Curated by Norway - based Chinese artist Zeng Zhiqian, Central Academy of Fine Arts Professor Zhou Jirong and Xi An Academy of Fine Arts Professor Yang Qian, Paper on River was first conceived in 2010. After 3 years of preparation it is finally realized. The exhibition gathers together ten poets and ten print-making artists. Each artist created one work based on one poem of the poets. In the exhibition ten prints will be juxtaposed with the ten hand-written scripts of the poems.

It is often said that Chinese poetry and painting have the same origin. In the past, there have been many examples of poems that are inspired by paintings or paintings that are based on poems. Over the time, poetry and paintings have developed an intertextual relationship in which they inspire and reflect on each other. As a result “painting-like and poetic” has became an aesthetic criteria transcending the mediums.

As for print-making, it was developed with printing, and has a close relationship with text from the very beginning. In its early development, prints are designed to visualize or complement the text, therefore for a long time prints were the same as illustrations. The intervention of photography has liberated prints from its original function to a large degree, and print-making has become an recognised art form. As a result, it also relinquished text in the process.

Prints and text stem from the same river, and in this exhibition we have invited ten poets and ten artists to once again step into that river.

Participating poets and the corresponding artists:

Poet        Artist
Bei Dao & Guang Jun
Chun Shu & Kang Jianfei
Lv Yue & Shang Changrong
Shen Haobo & Wang Jiazeng
Wu Ang & Liu Chunjie
Xi Chuan & Zhou Jirong
Yang Lian & Yang Feng
Zhai Yongming & Kou Jianghui
Zhou Yunpeng & Kong Guoqiao
Xiao Kuan & Zeng Qianzhi

Image: © Shang Changrong, Red Gate Gallery