On February 20, 2014, Shen Xinggong’s large solo exhibition “Andante Cantabile – Shen Xinggong Oil Painting Exhibition” was grandly inaugurated at the National Art Museum of China, the exhibition is jointly sponsored by the China Artists Association, China Oil Painting Society, National Art Museum of China, Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Department, Jiangsu Provincial Federation of Literature and Art Circles, and Nanjing University of the Arts, showcasing more than 100 oil paintings by Shen Xinggong, with the use of brush strokes in oil painting, the color that is a poetic performance and an elegant landscape of Jiangnan.

The exhibition opening ceremony was presided over by Zou Jianping, President of Nanjing University of the Arts, Mi Ruqun, Party Committee Secretary of Nanjing University of the Arts, Zhan Jianjun, Professor of CAFA and Honorary President of China Oil Painting Society, Zhang Jianhua, Vice Minister of Jiangsu Provincial Propaganda Department, Party Secretary of Provincial Federation of Literature and Art Circles respectively addressed at the opening ceremony. During the exhibition, Shen Xinggong will also donate two of his classic works to the National Art Museum of China.

Shen Xinggong is an oil painter and art educator who greatly influences contemporary Chinese art circles. Shen Xinggong born in Ningbo in Zhejiang Province in 1943, graduated from the Department of Fine Arts in the Nanjing University of the Arts in 1966, and graduated from the Department of Fine Arts in the Nanjing University of the Arts, majored in Oil Painting in 1981, being one of the first batch of postgraduates in the early stage of reform and opening up, directed by the oil painting master Su Tianci, and then taught in the school after graduation, he was once the Vice President of the Nanjing University of the Arts, currently he is an executive member of the council of China Oil Painting Society, Honorary President of Jiangsu Provincial Oil Painting Society, Professor of the Nanjing University of the Arts.

As he lives in Jiangnan, and was influenced by master Su Tianci and his predecessors such as Lin Fengmian, Liu Haisu, Shen Xinggong he chose the landscape and people of Jiangnan to be the key creative themes, his “Image Jiangnan” is neither the simple imitation and transplantation of western impressionism, nor through simplifying the color deliberately pursues the ink effect of Chinese painting, but he fully used the purity, hue of color and contrast between the warmth and cold of colors, to realize the synergy of colors in a painting. Art critic Shui Zhongtian said, it was an important contribution from Shen Xinggong in the creation of painting. “On the basis of the artistic expression of oil painting, he showcased culture and restraint, gentle, elegant and bright Jiangnan, and gave a silent and profound quality to the landscape and objects of Jiangnan, tasting the plain performance of local people and land, and also showcasing the gorgeous Jiangnan.

Exhibition curator Shang Hui believed, Shen Xinggong’s painting of Jiangnan landscape revealed that contemporary oil painting explored the oil painting language from a local cultural perspective. Su Tianci once had a review of Shen Xinggong’s oil painting: “It seems that brush strokes are separated from the shape, color layers mutually penetrate each other, lines floating, he paints boldly, using a calm state of oriental connotation to dissolve the rigorous law from the West, to transform visual expression to the artistic concept of the mind.”

Most of the works are created by Shen Xinggong in recent years, as well as the representative works of the 1970s and 1980s, that showcase the exploring footprints of Shen Xinggong in each period, better reflecting the leisurely, rich, and deep academic character of the senior academic artist. The participating works collectively embody the artist changed from realism to freehand, the emotional style which shifted from focusing on the plot, as well as the change from creating the concept.

The exhibition will last until March 2, 2014.

Text by Zhang Wenzhi, Photo: Hu Zhiheng, Zhu Li/CAFA ART INFO

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO