Looking inside tradition

By Lu Qianwen Source:Global Times Published: 2014-3-26 19:23:01

Flowers All Over the Sky by Xu Lei Photo: Courtesy of China Guardian

The Young Traveler by Jia Aili Photo: Courtesy of China Guardian

For the past three decades contemporary Chinese artists have been seen as merely following their Western forerunners. From Claude Monet's impressionism to Andy Warhol's pop art, Chinese artists have spared no effort to increase their proficiency in these artistic styles. On the auction market, even works created during the 1990s by big-name Chinese artists such as Zhang Xiaogang and Zeng Fanzhi have traces of typical Western elements.

For example, the most expensive Chinese contemporary art work sold at auction to date, an oil painting from Zeng titled Last Supper (2001) which was auctioned for 142 million yuan ($22.96 million) last October at Sothebys' HK Autumn Auction, is also widely recognized as having heavily drawn from Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper.

However, it seems the times are changing. Several recent contemporary Chinese art exhibitions along with discussions being held on the current development of Chinese art, see more local artists turning away from blind imitation of Western artistic styles to begin focusing on their own inner feelings and expression of local culture.

A new definition: New Paintings

At the ongoing exhibition Turning Inside: New Chinese Paintings Since 2000, being held by leading auction company China Guardian at the Today Art Museum in Beijing until April 11, visitors can easily see how the 19 paintings on display differ from the oil paintings they usually see hanging in museums.

"'New Paintings' refers to an emphasis on the inner feelings of the artists while they are painting," said Li Yanfeng, director of the oil painting department at China Guardian. "In general they present Eastern styles instead of Western styles."

Take Flowers All Over the Sky by Xu Lei as an example. By applying traditional water color ink in varying shades of light and dark blue throughout the painting, the artist causes the painting to look both traditional and modern. While technically it belongs to the category of traditional water color, the painting's bright colors give it a hint of modernism.

The Dairy 08-4 by Shang Yang, a wash painting entirely made up of various shades of white, is also typical of this New Paintings genre according to Li. "The artist has dedicated himself to a freehand brushwork style; neither realistic nor abstract," Li explained.

Actually Shang's paintings are consistent with the historic Southern School or Literati paintings, an important part of traditional Chinese painting that focused on personal expression as opposed to capturing reality. Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) artist Dong Qichang (1555-1636) is one of the most representative figures of this style of painting.

"Shang's painting takes from Dong's work. It is a modern expression of ancient painting styles based on his understanding of the latter and traditional culture," Li said giving his analysis.

All selected from Guardian's Spring Auction this year, these 19 paintings are expected to introduce the concept of "New Paintings" to the minds of visitors and collectors.

"New Paintings are very different from previous pop art. They provide a look at the feelings of the artists themselves," Li stressed again.

Academic discussions

With several exhibitions this year focusing on this artistic trend, Guardian's definition of "New Paintings" has helped add fuel to fire when it comes to academic discussion. At the exhibition of Silent Realm: Renaissance of Eastern Aesthetics which concluded earlier this month at the Zero Art Center in Beijing, 10 artists including some renowned ones like Wang Huangsheng, Li Xiangqun and He Duoling, attempted to show how contemporary Chinese art has broken away from blindly imitating Western contemporary art.

By presenting their latest oil paintings, sculptures and installation art works, these Chinese artists want to express how Chinese art is now exploring the beauty of time, space, nature and fate through the lens of Eastern culture and philosophy.

The exhibition didn't adopt a "curator system" which is common not just in the West, but also now in China. Instead, it was co-launched by the artists who all share similar ideals when it comes to Chinese art, very much like the historic Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, seven celebrated literati who lived during the Three Kingdoms period (220-280).

Possessing similar ideals and thoughts on literature and society, these seven "sages" often gathered in a bamboo forest in what is now Huixian city in Henan Province to drink wine and recite poems.

"Chinese art over the past 30 years hasn't presented its core values, rather it has been viewed as following in the footsteps of Western art," said Liang Kegang, one of the organizers of the Silent Realm exhibition. Liang began proposing the idea behind the exhibition last year. In 2013, Liang curated a similar-themed parallel exhibition Impermanence: Eastern Experience and Contemporary Art at that year's Venice Biennale. Some of the artists in that exhibition like He Duoling and Wang Huangsheng later took part in the Silent Realm exhibition in Beijing.

An encouraging turnaround

"Returning to our own artistic and cultural tradition is an encouraging turnaround," said Xie Xiaodong, vice general manager of the Beijing Council International Auction company.

"Art forms like poetry and painting were an important part of many people's lives in ancient China," said Xie.

"That's why traditional Chinese paintings are still the largest portion of the auction market for local collectors. A very rich man can be largely illiterate, but he can still be very fond of ancient Chinese painting and calligraphy; it's rooted in him," Xie told the Global Times.

Apart from introducing a new category with high potential to the auction market, the impact of this concept on Chinese art is significant for another reason.

Over the past three decades social changes in China are more often than not labeled a result of the reform and opening-up policy adopted in 1978. The most eye-catching art works from this time like the Mask series and Hospital series by Zeng Fanzhi, and the Big Family series by Zhang Xiaogang are all closely related to people's changing mind-set and the lives they have lived since the 1980s.

"Those artists contributed to that era by remembering it in their paintings, albeit by way of Western styles," said Xie. Now, however, Xie hopes re-employing traditional Chinese art can help people reflect on their cultural roots at a time when Western culture is extremely pervasive in the country.

Posted in: ARTS

blog comments powered by Disqus