China's New Ink Art
dal 31/3/2015 al 30/5/2015
Segnalato da
31/3/2015
China's New Ink Art
Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris
Revolution in Tradition is a pioneering exhibition aimed at showcasing the exciting developments in Chinese art and its connection to the long tradition of ink painting.
Curated by Tiffany Wai-Ying Beres
More than just a form of artistic expression, ink art and especially ink painting, sometimes referred to simply as “Chinese
painting” (guohua, literally “country-painting”), is a cultural signifier that plays an important role in constructing
national identity. This millennia-old ink painting language is the most representative characteristic of Chinese and
Oriental art, and has been reinterpreted and extended upon throughout China’s art history. Now, in the 21st-century,
contemporary artists who reference the Chinese ink tradition no longer have to conform to the basic components of
ink painting—that is, working with ink, brush and paper. The genre has expanded to include new media, conceptual,
performance and installation art, and continues to inspire young Chinese artists who do not even consider
themselves ink artists. Still, “ink,” as a symbolic mark of China’s heritage, spirit, and culture remains firmly rooted.
Curated by independent ink painting scholar Tiffany Wai-Ying Beres, Revolution in Tradition: China’s New Ink
Art is a pioneering exhibition aimed at showcasing the exciting developments in Chinese art and its connection
to the long tradition of ink painting. The exhibition will demonstrate how a group of important artists have,
over the past decades, been highly active in developing, conceptually innovating, and even subverting the
legacy of guohua. While some of these artists may embrace unorthodox materials and methodologies—Shang
Yang (b. 1942), Gu Wenda (b.1955), Qiu Zhijie (b. 1969), Hao Shiming (b. 1977), and Ni Youyu (b. 1984)—
each of these artists left his distinctive mark in the evolution of Chinese ink art by incorporating aesthetic
and philosophical sensibilities of Chinese artistic traditions into a new and more international discourse.
In the past five years, contemporary ink art has increasingly become a favored topic for museums around the world,
including the 2014 exhibition “Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
the “Ink: The Art of China” at the Saatchi Gallery in 2012, the “Shanshui– Poetry Without Sound?” at the Museum
of Arts in Lucerne, Switzerland in 2011, and the “Fresh Ink” show at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 2010,
among others. Responding to new and exciting developments in contemporary art currently emanating from
China, Galerie Nathalie Obadia will be the first gallery in France to showcase the diversity of contemporary ink
art practice. Juxtaposing the work of celebrated contemporary masters with current rising talents whose work is
increasingly receiving serious critical attention, Revolution in Tradition will provoke the viewer into a reconsideration
of the conventions underlying traditional art forms, and to confront the cultural implications of those conventions.
Image: Shang Yang 《剩山图》- 7 (Carte de Montagne Gauche 7), 2014 Mixed media on canvas 360 x 290 cm (141 3/4 x 114 1/8 in.) Courtesy Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Bruxelles
Press Contact:
Maimiti Cazalis, maimiti.cazalis@galerie-obadia.com, + 33 (0)1 42 74 67 68
Opening: Wed Apr 1 11am
Galerie Nathalie Obadia
3, rue du Cloître St. Merri
Mon - Sat 11am to 7pm