Chinese Painting: Zhang Xiaogang, Fang Lijun, Feng
Chinese Painting: Zhang Xiaogang, Fang Lijun, Feng Mengbo
Galerie Rudolfinum
E-mail: galerie@rudolfinum.org
Tel.: +420 227 059 205
Fax: +420 222 319 293
Ticket office: +420 227 059 309
E-mail: pokladna@rudolfinum.org
The exhibition is organised in collaboration with Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong.
Curators: Petr Nedoma a Chang Tsong-zung (Hong Kong)
2008-09-25 - 2008-12-28
Galerie Rudolfinum
E-mail: galerie@rudolfinum.org
Tel.: +420 227 059 205
Fax: +420 222 319 293
Ticket office: +420 227 059 309
E-mail: pokladna@rudolfinum.org
The exhibition is organised in collaboration with Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong.
Curators: Petr Nedoma a Chang Tsong-zung (Hong Kong)
2008-09-25 - 2008-12-28
A triple exhibition of the recent painting of three of today' evidently most prestigious Chinese medium generation painters, of whom primarily Zhang Xiaogang stands at the absolute peak not only in China but also within the Euro-American art world. Whilst all three ensue from a heritage of European painting tradition, their work is clearly shaped by Chinese reality and sensitivity.
Zhang Xiaogang
The painting of Zhang Xiaogang (* 1958), inspired by a family photograph from the time of the cultural revolution, but also by, for example, the European tradition of surrealism, examines the notion of identity in the Chinese culture of collectivism. His work focuses on the concept of "family" - concrete as well as expanded to the widest society, and Zhang's portraits depict the unending genealogic line of imaginary forefathers and predecessors who are very similar to each other. The author also brought the concept of memory, a moment caught in the flow of time in its newest form, to the empty landscape and interiors through which the past flowed and remained but a nostalgic memory.
Fang Lijun
At the end of the 1980's, Fang Lijun (* 1963), one of the leading representatives of the so-called cynical realism, predominantly recast his personal childhood experiences into figural scenes of apparently harmonic calmness, but hiding the malicious reaction to domestic political events. The start of the new millennium brings his creation from local, genre scenes so far as to a monumental, flaming pathos of tumultuous scenes somewhere in the middle of a cloud between the sky and the earth, above the billowy sea elements. The new reality of his relieved hedonism in our environment unwillingly refers to transcendent reality of baroque ceiling frescos.
Feng Mengbo
During the mid 1990's, from his painting origins in the spirit of political pop, Feng Mengbo (* 1966) moved the main crux of his creation to computer-generated video sequences. The line of these works, often criticizing the cynicism of computer games and aimed at utilizing their formal procedures, recently ended in a return to painting. Their foundation is a computer-designed image structure finished in reality by classic painting. The newest series of landscapes is an exceedingly richly overlaid account of the history of Chinese painting disciplines.
Zhang Xiaogang
The painting of Zhang Xiaogang (* 1958), inspired by a family photograph from the time of the cultural revolution, but also by, for example, the European tradition of surrealism, examines the notion of identity in the Chinese culture of collectivism. His work focuses on the concept of "family" - concrete as well as expanded to the widest society, and Zhang's portraits depict the unending genealogic line of imaginary forefathers and predecessors who are very similar to each other. The author also brought the concept of memory, a moment caught in the flow of time in its newest form, to the empty landscape and interiors through which the past flowed and remained but a nostalgic memory.
Fang Lijun
At the end of the 1980's, Fang Lijun (* 1963), one of the leading representatives of the so-called cynical realism, predominantly recast his personal childhood experiences into figural scenes of apparently harmonic calmness, but hiding the malicious reaction to domestic political events. The start of the new millennium brings his creation from local, genre scenes so far as to a monumental, flaming pathos of tumultuous scenes somewhere in the middle of a cloud between the sky and the earth, above the billowy sea elements. The new reality of his relieved hedonism in our environment unwillingly refers to transcendent reality of baroque ceiling frescos.
Feng Mengbo
During the mid 1990's, from his painting origins in the spirit of political pop, Feng Mengbo (* 1966) moved the main crux of his creation to computer-generated video sequences. The line of these works, often criticizing the cynicism of computer games and aimed at utilizing their formal procedures, recently ended in a return to painting. Their foundation is a computer-designed image structure finished in reality by classic painting. The newest series of landscapes is an exceedingly richly overlaid account of the history of Chinese painting disciplines.
About Galerie Rudolfinum
Open daily except Mondays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The Galerie Rudolfinum (part of The Czech Philharmonic) is a state non-profit institution directed and financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, and has its seat in the reconstructed building of Prague Rudolfinum, together with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. J. Zítek and J. Schulz, architects of the National Theatre in Prague, designed the representative neo-renaissance building of the Rudolfinum, completed in 1884, to house both a concert hall and a gallery. Located in the vicinity of the Museum of Decorative Arts, the Faculty of Philosophy, and the Academy of Decorative Arts, on the edge of the historical city districts Old Town and Lesser Town, it is a natural centre of cultural life in Prague.
Galerie Rudolfinum started its activities in the renewed premises of the Rudolfinum building on 1 January 1994. Within the few years of its operation, Galerie Rudolfinum has acquired a firm position on Czech art scene. Focusing on contemporary art with occasional excursions into periods more distant in history, searching for new and often unexpected connections in the work of well known or even famous artists as well as young, emerging ones, and presenting the international art scene in both individual and collective projects, Galerie Rudolfinum has been making a successful contribution to the recent exhibition program not only in Prague, but in the whole Czech Republic. The gallery's exclusive orientation on temporary exhibitions (the gallery has no collection of its own), which provides background for a wide range of accompanying programmes, makes it possible to develop several main themes in its program at once. Currently about a thousand and five hundred square metres of exhibition area are available in the gallery. A large-scale architectural concept of exhibition halls illuminated day-light passing through glassed ceilings has been recently amended by the possibility of darkening the halls and by various forms of artificial lighting.
In the Galerie Rudolfinum, contemporary art meets the neo-renaissance architecture of the historical building. The connection of visual art with music and other art disciplines offers an unusually wide range of possibilities to experience art and culture. The Neo-Renaissance building of Prague Rudolfinum has not yet been duly appreciated in the history of European architecture in spite of the fact that this building got ahead of others of the kind by almost a century by its design as a multi-purpose cultural center.
Open daily except Mondays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The Galerie Rudolfinum (part of The Czech Philharmonic) is a state non-profit institution directed and financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, and has its seat in the reconstructed building of Prague Rudolfinum, together with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. J. Zítek and J. Schulz, architects of the National Theatre in Prague, designed the representative neo-renaissance building of the Rudolfinum, completed in 1884, to house both a concert hall and a gallery. Located in the vicinity of the Museum of Decorative Arts, the Faculty of Philosophy, and the Academy of Decorative Arts, on the edge of the historical city districts Old Town and Lesser Town, it is a natural centre of cultural life in Prague.
Galerie Rudolfinum started its activities in the renewed premises of the Rudolfinum building on 1 January 1994. Within the few years of its operation, Galerie Rudolfinum has acquired a firm position on Czech art scene. Focusing on contemporary art with occasional excursions into periods more distant in history, searching for new and often unexpected connections in the work of well known or even famous artists as well as young, emerging ones, and presenting the international art scene in both individual and collective projects, Galerie Rudolfinum has been making a successful contribution to the recent exhibition program not only in Prague, but in the whole Czech Republic. The gallery's exclusive orientation on temporary exhibitions (the gallery has no collection of its own), which provides background for a wide range of accompanying programmes, makes it possible to develop several main themes in its program at once. Currently about a thousand and five hundred square metres of exhibition area are available in the gallery. A large-scale architectural concept of exhibition halls illuminated day-light passing through glassed ceilings has been recently amended by the possibility of darkening the halls and by various forms of artificial lighting.
In the Galerie Rudolfinum, contemporary art meets the neo-renaissance architecture of the historical building. The connection of visual art with music and other art disciplines offers an unusually wide range of possibilities to experience art and culture. The Neo-Renaissance building of Prague Rudolfinum has not yet been duly appreciated in the history of European architecture in spite of the fact that this building got ahead of others of the kind by almost a century by its design as a multi-purpose cultural center.
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