So much attention is paid to contemporary art in China that I thought it might be a good idea to highlight two exhibitions, on opposite sides of the country, that focus on modern, but historical Chinese art.
Since Oct. 30, the Denver Museum of Art has been showcasing the work of Xu Beihong (1895-1953). His name may not ring a bell, but it should. The Denver museum calls Xu “the father of modern Chinese painting.” Xu, who was one of the first Chinese artists to study in Europe — Paris, in his case — was an advocate for incorporating Western techniques into traditional Chinese painting. Over the course of his career, he became a prominent teacher and global ambassador for Chinese art, making a difference both in China, where he helped revolutionize the arts institutions, and abroad, where he helped reshape international perceptions of Chinese painting.
This show will include 61 paintings, most borrowed from the Xu Beihong Memorial Museum, most of which never before been on view in the United States. Read more here about the exhibition and here about the man. The exhibition will end on Jan. 29.
In New York, meanwhile, the China Institute has been displaying Blooming in the Shadows: Unofficial Chinese Art, 1974-1985, since Sept. 15. But as the description notes, few exhibitions have asked the question, how did internationally oriented art appear, given the background of 35 years of socialist realism?
This exhibition does, “focus[ing] on paintings and sculpture from three unofficial groups of artists, the No Names, the Stars, and the Grass Society, which pushed beyond Maoism in the early post-Cultural Revolution era. Each group pursued creatively diverse paths to artistic freedoms under the harsh political strictures and against the accepted aesthetic norms of the time. The work they produced opened the door for the avant-garde movement to emerge in China and paved the way for Chinese artists working today.”
It runs until Dec. 11.
Photo Credits: Six Galloping Horses, Courtesy of the Xu Beihong Memorial Museum (top), and Wang Keping’s Silent, Courtesy of the China Institute (bottom)