Everything is happy without heart, and people cannot be idle unless they have quality. On the second floor of the Jiushi Art Center, "Alone and Quiet - Exhibition of Works by Zhou Ying and Zhou Zhizhen" is on display. The exhibition unfolds from the most ordinary aspects of daily life such as clothing, food, housing, and transportation, revealing to the audience the daily life of these two Chinese painters who integrate ancient and modern China and the West.
This exhibition is a joint exhibition of Zhou Ying and Zhou Zhizhen's father and daughter. In the exhibition, Zhou's father and daughter show the audience the works of recent years, including paintings, calligraphy works, photography, personal collections, stationery supplies, etc. Among the works, there are both ancient paintings such as "Trick Painting", as well as works full of modern daily interest, such as "Eat More Meat and Drink Less Porridge" and "The Feast Menu of the Spider Zhai Family".
Happy day with happy wine and food
The exhibition restores the unique "lifestyle" of Jie Spider Zhai where Zhou Ying and Zhou Zhizhen are located, and the influence of this way of life on artistic creation. In the hustle and bustle, the dazzling but orderly knotted spiders are a bit like a paradise, and the father and daughter are "alone and quiet" in it, leisurely depicting the art in their hearts.
Year Chaotu, Zhou Ying, Zhou Zhizhen, 48.5x72cm, color on paper, 2020
Zhou Ying brings the pursuit of art into the pursuit of the taste of daily life. "I use my stuff, not to put it around." He likes to keep all his collectible and playful things within reach and reach.
"There is a saying in the Shanghai dialect called 'dojo in the shell of a snail'. This sentence is quite appropriate to describe me, because the home is already full of books and albums and various utensils. Zhou Ying said, "But painting is a way of life for me, how can it be separated from life and living?" ”
Eat more meat and drink less porridge, Zhou Ying, 35x45cm, color on paper, 2020
For more than 20 years, every year Zhou Ying will arrange a long-distance trip for more than a month. Six or seven years ago, Zhou Ying saw a Renaissance HOLBEIN work at the National Gallery in London. At the bottom right of the painting there is a graphic that is not easy to see. "It's interesting to see the concrete shape only when you change perspectives. Many years later, when I was creating the "Changing Map of the Medicine Man's Sutra", I suddenly thought of this picture in my mind, and I presented it in my own expression. "Interested friends can observe what the Medicine Buddha is stepping on and what the meaning is in the fifth chapter of the exhibition, 'Letter'." ”
In Zhou Ying's view, art is not divided into East and West, "just like chinese Ming Dynasty prints spread to Japan to produce ukiyo-e, and after Japanese ukiyo-e spread to Europe, it was influenced by impressionist paintings, and art has no borders." ”
Jie Spider Zhai Family Feast Menu, Zhou Ying, Color on Paper, 2020
Unlike many painters, Zhou Ying never sketches when she goes out. "Just to feel. The stronger the feeling, the deeper the memory. The atmosphere of the work is actually influenced by emotions, which is the accumulation of bits and pieces in the usual time, and it will naturally flow when the time comes. Only when you have a deep feeling for what you see can you form a unique insight and thus produce a special perspective. ”
Zhou Yingjing is good at painting various subjects, and so is her daughter Zhou Zhizhen. Bai Ru, curator of this exhibition and deputy director of the Joint Studio of Aesthetic Education Teaching at shanghai university and shanghai academy of fine arts, met Zhou Ying and Zhou Zhizhen's father and daughter from the beginning of their works. At an auction preview of many modern and contemporary masterpieces, the techniques and lofty artistic conceptions of the father and daughter's works impressed Bai Ru and wrote down the name of the painter.
Trick Drawing, Zhou Zhizhen, 37x155cm, Color on Paper, 2019
Later, due to fate, Bai Ru became a regular visitor to the Spider Festival. "At this time, every visit is no longer just to see the paintings, but because this side seems to be small but arranged in the Zhou's living room, everywhere exudes a rare leisure and deep Chinese life culture." Bai Ru said, "This kind of Chinese life is not a past tense or closed and unchanging in books, but a new life, full of vitality, belonging to the daily life of the current era." Just as the so-called extravagance diet, shang clothing, camp room, taste fresh fruit, taste good tea, smell strange incense, raise spirit pets, swim in landscapes, play antiques, talk about engraving, appreciate calligraphy and painting, study rhythm, prepare everything, and be proficient in everything. Life is like this, and so is the work. ”
Tie the spider fast
Because of nature, this exhibition also hopes to present a kind of nature derived from life as much as possible. The exhibition is on view until 3 January 2021.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Li Junna Text Editor: Li Junna Photo Editor: Shao Jing
Source: Author: Junna Li