Asia Art Center has always emphasized the conceptual mission of promoting the Spirit of the East, which is the contemporary aesthetic expressions based on our respect for our own traditional cultural heritage concepts and values, while incorporating oriental and western aesthetic visions. Asia Art Center hosts Rendering the Future: Chinese Contemporary Ink Painting Exhibition. Eighteen contemporary ink painters including the most representative artists in the field have been invited for this joint exhibition which aims to reinterpret contemporary Chinese ink from the perspective of the emerging global multiculturalism, incorporating such globalism into the transformation of national cultural themes (traditional culture and contemporary culture).
Among the artists in the joint exhibition, Liu Kuo-sung and Pan Gongkai are artists who have emerged from traditionalism to contemporary arts. They have expanded the content of Chinese painting, with Liu Kuo-sung refining breakthroughs in the expression of media and their abstract language, while Pan Gongkai has developed the spiritual sense of traditional Chinese ink painting. Gu Wenda and Xu Bing proceed from the perspective of contemporary art to critically engage the cultural and historical progress underlying Chinese painting, and exploring the possibility of artistic expression in a variety of ways to explain the era of globalization and cross-cultural understanding. Cai Xiaosong, Liu Dan, and Wang Tiande have deconstructed the lifestyles of Chinese literati and artists, pursuing a modern vision of the ancient literati’s favorite spiritual semiotic signs- gardens and forests, ancient scrolls, and stele rubbings. Lan Zhenghui, Zheng Chongbin, Qin Feng, and Wang Huangsheng have developed the art of abstractionist inkbrush painting to its extreme, while Qiu Deshu and Huang Zhiyang explored abstract combinations of color affecting the rich possibilities of abstractionism in Chinese painting. Liu Qinghe, Li Jin, Zhu Wei, and Pan Hsinhua, seek to personalize the experience and to express the modern people’s view of going beyond the mere everyday life, which contains self-deprecating humor, and reflects the Easterner’s playful approaches toward worldly values. Xu Lei adopts a detailed approach to painting traditional cultural elements which are transformed to symbols and fables of modern living, reflecting the modern transformation of an outstanding middle-aged artist renowned for detailed painting style, in a manner which has already emerged as a leading trend.
These artists’ work more than merely overturning traditional Chinese painting, instead reflect the trend of the contemporary spirit for a return to one’s roots in the Chinese cultural spirit. Their experimentation in Chinese painting reflects both their understanding and respect for the rich millennia of traditional Chinese culture. Most of these artists have a robust understanding in depth of western lifestyles and culture, as well as clear insights into the future trajectory of Chinese tradition. Their artistic exploration, has reorganized the visual sense of Chinese ink painting, and during this process has developed the future of the ink brush fine arts. “Rendering the Future” refers to how Chinese ink painting serves to nurture a rich oriental philosophy, mode of thought and cultural expression, which provides important resources to inform cultural development in the modern society. The continuing work of today’s outstanding ink artists has helped to greatly expand the space for the artistic language and expression of traditional ink painting, serving to reveal the profound potential of ink art in the future development of global culture. The exhibition will display the liveliness of contemporary Chinese ink in the backdrop of the global contemporary arts scene, promoting contemporary ink and its unique Chinese cultural values, contributing to further development of the contemporary perspective of the Chinese public.
- Ying Shuangxi (Professor of Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) and Curator)
*image (left)
© Cai Xiaosong
courtesy of the artist
