The best of splash-color paintings on show at Biennale
The Liu Haisu Art Museum is hosting the "5th Chinese Splash-Color Painting Biennale" until November 27.
Initiated in 2014 at the Kunshan Hou Beiren Art Museum, the biennale now serves as a showcase for the most recent splash-color paintings created by a group of Chinese artists.
Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) and Liu Haisu (1896-1994), two prominent figures in China's modern art history, pioneered Chinese splash-color painting around the middle of the 19th century.
Since then, a group of Chinese artists have used techniques that mix traditional Chinese painting with modern Western elements. These techniques show a balance between modernity and tradition, abstraction and realism, and reason and feeling.
Liu Haisu's "Lotus"
The exhibition contains over 70 works by 29 artists, including masterpieces by Liu Haisu and Hou Beiren (1917-).
Considered a "spiritual leader and academic mentor" to the younger generation of splash-color artists, Liu formed his distinctive splash-color style by assimilating parts of Western post-impressionism painting with the traditional Chinese splash-ink technique. The paintings of Liu may have hints of Cezanne, Van Gogh, and Matisse.
In contrast to him, Hou Beiren frequently referred to the Western abstract style or the method of light and shadow in order to replicate the classic Chinese literati paintings under his brushstrokes.
Hou Beiren's "Wild Mountain and Hill"
"Splash-color painting is firmly entrenched in Chinese traditional art and culture," said Bao Weihua, director of the Liu Haisu Art Museum. "It reaches its climax via the clash of Western and Eastern art. At this show, we are pleased to find the works of young, promising Chinese artists who inherit and experiment with the style."
Date: Through November 27 (closed on Mondays), 10am-5pm
Venue: Liu Haisu Art Museum
Address: 1609 Yan'an Rd W.
