Zhou Jun
dal 9/11/2007 al 19/4/2008
Segnalato da
9/11/2007
Zhou Jun
Museum Ludwig, Koln
A contemporary Chinese ink painter
The work of Zhou Jun, born in Shanghai in 1955, reflects his development from the end of the Cultural Revolution to the present day. The exhibition presents 100 works by the artist, who has lived in Holland since 1989 and is counted among the „post-traditionalists“, for the first time in Europe.
At the age of 16 Zhou Jun was dispatched to work in a machinery factory. Thanks to his artistic talent he soon became a specialist for larger than life murals with portraits of Mao Zedong. In 1978, after the end of the Cultural Revolution, Zhou was admitted as an art student to the Shifan Daxue Academy in Shanghai. Later he studied at the Central Art Academy (Zhongyang meishu xueyuan) in Beijing, China’s most renowned art academy. He specialised in figure painting.The exhibition will present sketches, drawings and large-scale works with figural scenes in the academic tradition. These works show Zhou as a master of the calligraphic line.
Their narrative character reflects the legacy of Socialist Realism. Zhou’s landscapes depicting monumental universes created since the 1990s mark a liberating departure from this legacy. These large-format landscape paintings which form cycles and incorporate calligraphy are inner landscapes or “mindscapes” rather than real landscapes. In these works Zhou creates universes which are devoid of people and often radiate a sense of the uncanny. They show Zhou as a virtuoso of the “inkplay” in the Daoist tradition. Zhou has also taken inspiration from Western art to deform tradition, thereby imbuing Chinese ink painting with a new power of expression and a sense of authenticity.
The artist visits China regularly and since 2005 maintains a studio in Shanghai.
Museum Ludwig
Bischofsgartenstrasse 1 - Koln