The contemporary Chinese painter
Since the 2000s, contemporary art in China has experienced a meteoric rise.
The economic upheaval in China gave rise to a new art form. Everything became possible despite censorship, and perhaps even because of it. Contemporary painters in China are celebrated everywhere. They enjoy artistic freedom.
With the official recognition and emphasis placed on traditional pictorial art, coupled with a growing interest in ancient calligraphy, contemporary Chinese painters had many influences at their disposal.
Without turning away from Western art, the contemporary Chinese painter knows how to make the most of what the world offers in terms of technological advancement, while maintaining the excellence of conventional artistic movements.
Wu Guanzhong
Wu Guanzhong (1919-2010) is a representative painter of 20th century modern Chinese painting, originally from Yixing, Jiangsu province.
Committed to exploring the national defense of art and the modernization of Chinese painting, he has forged a distinctive artistic position.
His oil paintings often depict the “Three Gorges” of the Yangtze River, the northern landscape, birds of paradise, yellow mountain pine, and Lu Xun’s hometown.
Wu Guanzhong is recognized as one of the founders of modern Chinese painting. He is considered one of the greatest contemporary Chinese painters. Wu's works have been influenced by both Western and Eastern art, such as Fauvism blended with Chinese calligraphy.
Wu painted various aspects of China, including much of its architecture, plants, animals, people, as well as many landscapes and bodies of water in a style reminiscent of the Impressionist painters of the early 1900s.
Zao Wou-Ki
Zao Wou-Ki is a Sino-French painter born on February 13, 1921 in Beijing.
As a child, he studied in Nantong, Jiangsu, where he learned to paint. In 1935, he entered the Hangzhou Art College and studied under Lin Fengmian. In 1948, he went to study in France, where he settled.
Zao Wou-Ki contributed to the positive connotation of traditional Chinese culture and art. He created a new space for painting with changing colors, powerful brushstrokes, and a sense of rhythm and light.
He is one of the main representatives of lyrical abstraction.
He was a professor at the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris. In addition, he organized more than 160 solo exhibitions worldwide.
On the afternoon of April 9, 2013, Zao Wou-Ki died in Vaud, Switzerland, at the age of 92.
Ding Shaoguang
Ding Shaoguang, which can sometimes be written Ting Shao Kuang, was born in Yungchen, Shanxi province in 1937.
He graduated from the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts in 1962. From 1962 to 1980, he taught at the Yunnan Arts Institute. In 1979, he created the large-scale mural "Beautiful, Rich and Magical Xishuangbanna" for the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. He published "Ding Shaoguang Xishuangbanna White Life Collection" the same year.
In July 1980, he moved to the United States.
From 1986 to 1996, Ding Shaoguang organized more than 400 solo exhibitions in various countries around the world and his works were exhibited in more than 50 countries.
A renowned Chinese-American painter, he lives in Los Angeles, USA.
He is an exceptional modern artist, who has shown extraordinary creativity and talent since the age of 11 when he was noticed at the Yunnan School of Modern Painting, a well-known art school in the Chinese painting community.
Fan Zeng
Born in 1938, Fan Zeng is currently dean of the Institute of Chinese Painting at Peking University.
He made great contributions to the development of Chinese painting, setting a precedent for "neoclassical painting".
In 1984, the Fan Zeng Permanent Art Museum was established in Okayama Prefecture, Japan
In 2007, the Fan Zeng Art Museum of Nantong University was inaugurated.
Or Haonian
Ou Haonian, born in Guangdong in 1935, moved to Taiwan in 1970 where he became the number one artist.
At the age of seventeen, Ou Hao studied under Zhao Shao-ang, a giant of the Lingnan school of painting. At the age of 20, he participated in traveling exhibitions in Southeast Asia.
Over the following decades, he was invited to exhibit in various locations abroad. Ou Haonian is recognized and respected by the international contemporary art community.
Huang Yongyu
Huang Yongyu, originally from Fenghuang County, Hunan Province, was born in Changde on July 9, 1924. This Chinese painter, belonging to the Tujia ethnic minority, is currently a professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and former head of the Engraving Department. In 1946, he married Zhang Meixi.
Huang Yongyu was self-taught in painting and literature, while also learning from other Chinese painters, such as Li Hua. This self-education gave him great artistic freedom.
Due to his modest family background, Huang Yongyu worked from the age of 12 in small porcelain workshops in the mountainous regions of Anhui and Fujian to earn a living.
He began publishing his works at the age of 14. His unique engravings are known throughout the world.
At the age of 16, Huang Yongyu began to make a living from his painting and wood engraving.
Chen Danqing
Chen Danqing was born in Shanghai in 1953.
He is among the most influential contemporary artists in China. In 1980, he caused a sensation in national and international art circles with "Tibet Group Paintings"
This is the beginning of a subversive painting.
Regardless of his often criticized painting style, Chen Danqing maintains a kind of elegance and simplicity that touches the public.
Gao Zhanxiang
Gao Zhanxiang was born in Haojiafu village, Tongzhou, in November 1935.
A calligrapher and photographer, he attaches great importance to the development of cultural enterprises in his country and always defends Chinese national art.
Liu Guosong
Liu Guosong, originally from Qingzhou, Shandong, was born in Anhui in 1932.
He settled in Taiwan in 1949 and began learning to paint at the age of 14, while he was a high school student in Wuchang.
At the age of 20, he studied and practiced Western painting. Graduating from Taiwan Normal University in 1956, he founded the May Painting Society the same year. In 1968, he participated in the creation of the Chinese Ink Painting Society.
He is currently a lecturer in the Department of Fine Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Yue Minjun
Born in 1962 in Daqing, Yue Minjun is considered an icon of contemporary art.
He is the most renowned representative of young Chinese painters.
A pioneer of "cynical realism," Yue Minjun caricatures the homogenization of Chinese society. Yue Minjun lives and works in Beijing.
Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei is an important figure in the independent Chinese art scene.
He is the leading representative of committed artists. He puts all his talent into the fight for human rights and sometimes openly opposes the Chinese government.
Around the world, contemporary artist Ai Weiwei is considered a major painter.
Liu Wei
Originally from Beijing where he was born in 1972, he still lives there.
This artist exemplifies the use of diverse materials and media to achieve his goals.
Provocative, it illustrates the excesses of rapid urbanization and materialization in China.
Zhang Xiaogang
Surrealist painter Zhang Xiaogang became famous with his Bloodline (stylized and often monochromatic portraits of the traditional Chinese family).
It features traditional characters from the Cultural Revolution.
Today, Zhang Xiaogang is considered one of the most important artists of his generation. He is sought after by major collectors and is a protégé of collector Bernard Arnault.
Many of these artists lived through the Cultural Revolution of 1966. Some also suffered censorship from the Chinese Communist Party. This complicated past is undoubtedly at the root of the extraordinary creativity of contemporary Chinese artists. The renown of contemporary Chinese painters continues to grow, and the prices of their works are skyrocketing, fueled by the interest of major collectors.
Contemporary Chinese art is extraordinarily modern while retaining the experience of a multi-millennial culture.
Related topics:
- Figurative painting
- The abstract painter