Hand-written script On the Road by Bei Dao and the corresponding print made by Guang Jun

Red Gate Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of River on Paper - Dialogue between Poetry and Prints on November 9, 2013.

Curated by Norway-based Chinese artist Zeng Zhiqian, Central Academy of Fine Arts Professor Zhou Jirong and Xi An Academy of Fine Arts Professor Yang Qian, Paper on River was first conceived in 2010. After 3 years of preparation it is finally realized. The exhibition gathers together ten poets and ten print-making artists. Each artist created one work based on one poem of the poets. In the exhibition ten prints will be juxtaposed with the ten hand-written scripts of the poems.

It is often said that Chinese poetry and painting have the same origin. In the past, there have been many examples of poems that are inspired by paintings or paintings that are based on poems. Over the time, poetry and paintings have developed an intertextual relationship in which they inspire and reflect on each other. As a result “painting-like and poetic” has became an aesthetic criteria transcending the mediums.

As for print-making, it was developed with printing, and has a close relationship with text from the very beginning. In its early development, prints are designed to visualize or complement the text, therefore for a long time prints were the same as illustrations. The intervention of photography has liberated prints from its original function to a large degree, and print-making has become an recognised art form. As a result, it also relinquished text in the process.

Prints and text stem from the same river, and in this exhibition we have invited ten poets and ten artists to once again step into that river.

River on Paper is on view until November 24, 2013. A proportion of the sales from this exhibition will be donated to the Philip Hayden Foundation which Red Gate and the art community has supported for many years.

 About the exhibition

Curators: Zeng Qianzhi, Zhou Jirong, Yang Feng

Participating poets and the corresponding artists

Poet Artist

Bei Dao & Guang Jun

Chun Shu & Kang Jianfei

Lv Yue & Shang Changrong

Shen Haobo & Wang Jiazeng

Wu Ang & Liu Chunjie

Xi Chuan & Zhou Jirong

Yang Lian & Yang Feng

Zhai Yongming & Kou Jianghui

Zhou Yunpeng & Kong Guoqiao

Xiao Kuan & Zeng Qianzhi

Opening Time: Mon-Sun 9:00am-5:00pm

Tel: 010-65251005

Add: The Dongbianmen Watchtower, Chongwenmen, Beijing

Courtesy of the artists and Red Gate Gallery.