On May 8, 2016, “Beyond Form – An Exhibition of Abstract Art in China” opened at the Inside-Out Art Museum. The exhibition is sponsored by the Inside-Out Art Museum, the famous art critic, Prof. Wang Duanting from China National Academy served as the curator. The exhibition presents the abstract works by 8 returning artists from overseas including Chen Ruobing, Feng Lianghong, Ma Kelu, Ma Shuqing, Meng Luding, Tan Ping, Yuan Zuo and Zhu Jinshi, the intention of the exhibition is to explore the present and future of  abstract art in China.

At 4:00 pm, the opening ceremony was held at the Inside-Out Art Museum. The Director of Inside-Out Art Museum Yuan Zuo, the exhibition curator Wang Duanting, the famous critic Jia Fangzhou, Head of the Department of Curatorial Research of CAFA Art Museum Wang Chunchen, the deputy Editor-in-Chief of “Art” magazine Sheng Wei, Director of Wenzhou Time Museum Kang Wenfeng, as well as the artists Ma Shuqing, Meng Luding, Ma Kelu, etc. were present at the opening.

Curator Wang Duanting addressed the opening ceremony and said that, the exhibition was the second round of exhibitions of Beyond Form: An Exhibition of Abstract Art in China, after the first round was held at Wenzhou Time Museum last year, bringing together the same artists but featuring different works. For the meaning of the theme “beyond form”, Wang Duanting believed, after the abstract art developed to Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism, all the artists werefaced with a problem – where does abstract art go? What is its future? “Some people think Minimalism is the end of abstract art, but in fact there are still a large number of artists engaged in abstract art, what they are doing is to go beyond a variety of existing achievements in abstract art.”

Artists’ representative Ma Shuqing said that, for the painters, abstract art was a process of emotional expression, “The abstract art focuses more on the methods to create the quality and style of painting. In addition to the visual presentation, the audience can also find the artists’ exploration of time and space or how artists present the flowing time and three-dimensional sense of space and so on.”

This is an exhibition especially designed for the 8 returning from overseas Chinese artists, who have all had long-term study and life experience overseas, they are the representatives of the artists who first explored abstract art in Chinain the 1980s and witnessed the developmental history of Chinese abstract art. Wang Duanting writes in the preface that, “For abstract art, they are Chinese artists who have seen the True Buddha and finally took the Scriptures back to China. On the basis of the logic and the context behind the development of abstract art, these returnees explored the road of innovation and progression with abstract art lineage and eventually completed the transition from "Formalism" to "Beyond-Formalism “.

Before the opening of the exhibition, Inside-Out Art Museum held a seminar of the same name. The curator Wang Duanting served as the host, invited by the Director of Inside-Out Art Museum Yuan Zuo, the famous critic Jia Fangzhou, Head of the Department of Curatorial Research of CAFA Art Museum Wang Chunchen, the deputy Editor-in-Chief of “Art” magazine Sheng Wei, Director of Wenzhou Time Museum Kang Wenfeng, as well as the artists Ma Shuqing, Meng Luding, Ma Kelu, Feng Lianghong, Li Di, etc., attended the discussion.

Wang Duanting first proposed the concept of “Statusism/ Doctrine of Status” to define the abstract art in China. Neither continuing to use the existing Chinese traditional concepts, nor continuing to use the concept of Western abstract art, so Chinese abstract artists have made a creation different from the predecessors, Westerners, and the ancient artists. Hereafter, the critics and artists had a discussion around “What is the position of Chinese abstract art”, “Whether the abstract art in China is different from the West or the world?” “Where is the difference between the abstract and intention?”, etc.

Text and photo by Lin Jiabin/CAFA ART INFO

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Courtesy of the Inside-Out Art Museum, for further information please visit www.ioam.org.cn.