Taikang Space opens first exhibtion entitled "Painting: Jin Shangyi and Zhang Shujian" to explore realistic painting

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TEXT：Sue Wang DATE： 2012.6.25

Exhibition View 01 of Painting Jin Shangyi and Zhang Shujian

Jin Shangyi was born in Jiaozuo, Henan Province in 1934. He graduated from the Department of Painting of Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1953; after he finished the study in Maksimov’s Oil Painting Training Class, he stayed in the academy and became a teacher. As an artist, the figure painting by Mr. Jin, especially the exploration in portrait painting, deeply influenced the process of Chinese Realistic Painting. As an art educator, since he was transferred to teach in the No.1 Studio of the Department of Oil Painting in 1962 till he was appointed Dean of the department, he has moulded a large number of excellent artists along with his colleagues. The teaching revolution and renovation they advocated has become the model of Chinese higher education of art and they have also pushed forward its development.

Exhibition View 02 of Painting Jin Shangyi and Zhang Shujian

Jin Shangyi, Portrait of Chairman Mao(detail), 1966; oil on canvas, 262×137cm

Jin Shangyi, Portrait of Chairman Mao (detail 02), 1966; oil on canvas, 262×137cm

Zhang Shujian, a young artist who was born in 1987, chose portrait painting as his main creation, just as his predecessor Mr. Jin did. He also graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Surprisingly enough, he chose to study in the No.4 Studio, which is known for explorative expressionism. But in the end, he still stuck to the method of Photographic Realism. The artist claimed that he was calmly crazy about the polishing of each step and detail during the process of painting.

Zhang Shujian, Black Eyes, 2012; 160×200cm

Zhang Shujian, Black No.4(detail); pencil on paper, 109×78.5cm

Zhang Shujian, Face Silhouette, 2012; oil on board, 30×35cm

Zhang Shujian, Face Silhouette 02, 2012; oil on board

Painting: Jin Shangyi and Zhang Shujian is the first exhibition of “Painting Project”. It offers concentrated attention and research on realistic painting by Taikang Space. This exhibition will showcase 11 paintings by Zhang Shujian, as well as some of Mr. Jin’s works/publications and related documents.

Zhang Shujian was born in Hunan Province in 1987 and graduated from the Department of Oil Painting of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2010. He won several awards in different exhibitions, including the graduation exhibition.

Painting Project

"Painting" is the research project of history and the current status of Chinese modern and contemporary painting launched by Taikang Space. The recognition, exploration and development of a painting language needs the historical accumulation of a very long time. Each language of painting is inevitably given multiple meanings by different “-isms” in a specific time and space. Its core concerns the nature of painting of the art itself. Through examining and arranging all the history of painting language, Taikang’s “Painting Project” chooses to show the representative works by an old artist and a young artist and studies their different understandings and pursuits for the same painting language, as well as the evolution in the nature of painting as embodied by their works.

"Relations between generations” is what this project emphasizes. It is also a comparatively obvious characteristic of this project. The history of Chinese oil painting is only a hundred years old. If we consider it as an entirety macroscopically, we can see several major phases. This project will choose two artists in different phases to compare, one old artist and one young artist. it hopes to discuss the change of the noumenon of painting through examining the difference and relationship between the generations as shown in similar styles of painting.

About the Exhibition

Curator: Tang Xin, Su Wenxiang, Xu Chongbao

Venue: Taikang Space

Artists: JIN Shangyi, ZHANG Shujian

Date: 21 Jun - 11 Aug 2012

Courtesy of the artists and Taikang Space.