Artists re-create gongbi spirit with a contemporary approach

The highly realistic style of gongbi painting (meticulous brushwork) began to form some 2,000 years ago and created brilliance in Chinese art. Even though it is in decline today, contemporary artists are trying to enliven it with experimental approaches.

Among the established artists who make endeavors is Jiang Ji'an. The Beijing-based artist uses tea leaves to produce pigments for painting and then uses them to create small installations.

He then pairs the paintings and installations together to form a work that conveys a scholarly temperament that was hailed in Song Dynasty paintings.

In his work, he is inspired by French artist Marcel Duchamp's ready-made art concept, in which installations are created out of everyday objects.

He says that although his works involve little use of gongbi techniques, he endorses a philosophical understanding of the material world that is essential to the spirit of gongbi.

Ren Lihan, who graduated in September from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, explores the connection between past and present in his works.

He reproduces on a piece of paper images and inscriptions from ancient stone tablets, and details Buddhist figures on a semi-translucent layer of silk.

He then fixes the two paintings in a frame, the silk above the paper, to create a dialogue between the past and the present.

Artworks by Jiang and Ren are on show at an ongoing exhibition, the 10th National Exhibition of Chinese Gongbi Art, a triennial art show.

More than 100 works that artists nationwide have produced in the past three years occupy nine exhibition halls at the National Art Museum. The show opened on Friday afternoon.

Niu Kecheng, vice-chairman of the Beijing-based Chinese Gongbi Art Society, the exhibition's organizer, says the show focuses on the variations of gongbi art, not in the realm of traditional techniques but in the context of contemporary life and tastes. It hails the value of craftsmanship that needs to be developed by people today.

"The artists (at the show) facilitate as many working approaches as possible to enrich the conceptual features of gongbi, such as collage and rubbing. And they do not limit their creativity to paper and silk but also incorporate other materials," he says.

Hang Chunxiao, one of the exhibition's curators, says the exhibition does not invite viewers to judge whether a painting is good or valuable.

"We need to focus on the stories behind the works, what the artists were thinking about when they were working and how they attempted to challenge our aesthetic stereotypes to understand cultural traditions," he says.

The exhibition features two projects to give viewers a historical context of a famous painting. During the exhibition, which runs through Jan 3, students from the Central Academy of Fine Arts will reproduce and complete a copy of a magnificent fresco at the Yongle Temple in Shanxi province, which is recognized as a brilliant example of figure painting in the gongbi style.

With the assistance of virtual-reality technology, people can "enter" Qianli Jiangshan Tu (A thousand li of rivers and mountains), a blue-and-green mountain-and-water scroll by Song master Wang Ximeng that ranks among the top 10 classical Chinese paintings.

If you go

9 am-5 pm, closed on Mondays, through Jan 3, 2017. 1 Wusi Dajie, Dongcheng district, Beijing. 010-6400-1476.

linqi@chinadaily.com.cn