Lin Rongsheng, Fang Xiang, Qiu Ting are 3 successful and influential artists of contemporary Chinese ink painting, they clearly understand the mission of development of traditional Chinese ink painting, always keeping the ideal to improve the academic level in the long-term exploration, on the one hand, accumulation of the experience of brush and ink, on the other hand, moving towards nature, the perception of nature in life, so they have a more concentrated theme for expression, constant purification and sublimation of the language of brush and ink. The 3 artists have their own different styles, but all focus on the mutual contemplation between the existence of nature and the humanistic implication, embodying the feelings of history and time with the portrayal of landscape, expressing their poetic feelings of contemporary artists, revealing an humanistic, spiritual artistic conception. It does not matter if it is modern cities or garden landscapes, village houses, their work is a mental “homeland”.

The 3 painters all moved to the North from the South, brought with them the change of regional cultures and arts. The culture of the North and South internally and organically influences the artists rather than the impact on the surface, so the display of their work shows the latest new works that will help us appreciate their exquisite skills, and understand the relationship between the overall contemporary cultural situation and their exploration of art. In this sense, the National Center for the Performing Arts offers a new academic platform.

At 2:30 pm on May 27, 2015, hosted by the National Center for the Performing Arts, “South & North – the Exhibition of Landscape Paintings by Lin Rongsheng, Fang Xiang, Qiu Ting” was unveiled at the National Center for the Performing Arts. Fan Di’an served as the Academic Director of the exhibition, Yue Jieqiong serves as the curator. The landscape painting is the continuation of the theme of the “South & North: Portraitures” which was held in the National Center for the Performing Arts in March 2014, featuring the latest works by the three known contemporary landscape painters Lin Rongsheng, Fang Xiang, Qiu Ting. Within this the exhibition presents more than 40 works by Lin Rongsheng, who first presented the largest number of works since he settled in Beijing, including “Harbor”, “Spring Rain”, “Sketch of Hongyang” series, “Sketch of Liangtian” series, “Sketch of Guilin Town of the North of Fujian Province” series, etc. Fang Xiang presents “Kowloon Tong Street”, “Happiness Rain”, “Sea Wind”, “Morning Reading in the South Park”, as well as the long scroll painting “The Tour to Europe”, which was created in 2012. Qiu Ting presents the “Cold Mountains with Old Cypress”, “Cloud Mountain Garden”, “Lake Villa in The Comfortable Early Summer”, “Dawn of Lijiang River”, and “Spring Garden”, while “Spring Garden” is the biggest exhibited work of the show.

At 2:30 pm, the opening ceremony was chaired by Ms. An Yuanyuan, Deputy Director of the National Art Museum of China, Fan Di’an, President of CAFA, Wang Zhengming, Deputy Director of the National Center for the Performing Arts, artist Lin Rongsheng, and curator Yue Jieqiong successively gave a speech. In addition, honored guests Zuo Zhongyi, Wang Lanming, Wang Yamin, Xu Li, Liu Yuxiao, Zhang Lichen, Wang Yong, Wang Yingsheng, Yu Guanghua,Li Yang, Yu Ding, Zhang Yanzi, Li Jianqun, Zhang Peng, Yu Yang, Wang Zhichun, Wu Hongliang, Du Pengfei, Zhang Jigang, Tang Keyang attended the opening ceremony.

As the Academic Director of the two sessions of “South & North”, Fan Di’an talked about the important artistic features of the three artists: first of all, Lin Rongsheng, Fang Xiang and Qiu Ting were all from the south, and they gradually made a social influence, at the same time their artistic skills and artistic quality were increasingly recognized; Secondly, the three artists carefully explored Chinese ink painting and were committed to the contemporary development of Chinese art and the academic study of Chinese painting since they arrived in Beijing and made the language more clear and explicit, reflecting the distinctive academic responsibility. In addition, the three artists returned to the soil of the South from time to time, combining the feeling of nature and the times and mixed the pursuit of culture with new recollections, to form an individual featured artistic style.

Artist Lin Rongsheng gave a speech on behalf of the three artists. Lin Rongsheng’s work is based on the traditional “big landscape” structure, highlighting the “immersive” feeling, using the rich layers and generalized brushwork to build a pastoral landscape “where the viewer can travel and live”.

Critic Yin Shuangxi once commented that Lin Rongsheng was an artist rich in poetic temperament, preferring to write some poetic inscriptions and poems in his paintings, like Chinese Buddhist hymns and Haiku, a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, with a simple philosophical meaning that immediately penetrates the thing and reaches a clarifying realm.

Painter Tian Liming reviewed Fang Xiang stating that he was an outstanding contemporary Chinese painter, his painting was the combination of the spirit and the times and presents the imagery of urban landscape, formed a new language and style by using Chinese painting to express urban scenes.

Fan Di’an once commented that Qiu Ting, who had graduated from the China Academy of Art, was the representative of the artists who had been involved in deep research and sentiment on the “Art and Studies of Chinese Ancient Civilization”, which helped him develop a mind that yearns for transcendence and lofty realms, in the pursuit of the ancient soul and spiritual implication. In the practice of art, he increasingly kept away from the bustle of the trend, instead he moved toward his inner world, to maintain a pure and quiet existence.

At the end of the opening ceremony, the curator Yue Jieqiong gave a speech and she hoped the following “South & North” series exhibition would combine a variety of forms including the display of works, stage arts, performing arts, etc., so that the “South & North” series exhibition would become the exchange platform for the integration of diverse cultural and artistic exchanges.

About the artists:

Lin Rongsheng was born in Fuzhou, Fujian province in July 1958, graduated from the Department of Fine Arts at Fujian Normal University. Currently he is a researcher and a full-time painter of the Academy of Traditional Chinese Painting at China National Academy of Painting, Distinguished Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of Fujian Normal University, Dean of Fujian Academy of Traditional Chinese Painting. Member of the China Artists Association, China Calligraphers Association, Standing Director of Chinese Gong-bi Painting Association, Director of the Chinese Painting Society.

Fang Xiang was born in Shantou City, Guangdong Province in 1967, graduated from the Department of Traditional Chinese Painting at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 1988. A painter of the Academy of Chinese Painting affiliated to the Chinese National Academy of Arts, first-class painter, member of China Artists Association, Director of the Chinese Painting Society.

Qiu Ting was born in Guangdong in January 1971. He graduated from the Department of Chinese Painting at the China Academy of Art, majored in Landscape Painting, with a bachelor’s degree, from September 1992 to July 1996, and received a master’s degree from September 1997 to July 2000; graduated from the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, with a doctor’s degree, from September 2000 to January 2004; since 2004 to today, he has taught at CAFA as an associate professor. His works have been invited to attend a variety of exhibitions at home and abroadand collected by many art organizations.

About the exhibition

Curator: Yue Jieqiong

Opening reception: 14:30, May 27, 2015

Duration: May 27 – June 10, 2015

Venue: East Exhibition Hall, National Center for the Performing Arts

Host: National Center for the Performing Arts

Artists: Lin Rongsheng, Fang Xiang, Qiu Ting

Courtesy of the artists, text by Yu Ya, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Photo by Yang Yanyuan, Xu Fan/CAFA ART INFO