On October 20, 2017, sponsored by the National Art Museum of China, “NAMOC Invitational Academic Exhibition Series” – “The Light of Chaos – Art Exhibition of Liu Jude”, “Seeking Back to Nature – Zhong Shuheng’s Exhibition of Painting”, “Paint as I Wish – Dai Shihe’s Freehand Oil Painting Exhibition 2017” opened at the National Art Museum of China at the same time. The three exhibitions are part of “China Arts Foundation Sponsored Projects”, which is supported by the Pan-Sea Public Welfare Foundation and the China Arts and Culture Foundation. These exhibitions mainly present the recent creative states of Liu Jude, Zhong Shuheng and Dai Shihe, and also reveal the endless vitality of Chinese culture by the exhibitions. Through the exhibitions, we can see that the creations of three artists also inject their profound experiences of the self, people, time, life, and all things into it, to express a strong sense of life and the grand atmosphere of the spirit of the times, while looking back at the traditional cultural spirit.

Liu Jude, Zhong Shuheng and Dai Shihe have studied in their own art fields for decades and have formed their own artistic styles, as well as teaching at the colleges, thus influencing a large number of younger generations of artists. The three exhibitions are on show at the National Art Museum of China, and has attracted great attention by the art circles, Fan Di’an, President of CAFA, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech, he gave a detailed introduction to the succession of relationships and artistic origins of the three artists. In addition, he also mentioned that the three artists had adhered to the cultural position of China, while choosing and absorbing foreign art, adhering to the right academic system and the long-term as well as consciously feeling about the times, feeling the community, facing life, entering nature, although their works have different themes, different faces, they all draw on the development & progress of Chinese society, the vicissitudes of the times, especially the spirit of our nation in the era of reform and opening up.

Liu Jude is a Mongolian who was born in Wulanchabu League, Inner Mongolia in 1946. He graduated from the Central Academy of Craft Art in 1970, and he was then the art editor of the Yunnan Fine Arts Publishing House in 1973. He became a postgraduate student of Prof. Pang Xunqin in 1978, studied both the traditional Chinese decorative art and western modern art, and then he taught in the school after graduation, he was a former Vice President of the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, and now he is a professor, doctoral tutor from the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, concurrently a member of the council of the China Artists Association.

“The Light of Chaos – Art Exhibition of Liu Jude” is on shown at Hall 1, 8, 9 on the ground floor, showcases more than 100 pieces created by Liu Jude in recent years. The images of Liu Jude’s works such as characters, plants and the horses galloping, are unrestrained, both continuing with the roots of traditional art and the pedigree of modern art, while the schema constructed by the screen has a modernity of Chinese culture.

Prof. Shao Dazhen commented that Liu Jude considered the painting of art in the universe, and his works refuse to be pursued as aesthetic, but strive through the use of formal language to reflect a certain philosophical and mysterious meaning, he placed his ideas clearly in the powerful and beautiful formal language. It features the large-scale work of the “Light of Life” which was recently completed by Liu Jude, which is up to 27 meters in length & 2.49 meters wide, and many critics believe that the work compares favorably with Picasso’s “Guernica” in the size and performance of language.

Zhong Shuheng is a Manchu, born in Liaoning in 1946. Zhong graduated from the High School Affiliated to the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1965, and graduated from the Central Academy of Craft Art in 1970, and then she taught in the Department of Arts, Yunnan Normal University in Kunming, from 1973 to 1979. She was admitted to the Central Academy of Craft Art in 1979, as a postgraduate student of Prof. Wu Guanzhong, and taught in the school after graduation, now she is a professor of the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University. “Seeking Back to Nature – Zhong Shuheng’s Exhibition of Painting” is on show at Hall 7 on the ground floor, featuring more than 50 representative creations. As the only postgraduate of Wu Guanzhong, Zhong Shuheng has a very deep study in color and performance. Zhong Shuheng has been devoted to observing nature, and turning her mental experiences to visual forms, which is also the meaning of the exhibition theme of “Seeking Back to Nature”. It condenses the forms of her works in the instantly flashing light color and the accidental germinated images, seeing the truth in the simple, refracting the rational light in the sensibility. Wu Weishan reviews that her paintings emerge through the interaction between the colors and lines to fix the time, so that people touch the thickness of the layers, feeling the swimming of lines, while the beauty of rhyme corresponds to the form of abstract, highlighting the spiritual power in the contrast between the thickness and elegance.

Dai Shihe was born in Beijing in 1948. He graduated from Beijing Normal University and the postgraduate class of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. In 1988, he was a senior visiting scholar who studied at the Repin Academy of Fine Arts. He was a former Dean of the School of Plastic Arts, the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Now he is a professor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, a member of the Oil Painting Art Committee at the China Artists Association, a member of the council of the Chinese Oil Painting Society, Chairman of the Chinese Mural Society. “Paint as I Wish – Dai Shihe’s Freehand Oil Painting Exhibition 2017” is on display from the Hall 13 to Hall 17 on the 3rd floor at the National Art Museum of China and features more than 100 works, sketched and created by Dai Shihe in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang’s coastal and Bohai Bay, as well as in the provinces of the northwest and central China, covering a variety of types including characters, landscapes and scenes, three-dimensionally rendering the new performance of the exploration in the direction of sketching and freehand. Fan Di’an named it “Paint as I Wish”, and using freehand to summarize his exploration of oil painting, considering that Dai Shihe’s creative way combines the “freehand” spirit of Chinese painting with the expression of oil painting, rewriting the feelings and the mood for leisure, when he faced with natural objects, portraying and shaping the situation and vitality of “l(fā)ife”. His purpose is not to draw a stylized “freehand oil painting”, but to use oil painting language to “write” an unique artistic conception of each piece.

The three exhibitions are part of the “NAMOC Invitational Academic Exhibition Series”, Wu Weishan, Director of the National Art Museum of China, addressed the opening ceremony and talked about the fact that the exhibition emphasized the academic nature, while the academic innovation was rooted in tradition, so that, it invited the artists who pursued both professional excellence and moral integrity, with a unique appearance & style in the contemporary art creation & current art teaching. At the opening ceremony, Liu Jude, Zhong Shuheng and Dai Shihe donated their masterpieces to the National Art Museum of China for free. Among them, Liu Jude donated 10 works, namely “The Light of Life”, “Hometown”, “A Barren Grass Slope”, “A Yellow Grass Beach”, “Spring of Clip” (quadruple paintings), “Yellow Land” (quadruple paintings), “Plateau Road” (triple paintings). Zhong Shuheng donated three representative works, namely “Crops”, “Christmas Card”, and “Sunflowers”. Dai Shihe donated two works, namely “Farewell, the Sea” (five paintings), and “Malacca Alley”. Three exhibitions remain on view till October 29.

Text and photo by Zhang Wenzhi, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

(Part of photos courtesy of the National Art Museum of China)