Looking back at the Jiangnan cultural context, "He Shaoji Linzhang Qian Stele Scroll" and other southern arts are exhibited

What does Gangnam art look like? Where is its spiritual core and artistic context? Recently, the first exhibition of the "Jiangnan Reconstruction" series, "Greetings: The Golden Age That Never Faded", opened at the Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts. The exhibition attempts to explore the aesthetic context and evolution since the Ming and Qing dynasties through painting, calligraphy, video, installation and other artistic methods around the dual "Jiangnan" in the geographical and cultural senses. Among them, there are works by Wu Li, He Shaoji, Ren Xuan, Wu Changshuo, Huang Binhong, Wang Yiting, Yan Wenliang, Ye Qianyu and other qing and modern figures, as well as works by artists such as Zhu Xinjian and Shang Yang.

Exhibition scene He Shaoji lin Zhang Qian monument long volume

Exhibition hall scene Fu Baoshi Zhou Jingxin Qiu Ting works

It is a cross-temporal and cross-media display. The Paper learned that "Greetings: The Golden Age That Never Faded" is the first exhibition of the "Jiangnan Reconstruction" series of exhibitions, and the organizers display more than 130 works from the middle and late Qing Dynasty, modern times to contemporary times, with the intention of presenting the transmutation of important art genres and artistic styles in the Jiangnan region in a broad sense through the cross-century art dialogue of representative artists of the "Golden Age" of art history, so as to explore the "contemporary reconstruction" of traditional Chinese cultural symbols and aesthetic temperament. At the same time, the convergence and ideological presentation of important works by many pioneers and founders of Chinese modern art such as Lin Fengmian, Liu Haisu, Xu Beihong, Pan Tianshou, Yan Wenliang and others will also trigger the audience's thinking on the development of Chinese art modernization.

Lin Fengmian "Fuqin Lady Figure" color ink rice paper 69x69cm circa 1960

Yan Wenliang", Landscape, oil on canvas, 59x44cm, 1950s

The Double "Gangnam" in Geography and Culture

Like any kind of prosperous regional culture, the rise of the "Jiangnan" region is also the result of large-scale cultural collision and reconstruction. From the end of the 16th century to the beginning of the 17th century, in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, there was a historical star-studded "painting school" controversy, the sense of geographical identity of the painter group reached its peak, and various schools and their branches emerged in an endless stream, blossoming everywhere on the jiangnan art map of the end of the 16th century in China. The theory of "Southern and Northern Sects" put forward by representative figures such as Dong Qichang transcends the discussion of painting ontology and enters the category of cultural comparison, which is also a propaganda and strategic writing of "Jiangnan".

Zou Yigui Shanshui Scroll on Paper 51.5x115.5cm Qing Qianlong Peng Zi Nian 1768

Xu Beihong, "Jiming Temple" and "Qixia Temple", oil on canvas, 69×60cm, 1930s

For the theme of the exhibition, "around the geographical significance and cultural sense of the double 'Jiangnan'", Zheng Wen, chief curator and deputy director of the Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts, explained that Jiangnan in the modern geographical sense mainly refers to the southern region of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, mainly including many famous cities and natural scenery in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui today. Most of the artists on the exhibition list were born and active in the area. The exhibition includes many works depicting the scenic spots of Jiangnan, such as Wu Li and Zou Yigui's landscapes, Xu Beihong's Nanjing", "Jiming Temple" and "Qixia Temple", Chen Yifei's "Jiangnan Water Town", Liu Haisu's Huangshan "Sea of Clouds", Zhu Shijie's "Night View of the Bridge", Qin Xuanfu's "Autumn Moon on Pinghu Lake" and "Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum", Zhou Chunya's "Huanxiu Mountain Villa", Zheng Li's "Home in Huanshan And Clear Water", Chen Qi's Yangzhou "He Garden", etc.

Liu Haisu "Huangshan Yunhai", 120x99cm oil on canvas

Chen Yifei, "Potala Palace", "Jiangnan Water Town", oil on canvas 100×150cm, 76.7x107cm, 2003

Qin Xuanfu's "Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum" oil on canvas, 60.5x50cm, 1960s

Zheng Li, "Home in the Mountains and Clear Waters", ink and coloring paper, 244 x 137cm, 2017

Chen Qi He Garden 304x224cm Ink on Paper, 2020

In a cultural sense, Jiangnan has a richer connotation. In the history of Chinese art with calligraphy and painting as the main line, Jiangnan in the Yuan Dynasty has a very important turning point. Shangcheng Dongyuan Juran, Zhao Mengfu, Huang Gongwang, Ni Zhan and other Yuan four families developed and laid a new paradigm of southern landscape painting. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, Jiangnan painting schools such as "Wumen" and "Zhejiang School" rose one after another, and the "Yige" ruler of Gao Yi's scholarly atmosphere and the scattered literati atmosphere in parallel gradually developed and matured, which had a profound impact on the art of later generations until today.

Huang Binhong, "Xiting Gossip", ink on paper, 110x44cm, 1955

In the exhibition, Huang Binhong's "Xiting Gossip" is the elegant afterglow of this artistic tradition, while Zhu Wei's "Imitation of the Eight Great Paintings of Deer", "Huang Gongwang" and "Shen Zhou" also greet the long tradition of Jiangnan art and inject the artist's contemporary understanding.

Zhu Wei Shen Zhou, Color on Paper, I59 × 39cm.2021

As for how to select the works to be exhibited, Zheng Wen said that the selection of works mainly starts from two aspects, "First, the creator's biography is closely related to the Jiangnan region, and has had a greater impact on art history and the art world." Second, the content, technique, spirit and temperament of the work itself have a relatively perfect expression of Jiangnan elements or Jiangnan culture. ”

Su Tianci "Xin Huang" oil on canvas 112x66.5cm

Landscape on canvas, 33x46cm, 1992

Guan Liang's Landscape, Watercolor on Paper, 35.5x26.5cm, 1943-44

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Chinese government during the Republic of China formulated a grand concept of modern urban planning, hoping to make Nanjing the Washington of the East. Chinese modern art also opened the initial movement of staying in the West and colliding with the East and the West, the first generation of modern art schools in China have risen, Lin Fengmian, Liu Haisu and other art pioneers have outlined the ideal of life "for art warfare" and the artistic blueprint of "integration of East and West" for the enlightenment of Modern Art for China.

Wu Zuoren, "Sculptor Wang Linyi", oil on canvas, 62.5x45.5cm, 1934

Among the figure paintings, the exhibition shows a number of oil paintings by the first Chinese painters who stayed in Europe, such as "The Portrait of Wang Linyi" painted by Wu Zuoren in the 1930s, which was also one of the first Chinese sculptors to stay in the West, and Li Luogong's "Shout" created in the 1960s. In addition, there is a portrait of the critic Li Xiaoshan painted by Mao Yan in 1992. These paintings, from different nodes before and after the twentieth century, witnessed different stages and styles of the development of Chinese oil painting, and also witnessed the deep connection between painters and depicted objects.

Li Luogong "Shouting" wood panel oil painting, 51x60.7cm, 1960s

The issue of revolutionary art and nationalization before and after the founding of New China, as Mr. Li Zehou said, "the dual variation of enlightenment and salvation" has become a strong voice of the times. The development of Chinese contemporary art in the past 40 years of reform and opening up has shown amazing explosiveness and creativity, showing a prosperous scene of both international art vocabulary and Chinese spirit. In the exhibition hall, contemporary art includes the digital art work "No Beginning, No End" by artist Miao Xiaochun, as a representative artist of China studying in Germany in the 1990s, this series of works also has an important place in the history of the development of China's new media art and digital art.

Xu Lei, "Qi and Bone- Yanshan Ming", silk, 104x195cm, 2013

Miao Xiaochun" "No Beginning, No End" 3D Computer Animation 11'15" 2011-2012

The spiritual core and artistic context of Jiangnan art

The "Jiangnan Reconstruction" art exhibition is not only the reproduction and revival of visual culture and material heritage, but also the most representative artistic style of each historical stage, reinterpreting "Jiangnan" from point to point, and pursuing its new transmutation method in the current era.

Li Li "Banana Goose" scroll on paper 117x56cm Qing Qianlong eleventh year 1746

The organizers said that the important spiritual core and artistic context of Jiangnan art, that is, the dual combination of "morale" and "literati". The creators of Jiangnan art are often not only simple painters or lyricists, but most of them have both a high-level scholarly temperament and profound literati cultivation, but also have the feeling of home and country that dare to be the first in the world, just like Wu Changshuo and Wang Yiting, one of the leaders of the Shanghai school of painting on display. Therefore, around the 20th century, the ups and downs of modern Chinese art were also closely related to Jiangnan. These have an important reference and enlightenment effect for contemporary Chinese and practitioners.

Wu Changshuo, "Peony Four Feet Hall", ink on paper, 136.5x66cm, 1918

Wang Yiting,Qunxian ZhuShou Tu on Paper Scroll, 171x74cm Republic of China, 1922

Taking the art of calligraphy as an example, the flourishing of the stele school of thought in the late Qing Dynasty is also a concentrated embodiment of the "ancient and modern controversy" in the field of calligraphy in modern Chinese thought. "The long scroll of He Shaoji's Pro Zhang Qianbei on display is also an extremely precious work, introduced by Wang Yu Changzhangcao as 'Rong Qin Zhu Han', and the last time it was publicly published was in Shanghai thirty years ago. Lin Sanzhi's cursive book "Du MuShi Jiangnan Chun", Wang Dongling's Su Shi "After Drinking the First Sunshine on the Lake" and "Wei Mo Jie Jing", Liang Shaoji's video work "Stele" and other works have made wonderful responses to classic questions about calligraphy in a cross-century manner. Zheng Wen said.

Lin Sanzhi Cursive "Du Mu Shi Jiangnan Chun" 100x48cm

Liang Shaoji's "Stele" three-screen image 12 meters long 2008-2014

From the "Wumen School" to the "Eight Monsters of Yangzhou", "Jinling School" to the "Maritime School", "The Theory of The Southern and Northern Sects" to the "New Literati Painting", is it "distinguishing between East and West" or "reconciling East and West", "going to the public" or "Thick Huazi"? "Jiangnan" has both the style and bone style of traditional Chinese scholars, and also has the spirit of advancing with the times.

Dong Wensheng, "Duanmu Bookcase", Hanemler barium sulfide acid-free paper printing, 91x71.5cm, 2010

Shen Qin Ink Village 139x314.5cm Ink on Paper Ink on Paper 2015

It is reported that after that, the Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts will plan exhibitions such as "Variations: Youth Art in the New Millennium", focusing on the present and the future, and the main body of the exhibition is composed of a new generation of Jiangnan artists born and raised since the reform and opening up, who are rooted in the background of the era of globalization and informatization, creating a new art form and art ecology that is in dialogue with the world - as well as the appearance of "Jiangnan" art in the new millennium.

The exhibition will be on view until April 20, 2022.