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Li Fuyuan interview (Mar 2010) by EAP publisher/editor, Sajid Rizvi Q1. Seeing your work in London has been especially interesting for me, as I was introduced to Wu Guanzhong and his work during his ground-breaking exhibition at the British Museum. Nothing like that had come out of China before and, although there have been emulators, Wu Guanzhong still holds the fort with his singular style! How has he influenced your life as an artist? A1. In my student days, I yearned to learn from the richer and more interesting art forms of the other countries as I was not satisfied with the solely former Soviet system of art education in China then. And as fate should have it, I was fortunate to become a student in “Wu Guanzhong’s Studio” for my professional training in oil painting. With Wu’s guidance and encouragement, my two oil paintings, Chun Pu De Fu Ren, which I did in 1961 and my 1962 piece of work, Shandong’s Weishan Hu, were nominated by him for the joint art exhibition by my school and the city of Beijing. My graduating art work, Xia or Summer, in 1963 was completed with his full instruction from him. It was Wu Guanzhong who introduced me to the “world of art” and to learn to fight for survival. I am a wanderer in this world who does not turn his back. A2. As a student of Wu Guanzhong, I love to comprehend his theories on art. I learned about his art theories but not his art forms. Everyone’s cultivation in the arts and artistic qualities come with their lives’ experiences. They are all very different and often they remain unchanged. Though there can be many techniques in art and art forms, my pursuits in art have remained unchanged since I was a young man. In my paintings, I strive to express my feelings and aim to seek changes in forms, colours and compositions. I would often re-arrange my subjects in order to create a new composition. I place importance on the organisation, arrangement and effective use of space on the canvas. My attention when painting is also focused on changes in the colours I use and their strong contrasts, for example between white and black. As an art educationist with a visionary philosophy on the arts, rich experience and knowledge and warm attention for his students, Wu Guanzhong could discover the potential of each of his students to give them the right guidance and encouragement each of them needed. It was with Wu’s encouragement and guidance that I was able to thread on my artistic journey with confidence. A3. I agree with your views and analysis of my work. I place great emphasis on artistic expression. Yes, my artistic expression is also my narration. In each forceful expression, I am also telling a story of my own. I am doing both: I told my stories while releasing my creative expression at the same time. There is always a story in each of my work. I decide on the ways to express myself through my paintings after analysing the story content to determine their aesthetic qualities. Should it be representational, imagery or abstract? Or a mix of all three? In my works, I used my chosen art form to express and narrate all the earthly emotions of happiness, anger, sadness and joy. I also showed man’s resilience against all odds in the world. More importantly, I expressed my praise and love for my beautiful country and its people. All life’s happenings and emotions can stir up my creative urges. It was with “deep and silent thoughts”, a quote from Paul Gaugin, and my own artistic expression that I have been able to communicate my thoughts to my viewers. A4. I spent some years of my childhood in village farms in Yunnan and Guizhou. The natural beauty and habitat of the two places created a lasting impression on me, especially its forms and the strong and unusual colours. These had certainly influenced my artistic flair and ideas about beauty. They are today a special quality in the blood of each native from Yunnan. This is perhaps the origins of what we know as the “Yunnan Culture”. Throughout my artistic career, I have learnt and picked out the best from the arts and cultures of other countries and civilisations in order to improve my work in art. I have never bothered myself with the so called “mainstream Chinese art”. Q5. Contemporary Chinese art has gone through phases since it first came onto the world stage in a big way in the mid-1970s. The Tiananmen phase was a turning point and then the whole socio-economic scene changed, with dramatic results as we see them. Now Chinese art evokes mixed feelings in the world. While the majority admires it, there is a community that feels that Chinese art risks losing its special magic because of imitation of other influences, especially those from the West? Your thoughts on this? A5. The art world is in fact a big garden where all flowers bloom. The art of each nation has its own special characteristics and attraction. Everyone is learning from one another. They learned from the best from the others to help develop their own artistic expression and create a new art form which is appealing to others all over again. I don’t think we need to worry that Chinese art risks losing its original appeal simply because it had learnt or influenced by others. | ||
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The Firestation Centre for Arts and Culture, in association with the world renowned 'ArtChinese', is proud to present an all too rare opportunity to see work by two of the most exciting contemporary Asian artists working today: Heena Kim and Raymond Yap, in the show 'Inside Out'. Recently graduating from St Martin's, Heena Kim creates semi-human, semi-animal or insect-like 'creatures' that exists in their own inhuman world, painted on canvas or wood. They are created from a mixture of memories and imagination, and given their own 'fantasyland' to live in on the canvas. The 'creatures' hide in spaces, occasionally spilling out and crossing over into a more recognisable reality, creating deceitfully complex, playful and attractive images that are truly original. When speaking about her work Heena Kim said "I believe that the unique images connected with human and other creatures' bodies in my paintings have come from my unconsciousness or memories that mix with my experience and past thoughts. Those kinds of things are connected with the human body which could symbolise me and affect to create stories with them. 'My creatures' exist in a space separated from the real world. They can be free and safe in the space looking like human internal organs." Describing himself as a 'process painter', Raymond Yap's semi-abstract, seductively bright paintings are the product of careful improvisation and chance. Yap's work can take weeks and months to develop. He slowly adds layers of primarily gloss paint onto aluminum or board and waits for time to transform the surface. The paintings' fate is governed by a combination of his decisions of type of paint, frequency and quantity of application, timing and method. He says "My images are 'littered with incident' and although I exert a degree of control in order to facilitate these 'incidents', their consequences are very much open to the play of chance and their history becomes a fascinating series of encounters between control and chance, between the ordered and the arbitrary. It is this tension between the appearance of order arrived through the surrender to spontaneity and chance that gives these works certain torsion". ArtChinese, based in East London, represents mainly artists from China, but also emerging artists from around the world. Anna Vartiainen Gallery Manager at The Firestation said "we are thrilled at the chance to collaborate with an organisation such as ArtChinese on this very special one-off show. They have kindly supplied the work to be shown and worked closely alongside us to organise this stunning exhibition. The artists involved are truly remarkable and are a great representation of the sheer force of creativity that is coming out of Asia. This certainly promises to be an amazing show". Auction news
Li Fuyuan’s ‘Sheep Flock’ 2008 (Hammer price 75,000 HKD)
In addition, several pieces were sold in past auctions at Sotheby’s. New work available now exclusively at ArtChinese.
Lot 1241
Li Fuyuan ‘Sheep Flock’ 2008 Uniquely Chinese12 - 19 June 2008 FOYLES The Gallery, 2nd Floor, 113 -119 Charing Cross Rd, London WC2H OED Opening times: Mon - Fri 9.30am - 5.30pm |
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Thursday 12 June 6.00pm - 8.30pm Saturday 14 June 2.00pm - 3.00pm RSVP: stella@artchinese.co.uk A group visual exhibition bringing together works by a diverse group of emerging and established artists including An Fei who will demonstrate her fine traditional brush paintings; Raymond Yap will present his vibrant semi-abstract compositions in gloss with striking symbols and colours; Wuon Gean Ho - printmaker will show her mask silkscreen prints in colour; Zhang Wenqing - his superb new ‘Song’ series in oil; Zhou Haige, Nanjing’s acclaimed artist will display his stunning watercolour landscapes and Zhao Yizhou - widely regarded as the finest contemporary Chinese calligrapher in the UK.
Sponsored by:
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Woodford Festival 4, 5, 11 & 12 October 2008 81 Monkhams Avenue |
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20/21 International art fair
21 to 24 February 2008 |
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ArtChinese is delighted to advise that we are participating at the much acclaimed 20/21 International art fair, London. New exciting works will be featured by artists - Li Fuyuan whose semi-abstract animal paintings were put under the hammer at Sothebys; Raymond Yap will present his vibrant gloss paintings utilizing striking shapes and colours; Zhou Haige, Nanjing’s artist will show his stunning watercolour landscapes and Derek Curtis whose work was sold at the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition, 2007. A limited number of complimentary invitation tickets (admits two per ticket) are available now on a first-come, first-served basis. Please apply by visiting www.artchinese.co.uk and join our mailing list with your full address quoting: ‘20/21intartfair’. Hope to see you there. Jimmy Lek ArtChinese
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Why Collectors Are Crazy For Chinese ArtIt’s not only dynastic porcelain vases. Art mavens are buying contemporary works as well. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, when Jim Eccles was working as an IBM systems engineer, he fell in love with the work of the late Chinese artist Chao Chung Hsiang, who was then living in New York. Now 69 and retired, Eccles still loves the seven colorful paintings, some abstract and others in a more traditional Chinese style, that he bought for $200 to $500 each. But lately he has thought about selling them. Based on recent auction sales, he figures they can fetch $50,000 to $100,000 each. With the emergence of free-spending, nouveau riche collectors from mainland China, the Chinese art market is at the start of what may be an extended boom. Buyers are snatching up everything from 3,000- year-old bronze vessels to avant-garde paintings by Chinese-born artists living in China and abroad. Ever since more than 50 Asian bidders, many from China, showed up at a seminal September, 2003, sale of Chinese rarities at the Doyle auction house in New York, prices have been surpassing estimates. Some examples: At this fall’s Hong Kong sales, a 1947 ink scroll by the painter Fu Baoshi, who died in 1965, sold for $1.1 million, four times as much as Sotheby’s (BID) predicted. On Nov 17, London dealer Giuseppe Eskenazi, who often buys for European and American collectors, paid a record $5.7 million for an 18-inch early Ming Dynasty dish at a Bonhams & Butterfields auction in San Francisco. Art collecting was one of the “bourgeois” activities purged in the 1960s and 70s during the Cultural Revolution, but it has flourished under recent economic reforms. Dozens of art auction houses have sprung up in China in recent years, the most prominent of which is China Guardian in Beijing. Experts expect prices to continue rising as China’s wealth grows. The Chinese don’t understand why there’s such a big price difference between Western art and the greatest Chinese art, says Henry Howard-Sneyd, Sotheby’s Hong Kong-based managing director for China and Southeast Asia. For instance, while a Picasso painting sold this spring for $104 million, works by Zhang Daqian, who lived from 1899 to 1983 and is known as “China’s Picasso,” usually top out at about $1 million. Chinese collectors figure Zhang’s paintings should eventually approach Picasso’s level. Is it too late for smaller collectors to dive in? “Oh, God, no,” says David Tang, the Hong Kong entrepreneur and art collector who argues that the rise of the Chinese art market is just beginning. Before you make any purchases, there are a few things you should know. It’s important to buy through reputable dealers. Fakes and copies are rife, particularly of classic paintings and furniture, and even experts can be fooled. You can also find bargains in China’s far out contemporary art. Prices for the best known artists, such as 39-year-old Zhang Huan, have soared to $40,000 and up. But many promising artists remain affordable. A top pick of Kent Logan, a retired securities executive in Vail, Colo., who owns 120 contemporary Chinese works, is 30 year old Zhao Bo of Chongqing, in south central China’s Sichuan province. His jazzy street scenes sell for $700 to $9,000 or so. If this art appeals to you, start thumbing through catalogs, visiting galleries and studying websites of galleries and important shows. If you see something you like, don’t dally. As Jim Eccles discovered, prices are rising as we speak. Extracts from Thane Peterson, BusinessWeek |
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