"minguo landscape"
new paintings and video by qiu anxiong
exhibition: march 28 to may 18, 2007
opening: march 27, tuesday, 18:00 to 20:00; the artist
will be present.
grace li gallery is pleased to present the first solo
exhibition of qiu anxiong in switzerland.
born in 1972 in shichuan province, china, qiu anxiong
represents a new generation of chinese artists. and
he is certainly one of the quickest rising stars among
his generation. like many contemporary chinese
artists, qiu"s oeuvre moves freely and smoothly from
painting to video, from photography to installation.
his recent sophisticated animation video works have
brought him into the spotlight.
qiu studied painting extensively in china and
germany. his work is deeply rooted in traditional
chinese values, philosophy and aesthetics. yet six
years of living in germany did contribute to his wide
horizon and deep thinking on the world between east
and west, past and present. in his recent animation
video, "in the sky" (2005), "fly to south"(2006), and
"the new book of mountain and sea" (2006, debuted at
shanghai biennial september 2006), qiu depicts various
issues of our contemporary world. he speaks of them
quietly but powerfully. qiu"s animation video works
are all made from his black and white oil on canvas
paintings. yet, he often intentionally paints them in
the style of chinese ink wash paintings. thus the
paintings are poetic, lyrical, often carry a
dream-like quality.
this exhibition at grace li gallery is dedicated to
qiu"s fourth animation video, "minguo landscape",
together with all the original paintings for the video
(all at the same size of 60x80cm), as well as some
larger size paintings in this theme. as many of them
qiu"s works, "minguo landscape" has the kind of
quietness and detachment, calm and timeless quality.
it is partly due to his adoption of chinese ink
painting style. the fact that all the paintings are
actually oil on canvas gives them a very fresh and
interesting visual appearance. they are well balanced
between floating and being controlled.
"minguo" is the chinese name for "republic of china".
it started in 1911, when qing dynasty ended and
"xinhai revolution" succeeded. it was a dramatic
historical turning point of china: it was the end of
the traditional china, the beginning of a modern
china. it ended in 1949, when mao took over china and
changed it to a communist country. during this time
in search for a better china, many idealistic young
people fought for their believes. the minguo period
was also an intense crossover of traditional chinese
culture and modern western civilization. it was a
wonderful time with a blooming culture scene in
literature, film and art; meanwhile an extremely
chaotic and difficult time especially with japanese
war and endless civil wars. it was a time both china
and its people were in searching of themselves and
their future. and today¡¯s china certainly shares
many similarities to this past period, although
today"s china is not suffering but prospering, with no
war but in peace.
qiu is fascinated with "minguo period". as he says,
his impression of "minguo" is just like the illusion
of the city and sea in the desert: clear, beautiful
yet illusive. with distance, it is easy for us to
beautify history. yet, qiu"s admiration to this time
is related to him as an idealist who admires purity.
this purity is evident in the old black and white
photography of the faces and expressions of those
"minguo people". with this admiration, he travels
back to this time and creates a narrative world for
us. we see poetic countryside landscape juxtaposed
with establishment of modern cities; animals such as
donkeys and horses as transportation tools side by
side with modern automobile and even helicopters; an
old shanghai-style record player with flower like
speaker touched by a hand surreally coming out of the
wall; troops in a long march in the beautiful mountain
landscape; soldiers, farmers, students gathering in
the city or country; sweet children playing or
practicing calligraphy; last living moments of the
godfather of modern china; little boats in village as
well as modern ships in the ocean; soldiers hidden on
the road ready to shoot... we find this world filled
with heaviness, romance, conflicts, humor and
absurdity. one notable work is a large canvas
(300x150cm) painting with a man standing in solitude
with a huge mountain rock and huge trees reaching into
the sky. he dresses in an old chinese long suit. he
looks forward very focused. he seems so small in
between the trees, rock and the sky. but yet, we feel
the power of this man of solitude as we feel his
vision, horizon, dream and determination in the way he
is looking forward. this painting reflects the artist
and his purpose in creating this series of work: it is
a journey of searching for oneself, and this soul
searching is done through the digestion of certain
period of history that is related to our present time
and world. as an individual, understanding this kind
of history does give one a more clarified direction of
future, both of oneself and our world. this might
also shows a clear departure of this younger
generation of chinese artists in term of their
artistic reasonability: this generation discusses
political issue in a way that is closer to themselves
as individuals. they are sincere and real.
in front of time and history, we are all small
individuals and everything is temporary. through
"minguo landscape", it is not the artist"s intention
to search for the truth of this period of history, but
his intention to make his audience experience the true
existence of his "minguo world". art does not need to
prove the truth; the existence of art itself is the
truth.
about artist qiu anxiong: born 1972, sichuan
province, china, lives and works in shanghai.
current solo exhibition: contemporary art museum of
tokyo, january 20 to april 1, 2007.
future exhibition:
2007
contemporary art center of south australia, australia
"animation painting", san diego museum of art
qiu anxiong"s art works have been exhibited
internationally in museums, institutions and biennials
such as:
"china power station part 1," battersea power
station, serpentine gallery, london, uk
37 seconds, bbc big screen public project (solo show),
liverpool, uk
version animee, 7th edition, the animation in
contemporary art
centre pours le image contemporaine, geneva,
switzerland
6th biennial shanghai, shanghai art museum
for further information and images, please contact
grace li gallery at
telephone: +41 44 289 5612 or mail@graceligallery.com.
grace li gallery is located at claridenstrasse 35,
8002 zurich, switzerland
gallery hours: monday to friday 11:00--18:00, saturday
12:00--16:00, or by appointment.
forthcoming exhibition: zheng guogu, may 25 to july
15, 2007.
grace li gallery will participate the volta show
during art basel june 2007.
