Freehand Chinese Painting of Flowers and Birds focuses on the performance of the mind in the face of the natural state. Through the presentation of the vitality of objects, in between the raw and clumsy, smooth and unsmooth, taking and releasing, it is the key though also a difficulty to present the “mind”.

– Yu Yang

On September 22, 2015, planned by Associate Professor of CAFA, Director of the Department of Chinese Painting Research, curator Yu Yang, “From Universe to Mind – Contemporary Freehand Chinese Painting of Flowers and Birds Exhibition” opened at Rightview Art Museum in Liulichang area, the exhibition focuses on the inheritance and new development of the tradition of freehand Chinese Painting of Flowers and Birds in the context of contemporary creation, featuring the new creations by 7 artists including Yin Shuyu, Xu Dunping, Liu Haiyong, Li Yunlei, Li Xuesong, Zhou Wusheng and Cao Yuanping.

When the curator Yu Yang was interviewed by CAFA ART INFO, he said although the trend for freehand Chinese painting of flowers and birds had a regressed, which offered an opportunity for the development of contemporary freehand Chinese painting of flowers and birds, it also faced many difficulties, the most obvious example was a few freehand Chinese paintings of flowers and birds that had participated in current exhibitions, so it was obviously marginal. Perhaps it was because “freehand” lacked the narrative advantage. Though it was precisely this kind of freehand painting that represented the traditional spirit of Chinese painting and calligraphy, “Gaining the spirit and removing the form” was also the core spirit of Chinese painting pursued by Chinese painting. Yu Yang said, the exhibition was organized to reveal the evolution of history and the connection between the ancient and modern, he hoped that through this exhibition to inspire the academic teaching, and the transformation process from the traditional to the modern.

Rightview Art Museum is presently interested in this artistic phenomenon, when the Curator of Rightview Art Museum Sun Zhizhong was interviewed, he said Rightview Art Museum was committed to combing through various phenomenon in art that had formed in the 30 years of artistic development since 1985, the Chinese painting circle presents diverse styles, forms a series of good artists and art achievements and also accompanies a series of academic topics which can be deeply discussed, while freehand Chinese painting of flowers and birds was definitely one of them. Although it was marginal, facing a difficult situation of the mixture of elegant and vulgar, it could not be ignored, because everyone had a nostalgic feeling, only nostalgia maintained culture.

All the participating artists were born in the 1970s, are the influential and representative mainstream painters of Contemporary freehand Chinese paintings of flowers and birds in southern and northern China, they are both young, have strength and hold power; they are painters and teachers; they are practitioners of Chinese painting of flowers and birds, and the thinkers of contemporary Chinese painting. On the one hand, the exhibition gave consideration to both the north and south of China, and also the various freehand creating techniques, including freehand brushwork and the mixture of claborate-style painting and freehand, which reflects the cultural conscientiousness of the young and middle aged artists, and also the new extension and cultural value of the freehand Chinese painting of flowers and birds which is diverted from the traditional literati in the context of contemporary creation. The exhibition presents a variety of works with different forms, including the central scrolls, couplets, screens, short sketches, horizontal scrolls and the covering of a fan, using a specific, subtle classifying style of this elite group to display the art, to grasp the real and specific problem, presenting a typical section of contemporary Chinese painting.

After the opening ceremony of the exhibition, the seminar of “Contemporary Freehand Chinese Painting of Flowers and Birds in a New Traditional Context” was held at Rightview Art Museum, curator Yu Yang, Curator of the Art Museum of Beijing Fine Art Academy Wu Hongliang, Head of the Department of Curatorial Research of CAFA Art Museum Wang Chunchen, Research fellow of the Academic Research Center of the National Museum of China Zhu Wanzhang, Research fellow of the China National Academy of Painting Wang Ping, artists Li Wenliang and Wang Weixin, as well as the participating artists attended the seminar, for a discussion on many new and old problems of freehand Chinese painting of flowers and birds. Wu Hongliang paid close attention to the “tense” of the freehand Chinese painting of flowers and birds, he believed that this tradition was not far away and is never a thing of the past, since Qi Baishi, our mindset to deal with the freehand Chinese painting of flowers and birds did not change, and we can find new things with a calm state of mind. Wang Chunchen also thought that, there was lack of freehand Chinese painting of flowers and birds from the systems of the art museum and contemporary art, so we should adjust the mentality, because the attitude determined the identity.

The exhibition continues to October 15.

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

Photo by Rightview Art Museum