Constructing Contemporary Ink Painting Language, Liu Yiyuan: Rooted in Traditional Culture
On June 12, the “Letting Go and Observing Things” Liu Yiyuan Art Exhibition opened at the Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts Art Museum.
The exhibition is hosted by Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts, co-organized by Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts and Contemporary Ink Art Research Institute, and undertaken by Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts Art Museum. It will last until September.
Liu Yiyuan was born in Wuhan in July 1942. He is a professor at the Department of Chinese Painting of Hubei Institute of Fine Arts. He started painting ancient Chinese paintings as a profession in 1959 and was admitted to the graduate program of Chinese painting of the Department of Fine Arts of Hubei Institute of Fine Arts in 1979. After graduation, he stayed at the school to teach landscape painting and flower-and-bird painting, and devoted himself to the creation and research of modern and contemporary ink painting.
As a practitioner of the modern ink painting exploration movement, Liu Yiyuan has been consciously transforming traditional Chinese ink painting into a modern one since the early 1980s, and has persisted for 40 years. Liu Yiyuan said: "Contemporary ink painting cannot leave its own cultural soil, it must have theoretical support, and it must attach importance to theoretical construction."
This time, Liu Yiyuan brought his works to Shanghai for exhibition, which was not only a dialogue with Shanghai School painting, but also an in-depth exchange and discussion with a group of scholars and painters on how to construct the subjective discourse of contemporary ink painting.
"Chu culture is not only romantic, but also savage and resilient." Mao Shi'an, former vice chairman of the Chinese Society of Literary and Art Critics, commented, "Liu Yiyuan's paintings use the basic vocabulary of Chu culture, with red and black as the main colors. On the basis of lyricism, conception and visuality, there is also an additional layer of metaphor."
In the new era, Liu Yiyuan's paintings integrate the ancient and modern, and connect the East and the West in the atmosphere of Jingchu culture. Pi Daojian, deputy director of the Curatorial Committee of the Chinese Artists Association and professor of South China Normal University, said, "Mental images, dots and lines, and feelings of time constitute Liu Yiyuan's contemporary ink narrative. Artists urgently need to find a fulcrum for cultural renewal in the discourse of contemporary Chinese ink art."
Ding She, resident vice chairman and secretary general of the Shanghai Artists Association, believes that Liu Yiyuan's continued practice of contemporary ink painting stems from the genes and confidence of Chinese culture.
"In Liu Yiyuan's works, we can see his blood connection with the land of Jingchu, and the magnificent development process of China's 40 years of reform and opening up," said Li Lei, director of Shanghai Haipai Art Museum and executive director of Shanghai Artists Association.
