Seventy works of around thirty artists are brought together to illustrate the evolution of a traditional technique confronted with tremors of history.
by Sylvie Kerviel
Located on the edge of the Monceau Park, in Paris, the Cernuschi museum, the case wanted by the Italian businessman and republican exiled in France Henri Cernuschi (1821-1896), has an important collection of Asian art . Parts from China, but also from Japan, Vietnam or Korea, bought in quantity by the industrialist during his trips, or acquired by the establishment, owned by the City of Paris, to which he had bequeathed him as well as its collections.
Among the works to enrich the fund more recently, many Chinese artists from the 20th century and contemporary. Little present in the permanent journey, these pieces rarely have the opportunity to get out of the reserves. This is currently the case, thanks to the exhibition “L’encre en moifte”, which, under this intriguing title, unfolds a history of Chinese painting in the 20th century century. From the end of the Empire to the Second World War, from the 1949 Revolution to the opening of the 1980s, this century was a period of turbulence for China. And for painting artists, when they have the opportunity to travel, in Japan first and then in Europe and America, the possibility of confronting their art, defined for centuries by the use of ink, with techniques and gestures observed elsewhere.
Sixty-dixing works, on silk or paper, produced by around thirty artists, including seven still alive, are presented in five rooms from the museum where a subdued light protects these fragile pieces from the alteration. Videos showing some of their authors at work accompany the presentation throughout the course, illustrating the gestural dimension of their art. Placed on the ground in order to make the visitor experience the posture of the painter in action, one of the screens invites to observe, as posted behind his shoulder, Zhang Daqian (1899-1983), on his knees, walking on the wide brush paper soaked in a bucket of black ink, in an almost choreographic movement.
nature and animals
The course begins with the advent of the Republic in 1912, which signed the end of the imperial regime and which is accompanied by a renewal of calligraphic and pictorial art, marked by a rediscovery of archaic spellings appearing on ritual vases or stelae. Witness the ink on paper from Kang Youwei (1858-1927), memory of the Lady Qiao (1920), where the ideograms are surprised by their rough style.
The trip to Japan is then an important step in training young Chinese artists. They study Western techniques there in art schools where French teachers teach in particular and bring color into their palette. At the same time, the old imperial collections of the Forbidden City open to the public. The artists rediscover part of the Chinese pictorial tradition, where nature and animals predominate. Work on representative paper of this era, peonies (1947), by Yu Fei’an (1889-1959), offers a calligraphié poem accompanied by a bouquet of flowers with degraded rose and purple, stems and leaves being made at the ‘Ink.
You have 47.76% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.