Hanart T Z Gallery is pleased to present “Modern Mongolia”, an exhibition that features works of art by five contemporary artists from Mongolia - Tsultemin Enkhjin, Tsultemin Munkhjin, Shagdarjavin Chimeddorj, Sereeterin Dagvadorj and Martin Batzorig. This exhibition is jointly presented with the Masterpiece, on view at the Masterpiece between 19 January and 25 March 2012.
Since political and social changes in 1990, Mongolian artists began a new thrust of experimentation under the impact of Western conceptual media and broad exchange with the West and with Asian countries. The search for identity and position in modern world underlines each of these artists’ work indicating struggle beyond a personal level. While the artists represent challenges in art in Mongolia specifically, the questions also pertain to the current debates in art across borders among contemporary Asian artists. The exhibition thus juxtaposes reflections on, and debates about, modernism and conceptual art, representation and statement, personal and political, modernity and tradition.
Diversity of genre, subject matter, media and themes characterize the current state of Mongolian modern art. This exhibition aims to show the foremost representation of Mongolian art scene in China at demonstrating the verve of Mongolian modern artists. The exhibition comprises five prominent artists of Mongolia as well as young emerging talents. The exhibition also introduces to key works from the past century to form a contextual and a historical background for contemporary art.
In 1968, the First Exhibition of Young Painters opened in the Exhibition Hall of the Union of Mongolian Artists (UMA) (a non-profit non-governmental organization), has unveiled the modernization of Mongolian art. Artists such as Ts. Enkhjin (born 1953), a leading figure of Mongolian modern art, were especially influential in the late 1970s–1980s. He worked extensively in oil, with flat and decorative quality, abandoning the academic conventions of socialist realism.
The open spatiality of Mongolia inspired by the steppe and the sky--infinity of horizontal or vertical space—is a frequent theme in Mongolian modern art. Thus, Ts. Enkhjin’s main objective is to capture the dimensions of time and space—sensed both historically and somatically. Enkhjin’s art work in permanent collection of Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in 2002, Enkhjin received the Mongolian State Honored Prize from the President of Mongolia in recognition of his contribution to Mongolian art.
The "surreal" works of Ts. Munkhjin (born 1953) are fraught with a most dazzling juxtaposition of cold and warm tones, behooving one to wonder whether it is a boundary of conceptualism or modernism that we encounter in his art. That is, although showing some objective figures, Munkhjin challenges the viewer with the modernity of his representation, yet traps us in an alien, unknown ideology of pictorial language. "It is a picture", he says, so all his works are simply named "paintings" and numbered accordingly.
Sh. Chimeddorj (born 1954) grew up in a family of cattle breeder. He learned to ride a horse at the age of five. Horse becomes his favorite subjects in different style of expression and medium, like oil or ink painting. Deep blue colour occupies a large part on his canvas as he wants to express the depth of space which one could feel from the steppes of Mongolia. His ink paintings are widely appreciated by domestic and international collectors. Moran Art Museum in Seoul has a possession of over a hundred ink paintings, while two canvases went to the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum as permanent collection. In 2006, Chimeddorj received the Mongolian State Honored Prize from the President of Mongolia in recognition of his contribution to Mongolian art.
In 2000, Mongolian artist S. Dagvadorj (born 1955) participated at the Kwangju Biennale of International contemporary art in Korea, winning a prize for his installation piece. In his installations, Mongolian traditional elements, such as, architectural parts of a ger (yurt), stirrups, antiques and the like, serve as the key objects not only to challenge the conventional context, inherent associations with--and, therefore, expectations from--the traditional motifs.
Young artist Batzorig(born 1979)shows interesting interpretations of tradition, much of which is derived from the Buddhist heritage. Batzorig uses direct quotations from Buddhist visual language and aims at developing their own specific style. The artist is interested in addressing social, political and economical issues they find problematic in the society. His critique of society is a new approach in itself in Mongolia as much as his own artistic style.
