June 23, 2012, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
COMPARED with their male counterparts, female artists are sometimes said to be more difficult to make and retain a reputation in the art world. Reasons put forward for this include that if woman artists marry and have children they prioritize family life.
Female artists defying this stereotype include Zhang Leiping, whose current solo exhibition is running at Shanghai Art Museum through June 26.
The retrospective covers Zhang's four decades of artistic pursuits. Subjects vary from landscape to flowers and birds, but all are depicted through her unique touch.
For example, Zhang's "Permeating Fragrance in a Secluded Valley" (2005) depicts a vast dim backdrop dotted with different layers of red, orange and white hues.
These blur with overlapping branch-like curved forms, creating an impression of a valley filled with fragrant blossoming wild flowers.
Born into an artistic family - her father Zhang Mingcao was a renowned print artist and picture story book illustrator - 67-year-old Zhang Leiping grew up surrounded by art and artists.
It would have been natural if Zhang had followed the family's tradition as a traditional Chinese artist, but fate intervened.
In 1964, as the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts didn't recruit any students, Zhang enrolled in the department of stage art at Shanghai Theater Academy.
The academy mainly focused on Western painting, teaching Chinese painting as a complementary module.
"We systematically learned Russian-styled painting, but I was not interested in the lifeless 'dark-toned' oil painting popular at that time," Zhang recalls.
"But I read widely in the library, and a book on Impressionism caught my eye. I was amazed by the bright colors and the complicated combination of light and shadow," she adds.
Zhang would later return to the Impressionism that opened her eyes with works on rice paper.
The highlight of the current exhibition is Zhang's latest "formalistic" landscape paintings. Her experimental emphasis on concept and the concern about pure formal exploration exceed the concept of landscape in the normal sense.
"Much of my inspiration comes from nature," she says. "I still clearly remember seeing the endless prairie stretching in front of me when I climbed up to the peak of Tianshan Mountain. Or when I stood on a ridge of a terrace field in Yunnan Province, where I was taken by the marvelous scene shimmering with silver light leaping toward the sky."
"Zhang brings viewers to her artistic realm with great mountains and rivers," says Chen Xiejun, director of Shanghai Museum. "For an artist to represent west China requires a brave spirit, the capability of grasping magnificence. The huge mountain behind Zhang seems to be harmonious, both strong and soft."
Although approaching 70, Zhang says the years have not diminished her thrill at the creative process.
"Someone once said that old people are conservative and rigid in terms of ideology and concept. But I don't agree that ideology grows old with physiology. For me, the rice paper in front of me is always an empty object awaiting surprise and freshness," she says.
Date: Through June 26, 9am-5pm
Address: 325 Nanjing Rd W.
Female artists defying this stereotype include Zhang Leiping, whose current solo exhibition is running at Shanghai Art Museum through June 26.
The retrospective covers Zhang's four decades of artistic pursuits. Subjects vary from landscape to flowers and birds, but all are depicted through her unique touch.
For example, Zhang's "Permeating Fragrance in a Secluded Valley" (2005) depicts a vast dim backdrop dotted with different layers of red, orange and white hues.
These blur with overlapping branch-like curved forms, creating an impression of a valley filled with fragrant blossoming wild flowers.
Born into an artistic family - her father Zhang Mingcao was a renowned print artist and picture story book illustrator - 67-year-old Zhang Leiping grew up surrounded by art and artists.
It would have been natural if Zhang had followed the family's tradition as a traditional Chinese artist, but fate intervened.
In 1964, as the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts didn't recruit any students, Zhang enrolled in the department of stage art at Shanghai Theater Academy.
The academy mainly focused on Western painting, teaching Chinese painting as a complementary module.
"We systematically learned Russian-styled painting, but I was not interested in the lifeless 'dark-toned' oil painting popular at that time," Zhang recalls.
"But I read widely in the library, and a book on Impressionism caught my eye. I was amazed by the bright colors and the complicated combination of light and shadow," she adds.
Zhang would later return to the Impressionism that opened her eyes with works on rice paper.
The highlight of the current exhibition is Zhang's latest "formalistic" landscape paintings. Her experimental emphasis on concept and the concern about pure formal exploration exceed the concept of landscape in the normal sense.
"Much of my inspiration comes from nature," she says. "I still clearly remember seeing the endless prairie stretching in front of me when I climbed up to the peak of Tianshan Mountain. Or when I stood on a ridge of a terrace field in Yunnan Province, where I was taken by the marvelous scene shimmering with silver light leaping toward the sky."
"Zhang brings viewers to her artistic realm with great mountains and rivers," says Chen Xiejun, director of Shanghai Museum. "For an artist to represent west China requires a brave spirit, the capability of grasping magnificence. The huge mountain behind Zhang seems to be harmonious, both strong and soft."
Although approaching 70, Zhang says the years have not diminished her thrill at the creative process.
"Someone once said that old people are conservative and rigid in terms of ideology and concept. But I don't agree that ideology grows old with physiology. For me, the rice paper in front of me is always an empty object awaiting surprise and freshness," she says.
Date: Through June 26, 9am-5pm
Address: 325 Nanjing Rd W.
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