Operated by the Calgary Contemporary Arts Society

March 14 to April 26 , 2008

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Play Ink - Ink Play:
The Art of Chinese Opera Painting

10 Contemporary Artists from Shanghai

Guan Liang - Farewell My Concubine; ink and wash, color on paper. Collection: Liu Haisu Art Museum, Shanghai. Image courtesy of the Liu Haisu Art Museum in Shanghai.The title of this exhibition "XI MO·MO XI" borrows from the multiple meanings of the word "XI “, a homophone that can mean both "playfulness" and "traditional opera" , and might be translated as " Play Ink ·Ink Play" . This duality creates a subtle link between Chinese ink painting and Chinese traditional opera first appeared in the folk arts, a cultural category whose existence is intimately connected with our national memories
 
In many folk arts like the paper-cut, the Spring Festival opera picture, the folk toy and the art of porcelain patterning, we may discern the traces of the opera theme. When viewed from another perspective, the highly choreographed Chinese opera really presents an extremely sublime formality.  Derived from folk art, various visual elements' simplicity, splendor and uniqueness provide extensive space and infinite possibilities for ink painters' re-creation.  Loose or tight costumes brew the genes of natural transformation for modeling, enabling a painter to freely play with the lines under his wrist, to follow his feelings as though he were strolling.

Cheng Shifa - Zhong Kui Marries off His Sister; ink and wash, color on paper. Private collection. Image courtesy of the artist.The current painting circle is increasingly more active, but also more and more flippant as many pursue the fashionable for fear of not being contemporary.  Now, China is experiencing an impatient anxiety about modernity, an anxiety to be admitted by others, especially the westerners.  I assume, even the westerners don't expect to see themselves reflected in the mirror, a distorting mirror.  Chinese culture is an extremely rich treasure, as Chinese folk art could be traced back to the Neolithic age, and what's more precious is that it has continued through to the present without interruption, maintaining a vigorous vitality with Chinese opera as one of its branches.  Ink painting of Chinese opera always stretches its antennae to the folk, facing the contemporary.  It is a seed germinating in its own land and when it grows into a very tall tree , it still has a Chinese face, certainly a new Chinese face, yet one that deny any wholesome foreign nourishment. 

This exhibition is to cultivate and fertilize it, enabling it to meet and exchange with the people of the world, which is probably the social responsibility of a member of our Chinese art museums because  the real art should belong to all humankind.

Peicheng Zhang
Director
Liu Haisu Art Museum, Shanghai
The People’s Republic of China

Ding Liren – Circus; ink and wash, color on paper. Collection: Liu Haisu Art Museum, Shanghai. Image courtesy of the Liu Haisu Art Museum in Shanghai. Zhu Zhengeng - Figure Painting of Chinese Opera; ink and wash, color on paper. Collection: Liu Haisu Art Museum, Shanghai. Image courtesy of the Liu Haisu Art Museum in Shanghai.
Han Yu - Under Escort; ink and wash, color on paper. Private collection. Image courtesy of the artist. Zhang Peicheng - Farewell My Concubine; ink and wash, color on paper. Collection of the artist. Image courtesy of the artist.
Shen Hu - Chinese Opera Figure No. 6; ink and wash on paper. Collection of the artist. Image courtesy of the artist. Zhang Guiming - Lu Zhishen Gets Drunk and Combats in the Temple Gate from Water Margin; ink and wash, color on paper. Collection of the artist. Image courtesy of the artist.
Zhou Jingxin - Chinese Opera Figure No. 1; ink and wash on paper. Collection of the artist. Image courtesy of the artist. Nie Ganyin - Facial Pattern of Chinese Opera No. 3; ink and wash, color on paper. Collection of the artist. Image courtesy of the artist.

List of Images (left to right, top to bottom):

  1. Guan Liang - Farewell My Concubine; ink and wash, color on paper. Collection: Liu Haisu Art Museum, Shanghai. Image courtesy of the Liu Haisu Art Museum in Shanghai.

  2. Cheng Shifa - Zhong Kui Marries off His Sister; ink and wash, color on paper. Private collection. Image courtesy of the artist.

  3. Ding Liren – Circus; ink and wash, color on paper. Collection: Liu Haisu Art Museum, Shanghai. Image courtesy of the Liu Haisu Art Museum in Shanghai.

  4. Zhu Zhengeng - Figure Painting of Chinese Opera; ink and wash, color on paper. Collection: Liu Haisu Art Museum, Shanghai. Image courtesy of the Liu Haisu Art Museum in Shanghai.

  5. Han Yu - Under Escort; ink and wash, color on paper. Private collection. Image courtesy of the artist.

  6. Zhang Peicheng - Farewell My Concubine; ink and wash, color on paper. Collection of the artist. Image courtesy of the artist.

  7. Shen Hu - Chinese Opera Figure No. 6; ink and wash on paper. Collection of the artist. Image courtesy of the artist.
    Play Ink – Ink Play Exhibition – List of the Images …. Page 2

  8. Zhang Guiming - Lu Zhishen Gets Drunk and Combats in the Temple Gate from Water Margin; ink and wash, color on paper. Collection of the artist. Image courtesy of the artist.

  9. Zhou Jingxin - Chinese Opera Figure No. 1; ink and wash on paper. Collection of the artist. Image courtesy of the artist.

  10. Nie Ganyin - Facial Pattern of Chinese Opera No. 3; ink and wash, color on paper. Collection of the artist. Image courtesy of the artist.
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