On January 15th, the "Road to the Peak - Exploration and Research Exhibition on The FreehandNess of Contemporary Chinese Painting" opened at the Guangzhou Museum of Art, which was sponsored by the Guangzhou Museum of Art and China Art News, co-organized by Guangdong Yirun Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd., and hosted by the Art Center of China Art News. As the final exhibition of the 2021 "Road to the Peak" series, it takes "freehand" as the research aspect, trying to explore and present the different generational characteristics of "freehand" in the 20th century from the 30s to the 70s. Different from the previous "Peak Road" series of exhibitions in Beijing, this exhibition presents the exploration and experiment of "brush and ink" and "freehand" in Chinese painting as a whole through more than 220 works by 75 artists.
"The Road to The Peak - An Exhibition of Freehand Exploration and Research on Contemporary Chinese Painting" was exhibited at the Guangzhou Museum of Art.
"Peak Road" is an important exhibition brand activity launched by China Art Daily, the purpose of which is to explore the development of Chinese painting from an academic point of view of the current situation of "plateau" and lack of "peak" in artistic creation. The exhibition first starts from different painting disciplines of landscapes, flowers, birds and figures, and then presents the freehand thinking of artists of different ages on Chinese painting in the way of the painters, trying to present the exploration path of contemporary Chinese painting towards the "peak".
The exhibition presents the freehand reflections of artists of different ages on Chinese painting in the way of the painters.
The 2021 "Peak Road" series of exhibitions focuses on the exploration of freehand, and Shang Hui, the academic host of the exhibition, the director of the Art Theory Committee of the China Artists Association, and the president and editor-in-chief of Fine Arts Magazine, introduced that "freehand" is the basic feature of Chinese painting, and even the essential feature, which does not need more discussion. However, the so-called "freehand" of Chinese painting today points to the concept opposite to the "realism" of Western painting, that is, all non-realistic paintings may be regarded as freehand. This makes some contemporary painters only understand the "freehandness" of Chinese painting as a kind of pan-calligraphic brush feature, misinterpret "freehandness" as "sloppiness", and understand "wantonness" as "arbitrary", believing that this is a manifestation of true temperament, but traditional literati are against sloppiness. In Shang Hui's view: "The reason why we talk about the topic of freehand today is because we have lost freehand, which requires us to discuss what Chinese freehand is through the discussion of the problem, so that we can absorb the nutrients of foreign art and at the same time be able to inherit and carry forward the traditions of the Chinese nation." ”
The exhibition covers different paintings such as landscapes, flowers and birds, and figures.
From the perspective of exhibition planning and specific implementation, the combination of video and exhibition is a major feature of this series of exhibitions. According to Wang Ping, president and editor-in-chief of China Art News, in the previous "Peak Road" series of exhibitions, China Art News carried out a number of live broadcasts on "Exploration of Contemporary Chinese Painting Freehand", and invited experts and scholars to conduct in-depth analysis of the exhibited works, in addition to inviting participating artists to discuss pen and ink through video, combined with the vivid exhibition scene, let the audience deeply feel the artists' practice and thinking on the freehandness of Chinese painting. During the "Peak Road" exhibition of the Guangzhou Museum of Art, China Art News invited participating artists and experts and scholars to conduct exhibition tours and "blessings" to guide the audience's understanding of Chinese painting.
At the exhibition site, the audience is carefully observing the works of famous artists.
The exhibited works in this exhibition not only let us see the vivid play of the older generation of Chinese painters on freehand, but also show the expansion and enrichment of freehand by young and middle-aged artists, which is quite contemporary. At the same time, their exploration also provides a benchmark and development direction for the younger generation of painters.
The exploration of freehand is a core issue in the contemporary creation of Chinese painting. How to dissolve "pen and ink" into the "freehandness" used at present to carry out broader intervention and integration is the purpose and meaning of the exhibition.
The exhibition will run until February 7.
Writing/Photography: Nandu reporter Zhou Peiwen intern Chen Yue