The Sanya Collection Josep Soler i Casanellas

The history behind the only time than a few of the greatest Chinese contemporary artists met together and used traditional

techniques. A set of 28 works 140x70 cm in brush and ink on xuan paper did in 2007 during a Gathering to Sanya .

2014

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Introduction

This book is about friendship.

That’s a story of friendship double. First, the story of the encounter of a generation of contemporary Chinese artists

unprecedented group of the first artists who embraced contemporary art in China, a project around one of the most

important personalities of Chinese art, Lü Peng. Second, and from the purchase of works of these artists, searching and

finding friendship with Lü.

About the history of friendship of the artists and how born The Sanya collection was we will have to let’s talk Lü. Sure than

in the memory of the artists and the material collected by Lü will be much material and stories. But that must be Lü who

bring to light in the future. In any case, it is a story unique in the world of art, as individual and competitive like it is. Only

once has happen in the history of contemporary art, in the incipient boom years of 2007, with whom later became the

greatest artists and where they worked together in a series of works using the techniques of traditional Chinese art, far

from the oil, the acrylic and canvas usually used in their works.

From the history of friendship with Lü is still continuing and I hope will continue for years. From the difficulties of finding

him, the difficulties of communication, the difficulties to understand what I searched, have passed 5 years of exchanges of

ideas, reflections, projects to promote Chinese contemporary art beyond the borders of China, and encounters in

Amsterdam, Venice, Beijing, Chengdu, and Barcelona.

China in 5 years has changed dramatically in economic terms and will hopefully do also in political terms. It is a world

distant yet completely closed to us, very difficult to understand his dynamics, but hopefully with further and deeply

collaboration of trade, ideas and travel we will promote mutual understanding and open the Country to new forms of

freedom.

JSC. March 2012

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The Origin: how become a collector accidentally

I know, I know, my narrative is not from a “curator” point of view rather from a collector and an initial commercial point of view. Let me say an enthusiast collector. But this need not detract at all the value of the collected and the public interest of this set of exceptional works.

I received the Christie’s catalogue for the auction on Nov 25, 2007 and I registered because I wanted a Yue Minjun if the price were to be within my budget. Turning the pages over and over again for several days I realized The Sanya collection and the explanation attached, but I believed this would be very expensive, considering the Christie’s estimated price. The auction confirmed me that Yue was unaffordable, but regarding the Sanya collection… I was surprised there was not a big interest during the auction.

The auction started with bad signs, one hour delay in Christies live due to excess of public. That means only one thing: too much interest, bids too high. In fact, despite a fair budget, I only can bid at the beginning of the lots. I lost the Yue's, the Tang's... The Sanya collection approaches but my chances were very few, all the lots before reached a very high prices, the lot before, an oil on paper by Zhang Xiaogang, reached 1.800.000HKD, plus auction fees, plus shipment, plus import taxes... The Sanya collection contained at least two very nice Zhang's, one Yue Minjun face smiling, Wang’s, Zeng’s lines, Zhou blossoms, Mao Paternalism, Ye birds... and despite there were in ink, the price will be high, I thought. The bid started, one click, answer, another click, I thought now will start the war, nothing, a voice “one”, the amount in green in my screen, again “two for internet bidder”, pause, ????, estrange, “third for internet bidder”. It was mine!!! Where was the mistake, I told to me. 28 works, greatest contemporary artists, color ink, traditional tools... I did not understand why so few interest, I had to wait for receiving the works in order to be sure I did not make a mistake. Which? I do not know, but someone sure. They arrived, no mistake, on the contrary, the works arrived framed, and they look much nicer than in the catalog's picture where they were altogether attached in two pages as drawings of a child. Then the problem was that I waited for 28 pieces of paper and I received 28 framed works, where to put them? Where to storage them? Well, that's another history.

I do not understand this lack of interest because of several reasons:

- The honorable purpose of the sale

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- The idea of the collection

- The works are by the most valuable contemporary artists

- They are unique and rare works because they are painted by contemporary artists with traditional tools

- They are unique because they link contemporary and tradition

- They are unique and rare because the artists never did that and probably never will do this again

- Someone who would like to support the idea could bid for the woks.

Well, the only reason I can think of is that people only want to speculate, to buy recognizable works and in canvas support. They do not think at long term and about the intrinsic value of the works. Despite all this, I think it is a very good business; the works of Zhang Xiaogang alone could get a big price. The lot before was an oil on paper (52x76cm) sold at 1.800.000 HKD (160.000€ or 230.000$) plus 20% buyer’s premium. Any small piece of paper of Basquiat, Warhol or Picasso is valued hundreds of thousands of US dollars. Until I receive the works at home and see them I would not believe the price I paid for them. And considering it is largely the higher price I ever paid for a painting.

Anyway, I wanted to go deep about that even before receiving the paintings because I would like to know who painted what because not all the works were recognizable and any label was attached. Three works of Zhang Xiaogang were very recognizable, one Yue Minjun with a smile face also, Wang’s for his let’s say easy work, Ye Yongqing for his traditional work, Mao Xuhui for his scissors, Zeng Fanzhi for his lines and Zhou for his early landscapes, other less.

My idea is to maintain the collection with all the information and materials, and the “spirit” which drove the gathering first and the collection afterward. On top of this I would like to buy, step by step and depending on the budget available each year, one work from each one of the artists* who went to the gathering. I believe “the Sanya Collection” could be an exhibition per se. But thinking about that, I told myself why not to suggest Lü Peng to do something more and take advantage of the great idea of the gathering and sold the works all together like a Collection: “the Sanya Collection”. To do something more to help him also in to rise founds.

Why not to write a book about your Sanya gathering? I very much liked the description in the catalogue and the answers from the artists, therefore why not to explain it in a book. A book containing an explanation of the works, but also with the

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travel comments and landscape descriptions, the ideas emerged during the gathering, the situation of the artists in the art world, their opinions and thoughts, asking them for contributions, anecdotes, their experiences in this world which is changing so fast and so positively for them… I think you had a unique opportunity to share a trip experience with the most important contemporary artists, all together. Capitalist market moves very fast and probably they will never meet again like this. A book between an “on the road” novel, a critic research and an art book.

Once received the collection I can affirm that it has been a great acquisition, the works framed win in quality and become more powerful, to see the fragility of do so by ink much more. Each work has something in se, but the interpretation of the Zhang works with traditional tools is extremely qualitative. The exercise of Yue Minjun ahead of smile faces is also appreciated (a curiosity, the work was prepared to hold in vertical, probably it’s difficult to understand if you are not familiar with his work and see it from away), the Zhou blossoms, the watermelon of Zeng... Each work is great per se, but the whole is magnificent, unique and rare. I’m sure, the value of each work separately is bigger than the whole collection, but that’s the difference between speculate and become a collector.

Thanks to Mao Xuhui, Wang Guangyi, Wu Shanzhuan, Ye Yongqing, Yue Minjun, Zeng Fanzhi, Zhang Xiaogang, Zhang Peili and Zhou Chunya for maintain this spirit of a generation of Chinese painting. And thanks to Lü Peng for maintain them linked.

JSC. December 2007.

*Note in 2012: It has been impossible because of the high prices achieved by each of them.

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The Story behind the Works from 'Sanya Elegant

Gathering'

The idea of having a relaxing gathering with friends has been on my mind for a while. Since 1993, Chinese artists have

frequently participated in international and many other exhibitions. Since the late 90s, and especially nowadays, few artists

have been able to relax and rest because of their active involvement in exhibitions and activities. I started to write 20th

Century Chinese Art History in 2004, and at that time I talked to Wang Guangyi, Wu Shanzhuan and Zhou Chunya about a

possible gathering in the future. The chance came as my book was going to be published in January 2007. I knew I could

get the artists together under the pretext of discussing it. I began to contact Wang Guangyi, Zhou Chunya, Wu Shanzhuan,

Mao Xuhui, Zhang Xiaogang, Fang Lijun, Zeng Fanzhi, Li Luming, Ye Yongqing, Yue Minjun and Zhang Peili in December

2006, and invited them for a gathering in Sanya. Everybody was strongly interested in this idea and so the "elegant

gathering" by the sea was confirmed in mid-December. Unfortunately, because I adjusted the meeting time later, Fang

Lijun could not make this appointment as he had to go to Hong Kong for an activity.

Of course, this was not only a vacation. I arranged a "brush meeting", where all the artists gather together and paint on

the same subject. Not only because this was a traditional custom for Chinese scholars when they met together at

gatherings, but also I was thinking that I could bring the calligraphy and paintings to auction after the gathering, and use

the proceedings to support AAA's (Asian Art Archive) academic research and my own art history teaching program. Of

course, I do not see this "brush meeting" as a formal academic activity. I asked my friend in Nanjing to purchase xuan

paper, brush, ink and four albums for me, as my plan was to let the artists paint without restraint in a relaxing

environment with our traditional utilities instead of oil paint.

Our gathering started on the evening of January 9th. We flew to Tianhong Resort in Sanya from different cities that day,

and Zhou Chunya was the last one to arrive. Tianhong Resort was the smallest hotel in Sanya's Yalong Bay, thus it was

most suitable for a private gathering, for we could avoid of the crowds of tourists. After dinner that evening, the artists

finished four albums and a few individual ink on xuan paper paintings in the meeting room by the resort's swimming pool.

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In this most relaxed and casual atmosphere, most of the abstract ink works were completed by brush and, in some cases,

hands. The artists that were present are not considered traditional Chinese painters, and they seldom use brushes or ink.

Consequently, they were able to apply ink in a totally free way. Zhang Peili completed most of his works by hand.

Everybody was so excited, and some paintings were results of group efforts.

We went to Mount Nan the next day. None of us would have thought that one day, we, the modern artists, the avant-garde

artists, the pioneer artists, and the contemporary artists, would worship in a Buddhist temple with incense. All of us felt

that time had flown quickly in the past decades, and that our understanding and perception of life had changed

significantly. The artists donated generously to the temple, and the scene of Wang Guangyi, Zhang Xiaogang and Zhang

Peili worshiping devotedly in the temple impressed me deeply. We returned to the resort after dinner, and everybody

remained in a peaceful state of mind. We talked about the past and present state of Chinese art, people and circumstances.

In a peaceful atmosphere, Zhang Xiaogang, Mao Xuhui, Ye Yongqing and Zhou Chunya completed different number of

paintings, and most of the consignments for this auction were completed that night.

I have included many contemporary artists in my book 20th Century Chinese Art History. The place that important events

have taken in Chinese art history, from the Modernism campaign in the late 70s to today's contemporary art, is an issue

that concerns most of us. In fact, I hoped through this gathering I could listen to opinions from different artists on this

matter. Though their thoughts and opinions may not be bases for my future research on Chinese art history, their

feedbacks were beneficial nonetheless.

To my great joy, I managed to achieve my goal. As a member of AAA's academy council, I believe that AAA's work is most

helpful for the research in Asian contemporary arts (including Chinese art, of course). It is therefore my continuous goal to

contribute to this cause. At the same time, as a lecturer in the Department of History of Art at the China Academy of Fine

Arts, I hope that my students can have achievements in their studies of contemporary arts. They need to collect

information and interview artists in their research, which requires financial aids. I would like to take any opportunity to help

their endeavors, and that the "Sanya Elegant Gathering" is an excellent way to do this. I hope that these works completed

by the artists whilst in high spirits can be sold successfully and collected by those who really appreciate them; and that the

proceeds will fund AAA's research and part of my art history teachings.

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To take such an opportunity and carry out this idea relies on the artists. Therefore I would like to thank all the artists who

attended "Sanya Elegant Gathering": Only because of your generous participation that this charitable cause was possible.

The images and marks you have left are historical memories. I would also like to thank the AAA. My idea was supported

and encouraged by Claire Hsu and Jane Debevoise, who helped turn these works into something that will benefit AAA's

cause. In addition I would like to thank Christie's Hong Kong for their understanding and constructive advice to put these

works as a charity auction, which makes the art and the auction particularly special. Thus, I cannot help but express my

appreciation again!

Lü Peng Tuesday, July 10, 2007.

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INK vs ACRILYC

It was not the objective of the Gathering and in those past days there was not any debate regarding the influence of ink in

the new contemporary art. The years passed and now in 2103-14 this debate emerge on the surface at the meantime that

artists ask themselves about tradition and Chinese history and behavior.

水墨画 Ink and Brush painting is one of China's oldest and best known art forms; its centrality to Chinese art history is

comparable to that of oil painting in Western art since the Renaissance. Its sophisticated techniques allow for the recording

of delicate visual impressions on absorbent rice paper. Traditional artists who work in this medium usually create black-

and-white works which are understood and evaluated in relation to a system termed the “rhythm of the ink,” through which

subtly different applications and gradations of ink--including wet, dry, light, dark, burned, and others--express concepts

such as purity, self-reflection, and human nature. Since the founding of the PRC, Ink and Brush painting has met with

varied responses from both officials and artists, who have created entirely new genres from this traditional art form.

“New ink wash has attained tremendous developments since stepping into the new millennium and has gradually obtained

attention from academia and scholarly institutions, which has led to an array of important exhibitions. As demonstrated by

such critical and exploratory exhibitions, new ink art is apparently in a phase of dynamic development and progress. This is

why discussions have been stirred up at the current juncture. Compared to the new ink wash of the 1980s, the new ink art

of the new century not only stresses interaction with the contemporary moment and everyday life but also accentuates the

expression of concepts about and concerns for the living conditions of the human race, gradually also coming to learn from

various emerging art forms like installation and video art, and even from non-art territories like advertising and animation.

These new areas of focus have greatly expanded the territories of expression in ink wash. Throughout this process, two-

dimensional ink painting has ceaselessly motivated its self-transformation and self-extension to a point of completion, while

at the same time establishing its influence and position in academia. Meanwhile, the development of multi-dimensional ink

painting as a whole has evidently acquired more attention due to the impetus generated by new art methodologies. Artists

like Xu Bing (b.1955), Gu Wenda, and Qiu Anxiong (b.1972) -along with many other artists engaged in forms of artistic

practice including installation, video, oil painting, sculpture, and performance- boldly merge traditional and Western

concepts; traditional and contemporary resources; traditional and Western techniques in a seamless unity, bringing to ink

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art many new elements that deserve our earnest scrutiny.” From The Formation and Development of New Ink Art in China

by Lu Hong – Artistic Director, Shenzhen Art Museum (www.mplusmatters.hk).

Therefore, this exhibition aims to examine this traditional medium through a modern lens and presents works that

reinterpret the ink painting tradition and innovate in terms of technique, presentation and subject matter. The aim is to

engage audiences in a dialogue on the ways in which works of art in a traditional medium can be innovative and be

translated into the language of global contemporary art.

For over a thousand years, the Chinese ink painting medium has been central to the development of China’s art history.

Using brush, ink and paper, artists perfected their skills and depicted their universe, successfully intertwining the ink

tradition and the unique aesthetics of Chinese art. Ink paintings, like all works of art, are a product of their society,

embodying and creating viewpoints, provocations, and new horizons. During the Cultural Revolution, art schools were

closed, and publication of art journals and major art exhibitions ceased with major destructions done as part of the

elimination of Four Olds campaign. Following the Cultural Revolution, art schools and professional organizations were

reinstated. Exchanges were set up with groups of foreign artists. Chinese artists began to experiment with new subjects

and techniques in their attempt to bring Chinese painting to a new height. After a century of transformation that included

great political, economic and cultural change, China is actively re-defining its identity and direction. When China opened its

door to the world in the late 1970s, the course of its contemporary art trajectory also changed. Some artists quickly

adopted once discarded Western techniques.

The artists represented in this exhibition were trained in traditional Chinese painting and most received education after

China opened its door to the world in 1979. The artists were introduced to a variety of Western styles and techniques and

decided to break up with the tradition as their mode of expression. Moreover than they achieve the maximum

reconnaissance with their works in oil and they are know now as the fathers of the contemporary Chinese art and tigers of

it.

It’s almost impossible, today, not only to gather together these great artists, but show their old works in one exhibition.

JSC. February 2014

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ZHANG XIAOGANG

Elder Brother, Lu Peng:

I hope you are well. I feel so warm after reading your words about Sanya. I believe what we have discussed, did and

thought in Sanya will show their historic meaning and cultural value as time passes by. I totally agree with the way you

support AAA's work and development by consigning our spontaneous paper works made in Sanya to an auction. Thanks for

all you have done. Regards, and have a nice summer, Zhang Xiaogang June 15th, 2007.

Zhang Xiaogang (张晓刚; born in 1958 in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, in Southwestern China) is a

contemporary Chinese symbolist and surrealist. Paintings in his

Bloodline series are often monochromatic, stylized portraits of

Chinese people, usually with large, dark-pupil eyes, posed in a stiff

manner deliberately reminiscent of family portraits from the 1950s

and 1960s. For years, his works - like those of other avant-garde

artists of his generation - could not be exhibited in China, often

because they were deemed too

modern or questionable.

When Zhang discovered

photographs of his mother as a young beautiful woman during the Cultural Revolution, he

decided to make that a centerpiece of his work. Zhang found the photographs of his

parents as a young couple in 1993. He discovered that his mother had been a very pretty

girl, that she had a romantic streak, and that she loved music, but that due to

circumstances she had become a civil servant. "Society changed her into a different

person," he said. "Personal needs and the demands of society are two different things."

Since then, Zhang Xiaogang become the most valued Chinese contemporary artist with a record in April 2011 at Sotheby’s

his earlier work Forever lasting love reached 9.000.000$ (image below name). Surpassed in 2013 by Zeng Fanzhi’s Last

supper.

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Zhang’s artworks focus on the relationship with past, memory and history. The

artist has always placed an emphasis on the existence of history and memory in

the present. In his works, history exists in the present,

there is no way to erase it, and it is continuously being

revised. It is impossible to not involve history; our

current perception is too derived from our memories.

Zhang has always been a traditional artist, who

expresses man’s experiences and emotions through his

paintings. Those scintillating spots, scars and lines on

his canvases reveal the references to history and the

release of emotions. Such traditional expression and

the insistence on it bring us back to the belief in and

worship of painting’s narrative. His effort is to re-

emphasize the power of emotion and feeling over the “super-flat” and “cool.” More recent works

by Zhang Xiaogang of the Amnesia and Remembrance series deal with the workings of memory.

The artist is interested in how memory can be selective and often inaccurate. Here the artist draws upon elements of his

very early work prior to 1993, light bulbs, and open books with writing, pens etc.

A recent series of canvases has seen Zhang return to the surrealist motifs of his

youth, with severed limbs and detached, but still beating, hearts puncturing

scenes in which figures lounge in chairs amidst a vast industrial landscape. In

2011 -2012, China's most expensive living artist hasn't been allowed to paint

due to fragile health, doctor's orders.

In the Sanya collection all three are incredible works of Zhang, adjusting to his

subjects, but with the lightness, the softness of its lines, the works are even

more sensitive, more ethereal. Have a pulse to keep the lines as thin and a

sublime match the color. A way to return the contemporaneity to traditional or

how the tradition can be contemporary. And yet, the works retain all of its time.

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YUE MINJUN

This great gathering will become a historical memory! This graffiti has recorded our rebellion and craziness! A book of

Chinese art history starts the new era of arts!

Yue Minjun June 18th, 2007

Yue Minjun (岳敏君; born in 1962 in the town of Daqing in Heilongjiang). He was having a hard

time at the Oilfield (1980). He is best known for oil paintings depicting

himself in various settings, frozen in laughter. The roots of Yue

Minjun's style can be traced back to the work of Geng Jianyi, whose

work depicted Geng's own laughing face, which had first inspired Yue.

He has also reproduced this signature image in sculpture, watercolor

and prints. While Yue is often classified as part of the Chinese “Cynical Realist” movement in

art developed in China since 1989, Yue himself rejects this label, while at the same time

"doesn't concern himself

about what people call him."

Yue Minjun work has been

called humorous and

sympathetic. Arguably his

paintings provide a light-

hearted approach to philosophical enquiry and

contemplation of existence.

"Yes, of course the smiles are a trick," he says. "I wanted

to hide the bad feelings behind a smile. In this way

everyone can accept it. This is related to traditional

culture and the history of Chinese literature. You can't

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show what you really want." He added: "In Chinese tradition you can't say things directly. You

have to show something else for the real meaning. I wanted to show a happy smile and show

that behind it is something sad, and even dangerous."

One of the most recognizable artists in the West for their

smiling faces, smiling a self-portrait. One of the artists

trying to evolve, leaving behind these icons. From his

Landscape with No One series in which he removes

figures from historical Chinese socialist paintings and

well-known western paintings. “Typical socialist paintings

in China looked very realistic but were indeed surreal.

They served for heroic fantasies, and the images of great

people or the heroes in the paintings could well justify the

fabricated scenes.”; their smiling faces; to the interpretation of the great traditional

Chinese artists in his Labyrinth series, in this particular works Yue Minjun adopts the

black-and-white technique of Chinese classical painting to reintroduce the precious

Chinese cultural heritage and its wealth of painting epitomized by maestros like Qi Baishi, Zhang Daqian, and Xu Beihong,

which the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) suppressed for the reason of being part of the feudalistic “old culture”; or the

last coming back to his firsts motives with a series of pieces re-appropriating classical Christian paintings like The Annunciation except the main characters are missing leaving empty

structures and buildings. He says he wants to express a sense of loss, of

meaninglessness in the world. And again, it is a trick, a bit cynical and

deceptive. Is he mocking western art? Is he saying the great figures of the

west have disappeared? Or have these works lost their relevance? That, it

seems, is for the art critics and collectors to decipher.

His strokes in The Sanya Collection are strong here, both in the smiling face,

and in the two papers that appear a relationship with nature, a

reinterpretation of the classic landscapes of traditional art.

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ZENG FANZHI

Hello, Lu Peng!

First of all, I would like to thank you for inviting me to this Sanya gathering. It was a wonderful gathering. We had the

chance to discuss and recall people and events in 1985, in which I learned and understood a lot. Of course, I agree that

you bring our co-works to auction to support AAA and your work! Thanks again! Zeng Fanzhi July 3'd, 2007.

Zeng Fanzhi (曾梵志 born 1964 in Wuhan). He is noted for his Mask series of portraits depicting Chinese people of the

1990s. In May 2008, one of them, Mask Series 1996 No. 6, was auctioned for $9.7 million, a record for contemporary Asian

art. By volume has become in 2011 the Chinese artist most desired by collectors.

His Last Supper reached the highest record ever for 23,1MUSD in October 2013.

The latter is their particular line using four brushes.

Zeng's Hospital Series is of his earliest work, and exemplifies his correlative

approach between painting and psychology. His A&E

waiting room is portrayed with overwhelming banality

and trauma: muted tones replicate the staleness of

public space, the milling crowds in the background

appear hazy and remote, while rusty washes pour

over the canvas replicating blood, sorrowful and repugnant. Sat center stage are a distraught

patient and cavalier doctor, juxtaposed as human anguish and the white-coated horror of

bureaucracy. Their heads and hands are aggrandized to painful and clumsy scale in grotesque

parody of thought and action.

Zeng's magnificent landscapes express the vast conceptual gulf between individual cognition

and the actuality of environment. Painting with two brushes simultaneously, Zeng uses one to

describe his subject, while the other meanders the canvas, leaving traces of his subconscious

through processes. Through this combination of painterly realism and 'automatic' expression,

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Zeng's landscapes are transformed into near abstract fields; the depicted people

and places merging both memory and

imagination.

In his well-known “Mask” series, Zeng’s

figures wear a white mask; they are

mostly well-dressed urbanites, but they

have large, strange hands, weird

expressions, blank stares or puzzling eyes.

His works often have sharp brush strokes, or even slashing strokes that reveal

tensions in what might be seen in a splintered universe.

An example of the simplification of the art that we have in The Sanya Collection. These inks on paper work are a

magnificent and rare example of artist Zeng Fanzhi's iconic and immediately recognizable expressionistic style. At times

faint and wandering, at others aggressive and definite, the dynamic and complex bundle of lines that slowly unravel across

the page, are a testament to the artist's experiments with subconscious

expression through an 'automated' process.

Evoking Zeng's landscape paintings, in which the

artist uses one hand to create his subject while

simultaneously using his other hand in an

automatic fashion, this work conveys Zeng's

meditative and subconscious working method. Ultimately, this drawing encapsulates the

psychological tension for which Zeng is famous, and is a rare and stunning testament to the

imagination and emotional range of the artist. "Watermelon" has strong symbolic implication.

The cut open red pulp associates with silent violence and protest, extending previous claiming

of topics like Peking Union Medical College Hospital, mask, etc. Image of watermelon has

once appeared in his early self-portrait or in the theme of Last Supper, symbolizing blood and

flesh. Here, the independently existing "Watermelon" presents the full visual sense resembling silent monolog of the

painter. By the way, he is the unique artists that in the past used ink and he is now also doing a few works exploring the

capabilities of the ink.

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He

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ZHOU CHUNYA

The Trip to Sanya

Previously I have mysterious feelings towards the sea, and luxurious feeling towards sunshine. Both of them are so

attractive to people who live in cloudy inland areas. Even the air becomes precious as time goes by. A place with fresh air

also has people over 100 years old living there. Only one place has premium sunshine, air and sea, and it is Sanya. I

cannot forget my first trip to Sanya. Zhou Chunya.

Zhou Chunya (周春芽, born in 1955 in Chongqing) is best-known for his colorful “green dog” series of paintings, a dearly

loved German Shepherd. But he is also considered one of the country’s most talented

painters of nature and rural scenes. His works is almost expressionists, sometimes using

jagged brush strokes and other times creating colorful, blurred sweeping landscapes. His

canvases are often filled with figures left alone in the world or nature scenes devoid of

humans. In recent years, he has begun to paint a series of portraits filled with sexual

scenes in nature. Zhou usually does

this via his sensibility for color (which

always escapes being a language) and

through the very desire to activate the

iconographic tradition of Chinese

painting. The arena of neo-

expressionism is the politics of the

responsible Self, allied to the

exploration of a divided Self, and the

celebration of nature’s encompassing

energies. If the ‘Green Dog’ paintings

delve into Eros, the rock paintings have the undercurrent of the death

instinct, whilst the floral series hold out for survival, security and care.

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It wasn't just German Neo-Expressionism that inspired him, but his German Shepherd, Heigen. The dog became his chief

subject for more than ten years. Zhou describes the green dog as a sort of symbolic self-portrait. He interprets the

background as a field of uncertainty, loneliness, and distance between people, while the

dogs express a wide variety of emotions. “[The Green Dog’s] image and situation project

my cultural characters and my circumstance of reality in life.” Sadly, in 1999, died,

possibly poisoned by a neighbor, resulting in the artist's sorrowful refusal to paint for

more than a year. Zhou did return to his favorite subject and recently completed several

sculptures of the dog with a shiny coat of green industrial paint. Following the death of

his dog, Zhou began to paint peach blossoms in appreciation of the value and beauty of

life. Watching the flowers blossom in spring, he was deeply moved by their “flirtatious”

energy and vigor. This led to a series of peach blossom expressing the primitive desire of

human beings and the theme of “sex and emotion.” Bright red,

sinuously shaped men embrace pink women, whom Zhou

heatedly describes: “In a fluid emotion and mood of colors, flows indulgence of primitive and

sincere imaginations. It is the total release of human nature against a grand scene, an explosion

of gentle violence!” In his fusion of delicate flowers and unbridled human passion, Zhou couples

traditionally modest Chinese subjects and modern, more liberal attitudes to sexuality.

The brushwork for mountain rock is a very important category for Chinese traditional landscape

paintings. It has five approaches in respect to tick, crimple, rub, dye and dot. The form and the

structure of mountain rock decide the expression of the painting methods, and in turn, different

styles and genres are formed.

The work like in the "Peach Blossoms" series resonates with bright greens, pinks and reds, which are worked with free and

flowing brush strokes creating a vivid and enticing scene. Although reminiscent of traditional Chinese paintings the

energetic and vivid strokes set the works apart from the soft and elegant images traditionally rendered. Both the colors and

the compositions have a bold and unrestrained expression as if emotions have been set free. Zhou is considered the

greatest master in the use of colors in Chinese contemporary painting. In fact, he is the only one who has dared to so

many colors. But the latter, proof of its dominance is seen in the second work using only shades of gray to represent one of

the famous peach blossoms approaching a kind of abstraction work but showing a strong impressionism.

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WANG GUANGYI

We were together because of Lu Peng's 20th Century of Chinese Art. Thus, these wonderful texts and images were born.

Wang Guangyi

Wang Guangyi (王广义, born in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province in 1956 or 1957), is known for being the leader of the New

Art Movement circles that erupted out of China after 1989 and for his Great Criticism

series of paintings, using the images of propaganda

from the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and

contemporary brand names from western

advertising. As an example, Artinfo notes that one

of Wang Guangyis’s Great Criticism paintings

“responds to the recent influx of advertising by juxtaposing the Coca-Cola logo with an image of a Chinese soldier, appropriating the visual iconography of both the Chinese Cultural Revolution and

American pop art.”

Through his critique, Guangyi’s paintings weave intricate narratives, implicating the role of

the artist as an active participant (both as subjugator and subservient) in economic and

social policy. Guangyi treads a very delicate line between moral dictum and capitalist

endorsement; the interpretation of his paintings alternates with the subjectivity of context. Amalgamating, confusing, and

blurring opposing ideological beliefs, Guangyi’s billboard sized canvases readily sell out national valor, while simultaneously

devaluing status symbol luxury for the proletariat cause.

Coma back to origins, “The ‘Frozen Northern Wasteland’ series (85’s) is not just a painting effort, it is a laudatory

declaration of our ideological and cultural condition. When humans have suffered the philosophical paradoxes of life, they

are left with the residual hopes of rebuilding an existential harmony.” In stark contrast to the Revolutionary Realist “red,

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bright and shining” workers, farmers and soldiers that he painted as a young Red Guard, by 1985 Wang had distilled

Nietzsche’s Übermensch, or “Superman,” into icy, abstract, alien beings.

For Mao Zedong AO (1988), Wang applied his rational grid onto a triple portrait of the

Chairman, displaying an affinity with Pop appropriation and repetition. As Dürer had done,

buffering himself from the nude, with the grid Wang tried to distance himself, and the viewer,

from Mao as a seductive figure of adoration. Yet Wang admits

he did not totally succeed in removing emotion, as he did in his

“Post-Classical” and “Red and Black Rationality” series. His

painting actually seems to add a deeper, awe-inspiring aura to

Mao’s image, perhaps because he employed the standard

portrait’s style of realism, or due to its sheer size—an imposing

3.5 meters in width.

Wang is now using rich strokes that drip into abstract patterns reminiscent of traditional

Chinese ink-and-wash landscapes. His 16-meter-long The Last Supper (2012), a version of the Da Vinci masterpiece,

contains such hidden vistas, in a new synthesis of Eastern and Western classical traditions. What happened to the grid?

“When I was younger… I was really into this rational theory,” Wang says. “Growing older, I started to realize that you

cannot be rational about everything; there may be some mysterious things that you cannot grasp rationally but can still

appreciate. Now I’m interested in mysterious subjects. And Mao still represents this mystery.”

The works from The Sanya collection probably go a step forward in his criticism,

reflecting all his thoughts. From hyperrealism to the abstract. How many works of

nudes or regarding sex or photography has been shown in China right now? Just a

few, maybe for that the importance of the word SEX in this works, and the link with

ART? Perhaps beyond what the words mean, of the interrelationships and

consequences. In any case Wang Guangyi remains the leader of the Chinese

Contemporary painters and one who always looks for new forms of expression within

the art world, caring little market value.

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Inverse

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85x70cm

MAO XUHUI

Lu Peng, Greetings! Your letter and words brought me back to beautiful Sanya. As you mentioned, our gathering was

most restful. I live in plateau area without a glimpse of sea, so the trip to Sanya left me deep and wonderful

memories: the moist air, the soft sunshine, the transparent greenish-blue sea and the beach with our footprints ... Of

course we also had academic activities. With the publishing of the first book in 20th century Chinese art history, a

group of artists who have contributed positively to Chinese contemporary art had the chance to get together. We

reviewed history, looked forward to the future, and painted free and relaxed with brushes under a harmonious and

pleasant atmosphere. Having heard that these spontaneous works will be consigned to a renowned auction house in

Asia, with the income being used to support AAA and your own teaching, I am indeed very happy! I think this is most

meaningful and I am honored that my work can contribute to your cause! Meanwhile, say Hello to Sanya! Have a nice

summer, Da Mao (Mao Xuhui)

Mao Xuhui (毛旭辉, was born in Chongqing, Sichuan in 1956), the idealistic leader of the mid-1980s Southwest Art

Group, which included Zhang Xiaogang and Pan Dehai, has never strayed far from Kunming and Gui Mountain in

Yunnan province, the wellspring of his creativity. Mao Xuhui began to take "power" as a theme in 1989 with the

Parents series of paintings.

The centerpiece of ‘92 Paternalism is an ordinary chair，

with a key and a door on the sides. They are all symbols of

quotidian objects， common in appearance and yet

profoundly lodged with Confucian orthodoxy and the

patriarch philosophy of the Chinese feudal society. While the

colour black and the style of the chair effect a solemn，

intricate impression， its upright arm and back lift straight

up whoever sits on the chair. With such positional altitude，

the chair engenders a sense of distance to the audience as

compared to those postures of standing and sitting on

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ground. This type of chair， by tradition， is in the best way symbolic of the power and prestige of the nobility and

bureaucrat； conventionally stalled in the hall； it signifies the status of the host in formal occasions or ceremonies.

The inspiration of Mao， in his appropriation of the symbol of authority and power， originates from his thorough

understanding of the traditional Chinese patriarchy and ethical philosophy - that there is a proper order between old

and young， rich and poor. Just as the father exercises absolute sovereignty in a family， the emperor demands

unquestioning obedience from his citizens. This is how the chair becomes the symbol of a fundamental concept

respecting the relationship between altitude， sitting posture and social class.

In 1992 he completed the Vocabulary of Power series. It was from the image of the

"parent" that the "scissors" was developed. The "parent" is

an iconic yet shapeless shadow seated on an overwhelming

altar-like throne. It is aloof and awe-inspiring, like a religious

icon. The stylized shape of the "parent" resembles a pair of

scissors, and it gradually becomes one which, in the Scissors

series, presides over domestic settings as the "parent" would

sit upon the altar. The menacing presence of the scissors is

compounded as an instrument of the everyday; as such it is a domestic as well as

"democratic" symbol, carrying associated powers by being visually suggestive of the

anthropomorphic god-like "parent" icon.

It was not until 2011 that the auction of his early works its price rose sharply, placing it in

the position he deserved in Chinese contemporary art.

The works in the Sanya collection keep the issues of Mao Xuhui represented in the series of Paternalism, the chair with

the icons. In this works he is much more intensive because the chair remains alone, isolated in an island and at the

meantime the chair dominates the island and the whole picture. In the Sanya collection, two years later the sunshine

overwrites the clouds. Therefore, the works in Sanya are so important, they are the translation of the issues of Mao

Xuhui (scissors and paternalism series) with classical tools, bringing simplicity to them against the more complex oil

on canvas.

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YE YONGQING

At the beginning of this year, Beijing was still cold. Remnant snow was everywhere, and the city was in a depression. I

got a text message from Lu Peng, in which he used the words, blue sky, white cloud, beach, palm trees, sunshine and

short sleeve T-shirt, to describe our upcoming gathering in Sanya. Names on the invitation were old friends that I

have known for decades. For many years, gatherings had happened occasionally in different places around the world,

but these people are always the focus of discussion. Lu's new art history of 100 years brings us not only memory, but

also numerous questions. The three days in Sanya passed by quickly, but fortunately the past, the current and the

future life of Lu Peng's art history remains. If these spontaneous ink play and graffiti works can do something for the

past, the current and the future life of our art history, I am more than happy to see the results. -Ye Shuai (Ye

Yongqing) June 17th, 2007 Beijing.

Ye Yongqing (叶永青 was born in 1958 in Kunming, Yunnan Province) is a pioneering artist who was part of the

Sichuan School of artists. He has spent much of his career painting portraits of birds,

one with jagged, clever lines. He also has

focused in recent years on creating colorful

collages. Currently the 1st president and

artistic director of China Contemporary Art

Institute of China Academy of Art founded

in 2010.

I admit, I do not know before, his work on

the Gathering are the most traditional, and

I change now when I see them closely, I

must say that the cranes are incredible, the

set of strokes and drops of varying intensity are marvelous and ink red and

green gives an incredible force. They appreciated the difficulty of working

with ink. I confess that it is the one that most attracts me to see their current work completely away from

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traditionalism and closer to Basquiat trying to explain a lot of things in a piece of paper or canvas. Trying to motivate

the viewer to think about. In addition to reading an article by Lü Peng, he is the one who has made a very strong

intellectual activity and certainly the most unfortunate with the success. Surely

he has more technical skills in the use of ink among the other artists; his other

works are also exceptional.

Ye Yongqing’s “birds” have had a long history, going through its own spiritual

development. They were conceived during China’s “Ideological Emancipation

Movement”, which endowed them with romance and sentiment in preparation for

their spiritual development. The birds were born in an age of social unrest and

confusion, when it was showered with an evolutionary storm of ideology and

perception, which also made it timeless and adaptive to any environment. Later,

the birds matured in the process of globalization, making them aware of the

distracting thoughts and the dust of

individualism at its heart. At the end, the birds

finally realized that they were nothing - just a

snapshot of the artist’s mentality at a certain, specific time. Like Marcel Duchamp’s

urinal, they represent the transition of conception. Therefore, we don’t have to

bear too much aesthetical burden in reading the “birds” which is compatible with

any space, and any interpretation from the audience could be plausible. However, I

have to remind you that it’s still necessary to know the growing history of the

“birds”, otherwise how could we possibly understand the “birds” as a symbol the

artist uses to connect his past, present and future?

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WU SHANZHUAN

Chóng fù jiū shì lì liàng yī jiǔ bā wǔ nián, wán quán wù lǐ èr líng líng líng nián! (Repetition is power 1985! Completed

physics 2000!) Repeat these words five times and you will get a total of 100 Chinese characters. Plus" Sān Yà Yǎ Jí"

(Sanya Elegant Gathering) has four characters. Multiplied by this by two equals 108* characters! - Wu Shanzhuan

*Note from the translator: Mr. Wu here is making an allusion to 108 heroic outlaws in the famous Chinese epic

Outlaws of the Marsh, to symbolize the Chinese contemporary and avant-garde artists' rebellious hearts.

Wu Shanzhuan (吴 专 was born in 1960 in Zhoushan) is one of the most influential artists in the avant-garde

movement. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as a long-haired conceptual artist known for his experimental works

with language and the use of big character posters, a kind of precursor to the better known works of Gu Wenda and

Xu Bing, which also toyed with language and meaning. Wu was part of the red humor group, engaged in performance

art, created installations, appeared at the famed no u turn

exhibition in 1989, he created a “Big Business” performance that

involved selling shrimp; and later left for Europe, where he spent

more than a decade in Germany and Iceland before returning to

China in 2005. His works are filled with satire, language tricks,

symbols and radical games. He often posed nude in his art works,

for a while with his former wife, Inga Thorsdottir. His work is filled

with absurd imagery and fantastical language.

As one of the leaders of the Chinese Conceptual Movement in

1980s, Wu Shanzhaun was the first artist in China to incorporate

textual pop references into his work. Wu’s pivotal 1986 installation,

Red Humour International, laid the foundation for his highly

idiosyncratic and sophisticated approach to painting, which forgoes image in favor of political jingoism, religious

scripture, and advertising slogans.

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Wu’s unique process of painting as writing is exemplified in his Today No

Water series. Conceived as a graphic novel, each canvas is a chapter of a

continuous stream of consciousness narrative. These works don’t tell a

story per se, but rather present a visual tension between fragmented

phrases and images, culminating in dizzying compositions that map out

free-style associations of ideas, references,

and symbols.

True to his art of storytelling. The art to

write and the billboard for the collection. I

like very much his last works, using strong

colorful images and words to reinforce the

message, his work on ink is really interesting. For the artist who use more words in his

works, the less.

According to Stanley-Baker, "Calligraphy is sheer life experienced through energy in

motion that is registered as traces on silk or paper, with time and rhythm in shifting

space its main ingredients." Chinese characters can be retraced to 4000 BC signs.

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wán quán wù lǐ (completed physics)

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ZHANG PEILI

Zhang Peili (张培力 born in 1957 in Hangzhou). Zhang Peili earned his reputation as the father of video art in China

for his response to an invitation to create a new work for the historic Huangshan Conference on modern art in 1988.

He borrowed video equipment – which was, at the time, hard to come by – from friends at the customs bureau and

used it to film his latex-gloved hands breaking a mirror and then meticulously

gluing the shards back into place.

As a symbol, the glove is useful in understanding this: in the beginning of his

career, he obsessed over it, painting empty gloves dissected by numbered lines

again and again. To Zhang, the glove symbolizes institutional pressure, an

unnatural surgical barrier of control and containment. And at their best, his

works achieve the exact opposite effect, widening narrow discourses, as in his

groundbreaking first explorations in video, and works

He is beginning with the cool and

contained painting of the mid-1990s

and then moving into the aesthetics

of boredom and control in his first

video projects.

Zhang Peili is an enigmatic figure: while he is widely respected in China

as a pioneering video artist and a progenitor of the use of electronic

media in the wake of the 85 New Wave movement of the mid-1980s, his

international reputation relies primarily on a small number of survey

exhibitions. In 2011 one of his early paintings was auctioned for a

shocking HK$23 million during the controversial Sotheby’s sale of a

portion of the Ullens Collection in Hong Kong.

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Typically adopting a minimal or reductive position that constructs an essential

relationship between the aesthetics of video playback technology and the

moving image itself, his video installation focuses on questions of perceived

reality, media convention, individual agency, and spatial structure. In the years

between 1988 and 2011 his video practice has undergone a number of

significant shifts, beginning with the cool and contained painting of the mid-

1980s and then moving into the aesthetics of boredom and control in his first

video projects, including Document on Hygiene No. 3 (1991), in which the

artist subdues and washes a chicken at the center of the frame. The mid-1990s

saw classical reworking of the relationship between content and spatial form, as with Uncertain Pleasure II (1996), in

which a hand scratches every corner of a naked body depicted only in fragmentary close-up shots across 10 channels,

or Water: Standard Edition of Cihai (1991), for which a television announcer reads a dictionary entry as if it were the

evening news. And then there are the appropriation and remix works, including not only Last Words but also Actors’

Lines, in which the gestures of revolutionary fervor depicted in a militaristic propaganda film are reframed to read

almost romantically. Finally, more recent works involve interactive closed-loop systems like Hard Evidence No. 1

(2009) and theatrical scenes like A Gust of Wind (2008 and 2012).

The recognition of Zhang Peili is less than their counterparts likely due to use of video and installations in their work.

Probably that’s why their work is one of the most abstract of all the collection and maybe the answer is in his own

words by an interview: “What I felt during the early stages of my development as

an artist was that there is a kind of underlying force or power. Sudden changes or

disasters, which have been caused either by nature or human beings, made me

realize that people live in an illusion, and this feeling has become stronger as my

career as an artist has developed. All these beautiful and supposedly stable states

are so fragile. They are just illusions. Changeable and destructive states are

inevitable. THEY are the realities”.

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WANG GUANGYI and ZHANG PEILI

What can we expect from two artists like them? Introduce the use of hands. Not ask to me, ask them!!!

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ZHANG XIAOGANG and WU SHANZHUAN

A tribute to Qi Baishi.

Qi Baishi (齐白石; was born in January 1, 1864 in Xiangtang, Hunan – Beijing, September 16,

1957). He is perhaps the most noted for the whimsical, often playful style of his watercolor

works.

The subjects of his paintings include almost everything, commonly animals, scenery, figures,

toys, vegetables, and so on. He theorized that "paintings must be something between likeness

and unlikeness, much like today's vulgarians, but not like to cheat popular people". In his later

years, many of his works depict mice, shrimp, or birds.

He was also good at seal carving and called himself "the

fortune of three hundred stone seals".

In 1953 he was elected to the president of the

Association of Chinese Artists. One of his paintings,

Eagle Standing on Pine Tree was sold for 425.5

million yuan ($65.5 million) in 2011, becoming one

of the most expensive paintings ever sold at

auction.

According to Artprice index the firsts four artists by

amount in auctions 2011 are: Zhang Daqian, Qi

Baishi, Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso.

I’m unable to close this collection for better.

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Lu Peng biography

Lu Peng is Associate Professor in the Department of Art History and Theory at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, Zhejiang

province. Born in 1956 in Chongqing, Sichuan province, and has been living in Chengdu since 1964. Prof. Lu is 1982 graduate of

the Political Education Department of Sichuan Normal University, and holds a PhD in critical theory from the China Art Academy. In

2004 he was awarded his doctorate, and is presently a professor at the China Academy of Art.

Formerly chief editor of the journal Theatre and Film (Xiju yu dianying) from 1982-85, Lu Peng also served as Vice-secretary of the

Sichuan Dramatists Society from 1986-91. Subsequently he held the position of executive editor at the magazine Yishu

shichang (Art and Market), and in 1992 served as artistic director of the ground-breaking Guangzhou Biennale

(officially titled the First Guangzhou Biennial Art Fair [Oil Painting Section] and among first major initiatives).

His major published books include:

Modern European Aesthetics of Painting, (Lingnan fine art press 1988); Modern Painting: New Imaginery Language, (Shandong

literature and art press 1987); Escaping the Responsibility: 20th Century Art Culture, 1990 (co-authored with Yi Dan Fine arts press

1990); Art- Revelation of Man, (Lingnan fine art press 1990); Critique of Modern Art and Culture, (with Yi Dan, Sichuan fine art

press 1992); History of China modern art:1979-1989 (Hunan fine art press 1992); Operation of Art, (Chengdu publishing house

1994); History of China modern art:1990-1999 (Hunan fine art press 2000); Lu Peng: A Chronology of Contemporary Chinese Art

History 1976-2000 (eds. Paris – Pekin 2002); Pure Views Remote from Streams and Mountains: Chinese Landscape Painting in the

10th-13th Century, (People’s University of China Press 2004); A History of Art in Twentieth-Century China, (Peking University Press

2006); The story of art in China (from late Qing Dynasty to present (Chinese Peking University press 2009); A pocket history of

20th Century Chinese art (Charta 2010 English version, Chinese version); Artists in Art History, (Hunan Fine art Press 2008);

Fragmented reality, Contemporary art in 21st Century China (Charta 2012); A history of art in twentieth-century China, reviewed,

(Charta 2010) more than 1.000 pages; Histoire de l’art chinois au XX siècle (French version Somogy 2013 and English update

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Somogy 2013, 800 pages); China contemporary art in the historical process and market trends (Peking University Press, 2010);

From San Servolo to Amalfi (Charta English and Chinese 2011).

His translations include:

Hershel B.Chipp's Selected Letters of Paul Cezanne,(Sichuan fine art press 1986, 2nd edition Guangxi normal university press 2003.

3rd edition People’s university of China publishing house 2004); Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, 1984; W. Kandinsky’s The

Spirit in Art, (Sichuan fine art press 1986); and Kenneth Clark's Landscape into the Art, (Sichuan fine art press 1988).

His work as Curator Artist in Art History. SZ Art Center. 2008 He extended his activity as Curator and Organiser Responsible project of 7 Museums Greatest artists in Sichuan-Qingcheng Mountain. 2008. Gift to Marco Polo. Collateral event Biennale di Venezia. 2009 Exhibition "Reshaping History: China art 2000-2009". Beijing 2010. Biggest Exhibition ever in China. Pure Views-New painting from China. London Blouin art Foundation. 2010 Pure Views-New painting from China. San Francisco Asian Art Museum. 2011 1st Biennale Chengdu. 2011 Pure Views-New painting from China. Fukuoka Asian art museum. 2013 Pure Views-Transformations of Chinese art. Arts Santa Mònica. Barcelona. 2013. All techniques. Passage to history. Pavilion at Biennale di Venezia. 2013

In recent years he assumed the creation, organisation and Director of several new Contemporary art museums Creator and Director Chengdu MOCA since June 2011. First exhibition of Picasso in China. Creator and Director Yinchuan MOCA inaugurated beginning 2014 A point of view of this great historian can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuKJwzucuxM http://www.china1980s.org/en/interview_detail.aspx?interview_id=75

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Friendship’s Photobook

Amsterdam 2008 with Lu Peng Venice 2009 Venice 2009 with Wang Guangyi

Venice 2009 with Zhang Xiaogang and Zhou Chunya Chengdu 2011 Barcelona 2013

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Barcelona 2013 Pure Views at Arts Santa Mònica: Zhang Wang, Zhang Xiaogang, Mao Xuhui, Yang Mian, Shen Na. In

b&w also Ye Yongqing.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY regarding INK vs OIL

http://en.cafa.com.cn/re-ink-invitational-exhibition-of-chinese-contemporary-ink-and-wash-painting-2000-2012.html

http://www.todayartmuseum.com/enexhdetails.aspx?type=reviewexh&id=379

http://en.cafa.com.cn/observing-ink-and-wash-in-the-cross-cultural-perspective-dialogue-between-pan-gongkai-and-cliff-ross.html

http://www.christiesprivatesales.com/exhibitions/chinesecontemporaryink/

http://www.christies.com/features/beyond-tradition-chinese-contemporary-ink-3167-3.aspx

http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/press-room/exhibitions/2013/ink-art

http://store.metmuseum.org/invt/80020952?utm_source=mainmuseum&utm_medium=metmuseum.org&utm_content=ink+art+80020952&utm_campaig

n=met+pubs#.UrGTpeLWvAM

http://artradarjournal.com/2013/10/25/contemporary-ink-the-next-big-thing-in-chinese-art/

http://www.artspeakchina.org/mediawiki/Ink_and_Brush_Painting_%E6%B0%B4%E5%A2%A8%E7%94%BB

http://www.michaelgoedhuis.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=149&tabindex=148&postid=15861

http://www.michaelgoedhuis.com/media/GoedhuisGoephoto/ExhibitionDocuments/Goedhuis_INK_-

_the_Art_of_China_at_the_SAATCHI_GALLERY_5_28_2012_1.pdf

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2013-04/12/content_16395575.htm

http://www.moma.org/collection////browse_results.php?object_id=108387 Fang Lijun

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Take a virtual tour

http://youtu.be/OsawIX7c_E8

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Curiosities

Tianhong Resort

“Tianhong Resort is located in Yalong Bay National Resort, Sanya。 It is a boutique

resort in which every room faces beach with full seaview window, surrounded by

tropical trees, the lake and the mountain in the back。Many state leaders once stayed

in our hotel such as Zu Rong Ji, Li Rui Huan, Wei Jian Xing, Wu Guan Zheng, Jia Qing

Ling。 We also received many celebrities such as 11th Banchan Buddha Of Tibetan,

world championship Fu Ming Xia, Li Ning, actor

Jiang Kun。

The B building opened business on sep.1,2008. Every room is spacious wich occupies

fifty square meters at least. You can watch both seaview and lakeview in the same time

in the room。A building has been

reconstructed before Oct.2008.

Comfortable

accommodation，characteristic cuisine

and natural environment will bring you a

surprised joy and unforgettable vacation。 You can still enjoy beach, swimming,

then take a bath sauna and use the locker free of charge after check out if the

flight is too late so that you can enjoy more happy time on the beach to avoid

waiting much more time in the airport。There are multi-functional conference room and VIP salon。 The beach is only for the

hotel’s guests and it’s privacy, on which there are wooden umbrellas and chairs.” From their website.

As you can see, like almost all in China in 2008 was reconstructed and a new building was added!!! Nothing to do with what the

artists found. It’s a coincidence? It was a sign? Old versus new? So many questions can araise...

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Mount Nan

Another popular attraction of Sanya is Mt. Nan (The

South Mountain). Mt. Nan located in China’s the only

tropical coastal city –

Sanya, is the

southernmost mountain in

China. The facilities in Mt.

Nan Cultural Tourism

Resort are all well-

equipped. The symbol of

Nan Shan (Shan meaning “mountain” in Mandarin) is a 108 m (354 ft.) statue of Nanhai Guanyin. The

figure was raised and enshrined in 2005 and is 2nd largest statue in the world. Under the blue sky, the

statue seems more kind and holy. The story goes that the three-sided statue faces mainland China,

Taiwan and the rest of the South China Sea, meaning that the bodhisattva blesses not only China, but

the whole world. Actually, Nan Shan is a place to spread the Buddhism.

Nan Shan is renowned as the auspicious place. A famous saying

“福如东海，寿比南山(Pinyin: fú rú dōng hǎi shòu bǐ nán shān)” is just the words Chinese people

would say when giving the old bless, which means that hoping the old can live a longer life. In this

ancient Chinese phrase, in a way it points out the origin between Nan Shan and the longevity

culture.

Nanshan Temple (南山寺; Nánshānsì; literally "South mountain

temple") is a Buddhist temple located in Sanya, Hainan province,

People's Republic China. The temple's name originates from a popular Buddhist expression.

(福如东海, 寿比南山; literally "Good fortune is much as the East Sea; longevity is high as

Nanshan"). The temple was built on April 12, 1988 to commemorate two thousand years of

Buddhism in China. It has a total area of 40,000 square metres. It contains several Tang

dynasty replicas.

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The Dharma-Door of Nonduality

In Buddhism, a Dharma-Door is an entrance to the Dharma, a teaching about a way or

method of practice leading to enlightenment. The heavenly existence in the Dharma Realm

of Form is eighty-four thousand great kalpas long. Thus there are eighty-four thousand

Dharma-doors. Among those, The Dharma-Door of Nonduality is considered as the last one

at highest state. Only entering this door, may one attain enlightenment and get access to

Nirvana, the realm surpassing life and death. Buddhist perspective shows that Nonduality,

meaning “not this not that but this and that are interrelated”, “all lives born equal”, etc, is

the method and notion for Buddhism to perceive the world and the interpretation and

inference to relations between essentiality and superficies of all things in universe. In

Vimalakirti Sutra, it says that the Crown Prince Manjushri asked the Licchavi Vimalakirti:

“We have all given our own teachings, noble sir. Now, may you elucidate the teaching of the entrance into the principle of

nonduality? ” Thereupon, the Licchavi Vimalakirti kept his silence, saying nothing at all. The Crown Prince Manjushri applauded

the Licchavi Vimalakirti: "Excellent! Excellent, noble sir! This is indeed the entrance into the nonduality of the bodhisattvas. Here

there is no use for syllables, sounds, and ideas." The expression is precise and implies deep Buddhist allegory. We need to

practice vigorously the concentration of the mind on the point of Zen.

Nanshan Dharma-Door of Nonduality is the entrance scenery of the park featuring architectural style of North-South Dynasty.

Entering this gate means entering an auspicious and serene land of Buddhism. The Chinese characters “Nonduality” outside

above the door and “Oneness” inside were inscribed by Mr. Gu Ting-Long, the late well-known calligrapher in his 94. “Oneness” is

the homologue of “Nonduality”.

Tianya Haijiao and Yanoda rain forest

Tianyahaijiao is famous for its name which literately means “The End of the Sky

and The Corner of the Sea”, and is associated with endless love and romance.

Almost every Chinese tourist in Sanya goes there to witness the beautiful

scenery and romantic place.

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Hainan Yanoda Rainforest is famous for the unique rainforest at 18 degrees north latitude of China. It

embodies all the five famous rain forests in Hainan province, enjoying a high reputation in China.

“Yanoda”，is an onomatopoeia for one, two, three in Hainan dialect. Here it has its new meaning

when dividing it into three parts: “ya” means innovation; “no” represents promise; and “da” indicates

practice. At the same time, “yanoda”，delivers the expression of welcome and greeting, referring to

friendship and best wishes.

Maybe the source of inspiration of Yue Minjun’s works? Who knows…

Xuan paper

The formal paper used for Chinese calligraphy and painting is called Shuan Paper ( 宣紙宣紙宣紙宣紙 ). Shuan ( 宣宣宣宣 ) Zhou is the name of the

original place that is most famous for its production. Shuan Paper is made of many different plant fibers other than rice. If

Chinese paper and books were made of rice, they would have been eaten

by insects thousands of years ago.

In the nineteenth century when the Europeans wanted to get the trade

secrets of Shuan Paper from China, they were misinformed it was made

of rice. Hence, most people in the West have been calling it "rice paper"

either as a misnomer or for convenience's sake. This widespread

misnomer may cause the beginners or practitioners in forming a habit

and inability to distinguish many other prevalent misnomers and

misconceptions already widespread in learning Chinese Brush Arts

(calligraphy, painting, and seal carving.)

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Shuan Paper is suitable for the absorption of Chinese ink and colors and motions of Chinese writing and painting brushes. Its

high quality feature makes it the best choice for formal Chinese calligraphy and painting artworks. Shuan Paper, if preserved

properly, can last at least 1,000 years.

Shuan Paper is the world famous paper noted for its resistance to aging and deterioration. The paper was first produced in Shuan

Zhou, Anhui Province. Later Shuan Paper became the generic term used for various Chinese calligraphy and painting paper, even

if the paper is produced outside Anhui Province. Shuan paper is soft and flexible and has just the right degree of absorbency for

Chinese brush-and-ink calligraphy and painting, so the art and the material complement each other superbly to produce optimal

results. The paper is available in different sizes, thicknesses, smoothness, and absorbency of water by being sized with different

amounts of alum. Some kinds of Shuan Paper contain a basket-weave pattern that can become visible and form part of the

texture with dry ink application.

Chinese ink brushes

Though similar to the brush used for watercolor painting in the West, it has a

finer tip suitable for dealing with a wide range of subjects and for producing

the variations in line required by different styles. Since the materials used for

calligraphy and painting are essentially the same, developments in

calligraphic styles and techniques can also be used in painting.

The ancients used the expression yu pi yu mo(to have brush, to have ink).

These show the significance of the meaning for the two terms pi(brush) and

mo(ink). The brush techniques so much emphasized in Chinese painting

include not only line drawing but also the stylized expressions of shade and

texture (cunfa) and the dotting methods(dianfa) used mainly to differentiate

trees and plants and also for simple embellishment. The brush strokes give

the painting rhythm and beauty and depict the subject's outward and inner qualities. At the same time, they reveal the

individuality and style of the painter himself.

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Chinese Ink

Ink has been used in calligraphy and painting for over two thousand

years. When the ink cake is ground on the painter's stone slab with

fresh water, ink of various consistencies can be prepared depending on

the amount of water used. Thick ink is very deep and glossy when

applied to paper or silk. Thin ink appears lively and translucent. As a

result, in ink-and-wash paintings it is possible to use ink alone to create

a rhythmic balance between brightness and darkness, and density and

lightness, and to create an impression of the subject's texture, weight

and coloring.

The red seals

Because the ink and wash painting prevails in Yuan dynasty, and it only has two colours -black and white- that seems

a little bit toneless. Then the red seal emerge because of demand. The red seal not just the mark of ownership, it

has become the essential constituent part of painting, playing a

role of enlivening the painting.

This was a major contribution made by scholar painters. Its significance

lies in its ability to express the theme and artistic conception of the

painting more clearly and deeply while, at the same time, giving great

insight into the artist's individuality, emotions and views on art and life.

In ink-and-wash paintings, the bright red seal adds a final touch of

beauty. When preparing the inscription and seal, therefore, the Chinese

painter, in addition to considering their content, has always given great

thought to the placement, length and dimensions of the inscription and the

position of the seal on the painting.

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The simplest inscription consists of the artist's name and the date. Sometimes the inscription could include the

occasion for the painting and the name of the person for whom the painting was done. It could be about the subject

and style of the painting. Quite often the artist might include a piece of poetry or a literary allusion. These are all

followed by the artist's own seal.

The seals can be carved in stone. It can contain a name, poetical saying, a design or symbol which has a connection

with the painting. The seals are pressed into a pot or tin of cinnebar paste, a scarlet red color, and are impressed

onto the painting. The paste contains mercuric oxide, ground silk and oils. It required a careful stamp as it is rather

permanent. When using red seal on a monochrome painting, it is said to be "adding the eye to the dragon".

Seal can be painter's, or appreciator's, or collector's. In this case Lu Peng’s seal is visible.

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Edition finished March 2014

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