"Pure Views": Curator Lü Peng on the Louise Blouin Foundation's Show of Contemporary Chinese Painting
By Coline Milliard, ARTINFO UK
Published: October 12, 2010
LONDON— This week, the Louise Blouin Foundation in London is opening a major survey of contemporary Chinese painting. Curated by professor Lü Peng from Hangzhou’s China Art Academy, "Pure Views: New Painting From China" gathers more than 80 pieces by both established and emerging artists from the country. All the works are available for sale and a percentage of the profit will be donated to the Louise Blouin Foundation to contribute to the foundation’s promotion of cultural dialogue. Just off the plane, Peng spoke with ARTINFO UK about recent developments in Chinese art, as well as the importance of global exchange.
The exhibition borrows its title from an artwork by painter Xia Gui. What is this piece about and how does it encapsulate some of the artistic concerns or tendencies present in the show?
I borrowed the title "Pure Views" from an artwork by Song Dynasty painter Xia Gui to suggest that Chinese contemporary art should pay more attention to Chinese traditional civilization. In the past three decades, when the use of Chinese history and traditional resources needed to be balanced, we witnessed a new phenomenon among many Chinese artists. While Western modernism inspired those born in the 1980s, and Western postmodernism inspired those born in the 1990s, there appeared artists who favored the traditional Chinese art concepts and styles. After the turn of the new millennium, we could accept this transitional period as a time marked by artists starting to master their historical resources. We gradually became aware that a new contemporary Chinese art was coming about through the combination of resources extracted from traditional art and the artists' perceptions of contemporary society.
"Pure Views" brings together artists from different generations. Besides their shared nationality, how do they relate to each other?
Nationality is indeed influential and when you see the works, you will find that even though the artists come from different generations, they have one thing in common: their desire to understand the past based on a "contemporary vision" and their use of painting materials that differ from traditional ones. These artists retain traditional Chinese values and the temperament of traditional civilization, but they show this in a contemporary way.
As a professor at the China Art Academy in Hangzhou, what is the most striking aspect of work by artists trained in China?
At the China Art Academy, our method for arts education is becoming more and more open. Professors give students space to learn and practice independently. It is difficult to find overly rigid teaching methods right now. The choice of styles and methods is up to the students and what they want to do after graduation; it is no longer just coming from the professor. At the academy, the important part is providing an academic atmosphere and resources. With the combination of academic atmosphere and social climate, the great artist learns from what he or she sees and creates art.
You have talked about the long tradition of landscape painting in Chinese art. How does it differ from the landscape tradition in the West?
That is an art history question. In my essay, I discuss the different understanding of nature in China versus the West. In Kenneth Clark’s "Landscape into Art," he examined how artists look at the landscape and observe it individually. But in the ancient Chinese tradition, the human being is part of the landscape, so that the two are inseparable and are depicted as parts of the same thing. In traditional Chinese painting, we often see nature depicted as wide and endless. The Chinese more often use the phrase Shan Shui (Mountain and Water) as a term for "landscape."
In that essay, you also talk about "the thread of spiritual connection to tradition" in China. How is the attachment to tradition first and foremost spiritual?
Fundamentally, this relates to the growth of a plant — if we compare the forest in the West to the Chinese forest, there is a difference in both the look and the feel of the plants. The reason is very simple, they absorb different water, earth, air, and sun. In this way, we can see the regions of the world are different and landscapes are different. When you climb the Yellow Mountain, you can never compare its scenery with the Alps. Though they are both mountains, they differ in spirit. When a Chinese person from Malaysia and a Chinese person from mainland China stand next to each other, you can tell the difference. Indeed, they have different background, experience, and knowledge.
This exhibition at the Louise Blouin Foundation is an opportunity for the British public to discover work by contemporary Chinese painters. Do you think that there is still insufficient understanding of Chinese art in the West?
I think that because we are living in a globalized time, communication is making the world flat. But difference remains absolute: it is the cultural difference between countries that leads to richness of life and a necessity for exchange. We are planning a series of new Chinese contemporary art exhibitions to be shown in various countries. This will say to the public, "Chinese contemporary art is transforming." For Chinese contemporary art, a new age comes now — it is the new age for artists to comprehend and use their own civilization. Chinese contemporary artists will digest their visual art history completely, thoroughly, and with choice. They will use different ingredients and add to their own artistic creations.
