White Space Art Asia will showcase the evolution of Chinese ink from the late Republican era to the contemporary generation of young Chinese ink painters.
The Republican period in Chinese history (1919 – 1948) was a period of turbulence, warlord-ism, the Japanese invasion of China and the war with the Communists. It was nonetheless a period of the flowering of Chinese ink, with rise to prominence of great masters that are frequently seen in auction today. Our three artists that demonstrate the changing course of Chinese ink and for much of the latter half of the twentieth century, Chinese ink has been seen as failing to respond to the zeitgeist of Western Contemporary art. However, this is rapidly changing.
We’ll be featuring three artists, starting with the early and mid-period works of Jia You Fu (1942 – present), the spiritual successor of Li Keran (1907 – 1989). Li Keran straddled the Republican and post-1948 Communist eras, and Jia You Fu represents one of his most important students, and the most important living Chinese ink painter today.
The second artist in our lineup is Xu Hua Xin (1968 – present), an important student of Jia You Fu. Born in the 60s, he represents a generation that was brought up in Communist China, but was young enough to embrace the opening of China to the outside world. His style builds on the traditions of Chinese ink but has a much more contemporary interpretation of landscape. His wet paper technique creates soft diffused tones of white and grey that emphasizes the intensity of white. His technique takes the expression of white space far beyond the great masters of the past.
Lastly, we’ll be showing Shen Zi Yao (1985 – present). Shen represents the young, post-80s generation of Chinese ink artists. Exposed to the west and curious about the world outside of China, this is a generation at the crossroads of defining what contemporary art means for this ‘Middle Kingdom’. While retaining the core essence of Chinese ink, Shen seeks to break away from the traditional mainstream, boldly incorporating western techniques in his works, including the use of collage and mixed media.
Jia You Fu, Xu Hua Xin and Shen Zi Yao represent a cross-section of the evolution of Chinese ink over the past 60 years and running.
