PRINTCatalogue Note:
Looking backward on the movement of contemporary art in China in the past three decades, Zhou Chunya always kept himself away from the trends, but art critics would praise his "non-conformist" art as always. Resolutely ignoring new developments in current affairs and new trends in the arts, Zhou has continued to search for things that can inspire him and create a sense of the positive, beautiful aspect of the world we live in. This is dramatically different from the attitude adopted by the majority of contemporary Chinese artists, who position themselves as rationalist spectators standing off to one side and clinically observing historical events. Viewed from this perspective, Zhou Chunya is, in spiritual terms, an absolute liberal. Whether he is addressing East Asian culture, Western culture, history, tradition, or the avant-garde, Zhou is equally openminded and receptive.
The years Zhou Chunya spent in Germany in the 1980s had influenced much on his career. The masterpieces of modern Western art and German expressionism deeply affected Zhou's subsequent artistic career. Living in a foreign country also ignited Zhou's passion for traditional Chinese culture. After return to China, Zhou assiduously studied the Chinese literati landscape painting tradition as it evolved from the Ming Dynasty onwards, immersing himself in the landscape works of the "Four Wangs" (Wang Shimin, Wang Jian, Wang Hui and Wang Yuanqi) and the "Four Monks" (Zhu Da, Shi Tao, Kun Can and Hong Ren), and deriving spiritual nourishment from this rich classical culture.
In the early 1990s, as he wanted to refine his texture and composition skills, Zhou Chunya began to work on a series of paintings on the subject matter of "artificial rocks", Commonly seen in traditional Chinese gardens, seeking to extract the unique aesthetic features of this semiabstract art form. To realize this project, Zhou made many trips to the mountain areas in Sichuan to study particular types of stones. During the period 1992-1996, Zhou completed a series of works that constituted an experimental development and interpretation of traditional Chinese gardens and traditional Chinese "bird and flower" painting. The style of these paintings fused the spirit of expressionist art, sketching and ink brush landscape painting with the techniques of expressionism. "Stone Series - Stone and Tree" and "Memory of Lung Chuen Lake" are two of Zhou's finest works from this period. Around the year 2000, visits to Suzhou and Yangzhou inspired Zhou's interests in Taihu stone (a type of porous limestone). Zhou felt that Taihu stone was the most intrinsically Chinese of all objects, with its sense of history, its hardness, its vigor, its complexity, its fearsomeness, its brutality and its beauty all combined as one. Taihu stone was the most famous kind of stone being used in traditional Chinese gardens. With its unique shapes, Taihu stone naturally became a key scenic feature in a garden, and attracted the interest of the literati. If the Western tradition is to carve stone, the East Asian tradition is to depict stone as it is, and Zhou Chunya remains faithful to this tradition. Zhou uses his own unique artistic lexicon to endow cold, unfriendly stone with emotion and life.
Zhou Chunya is always highly praised for his talent on color. Zhou excels at filling canvases with rich, finely textured colors that are simultaneously sensitive, passionate and precise. Besides the outstanding use of color in his "Green Dog" and "Red Man" series, Zhou's utilization of color in his "Rock" series is also very impressive. In the "Taihu Stone" series, the use of scarlet derives ultimately from the red mud that collected was from in the holes in Taihu stone. The flowing colors of these paintings make the rocks a flesh-like vitality that is one of the key distinguishing features of the artistic lexicon that underpins the "Taihu Stone" series of paintings.
This lot is a work from Zhou Chunya's "Mountain and Rock Series" which combines the rich texturing of Zhou's other "Mountain and Rock" paintings from the 1990s with the distinctive expressive techniques employed in Zhou's "Taihu Lake Stone" series to portray powerful inner emotion. Red rock occupies most of the right hand side of the canvas; set off as it is against a "cold" background color tone, the red stone seems especially somber and gloomy, carrying with it a slight sense of foreboding. The smooth, flowing use of color in this painting represents a continuation of the way Zhou used the color red in his "Taihu Lake Stone" series; the artist himself has suggested that this constitutes an expression of subconscious emotion that has spontaneously burst forth. Mountains and rocks have been an ever-present cultural theme for Zhou Chunya, one which has consistently been reflected in his art over the years. In his mountain and rock paintings, Zhou is also exploring the impact of cultural traditions on contemporary society.
Zhou studied art in Germany from 1986 to 1988. He was amazed and deeply influenced by German Expressionism and Neo-Expressionism. During the early 90s, he began to study traditional Chinese painting. While indulging himself in the majestic atmosphere and exquisite deepness of the Chinese literati paintings of Wang Meng, Bada Shanren and Huang Binhong, he was also stimulated and inspired by the essence, spirit and depth of tradition.
Talking about his "Mountain and Rocks" series, he said, "I was studying literati landscape painting when working on ‘Rocks'. I didn't try to understand literati from its material properties and forms like Chinese painters once did, but I tried to look for those unfamiliar yet surprising objects with my own will for artistic expression. I spent time on passion and texture, almost obsessively trying to capture and explore the visual elements hidden in the natural properties of rocks. By strengthening these elements, enlargement itself is the form while the visual presentation is the content: no further explanation or implication is required. The stones we saw and experienced are so amazing under the view of concept and art method."
The years Zhou Chunya spent in Germany in the 1980s had influenced much on his career. The masterpieces of modern Western art and German expressionism deeply affected Zhou's subsequent artistic career. Living in a foreign country also ignited Zhou's passion for traditional Chinese culture. After return to China, Zhou assiduously studied the Chinese literati landscape painting tradition as it evolved from the Ming Dynasty onwards, immersing himself in the landscape works of the "Four Wangs" (Wang Shimin, Wang Jian, Wang Hui and Wang Yuanqi) and the "Four Monks" (Zhu Da, Shi Tao, Kun Can and Hong Ren), and deriving spiritual nourishment from this rich classical culture.
In the early 1990s, as he wanted to refine his texture and composition skills, Zhou Chunya began to work on a series of paintings on the subject matter of "artificial rocks", Commonly seen in traditional Chinese gardens, seeking to extract the unique aesthetic features of this semiabstract art form. To realize this project, Zhou made many trips to the mountain areas in Sichuan to study particular types of stones. During the period 1992-1996, Zhou completed a series of works that constituted an experimental development and interpretation of traditional Chinese gardens and traditional Chinese "bird and flower" painting. The style of these paintings fused the spirit of expressionist art, sketching and ink brush landscape painting with the techniques of expressionism. "Stone Series - Stone and Tree" and "Memory of Lung Chuen Lake" are two of Zhou's finest works from this period. Around the year 2000, visits to Suzhou and Yangzhou inspired Zhou's interests in Taihu stone (a type of porous limestone). Zhou felt that Taihu stone was the most intrinsically Chinese of all objects, with its sense of history, its hardness, its vigor, its complexity, its fearsomeness, its brutality and its beauty all combined as one. Taihu stone was the most famous kind of stone being used in traditional Chinese gardens. With its unique shapes, Taihu stone naturally became a key scenic feature in a garden, and attracted the interest of the literati. If the Western tradition is to carve stone, the East Asian tradition is to depict stone as it is, and Zhou Chunya remains faithful to this tradition. Zhou uses his own unique artistic lexicon to endow cold, unfriendly stone with emotion and life.
Zhou Chunya is always highly praised for his talent on color. Zhou excels at filling canvases with rich, finely textured colors that are simultaneously sensitive, passionate and precise. Besides the outstanding use of color in his "Green Dog" and "Red Man" series, Zhou's utilization of color in his "Rock" series is also very impressive. In the "Taihu Stone" series, the use of scarlet derives ultimately from the red mud that collected was from in the holes in Taihu stone. The flowing colors of these paintings make the rocks a flesh-like vitality that is one of the key distinguishing features of the artistic lexicon that underpins the "Taihu Stone" series of paintings.
This lot is a work from Zhou Chunya's "Mountain and Rock Series" which combines the rich texturing of Zhou's other "Mountain and Rock" paintings from the 1990s with the distinctive expressive techniques employed in Zhou's "Taihu Lake Stone" series to portray powerful inner emotion. Red rock occupies most of the right hand side of the canvas; set off as it is against a "cold" background color tone, the red stone seems especially somber and gloomy, carrying with it a slight sense of foreboding. The smooth, flowing use of color in this painting represents a continuation of the way Zhou used the color red in his "Taihu Lake Stone" series; the artist himself has suggested that this constitutes an expression of subconscious emotion that has spontaneously burst forth. Mountains and rocks have been an ever-present cultural theme for Zhou Chunya, one which has consistently been reflected in his art over the years. In his mountain and rock paintings, Zhou is also exploring the impact of cultural traditions on contemporary society.
Zhou studied art in Germany from 1986 to 1988. He was amazed and deeply influenced by German Expressionism and Neo-Expressionism. During the early 90s, he began to study traditional Chinese painting. While indulging himself in the majestic atmosphere and exquisite deepness of the Chinese literati paintings of Wang Meng, Bada Shanren and Huang Binhong, he was also stimulated and inspired by the essence, spirit and depth of tradition.
Talking about his "Mountain and Rocks" series, he said, "I was studying literati landscape painting when working on ‘Rocks'. I didn't try to understand literati from its material properties and forms like Chinese painters once did, but I tried to look for those unfamiliar yet surprising objects with my own will for artistic expression. I spent time on passion and texture, almost obsessively trying to capture and explore the visual elements hidden in the natural properties of rocks. By strengthening these elements, enlargement itself is the form while the visual presentation is the content: no further explanation or implication is required. The stones we saw and experienced are so amazing under the view of concept and art method."