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Art Notes - Juli's Top Picks September

Closing Soon! Last month to see…

 
Shanshui: Poetry without Sound? Landscape in Chinese Contemporary Art, Works from the Sigg Collection
 
Museum of Art Lucerne/Kunstmuseum Luzern
Europaplatz 1
6002 Lucerne
21 May – 2 October 2011
www.kunstmuseumluzern.ch
 
Curated by Ai Weiwei, Peter Fischer, and Uli Sigg
 
Shanshui: Poetry without Sound? Landscape in Chinese Contemporary Art, an exhibition of seventy key works culled from the prestigious and extensive Sigg Collection, is on view for its last month at the Museum of Art Lucerne. Juxtaposing the contemporary loans, dated 1994 to 2011, are eleven outstanding examples of traditional shanshui painting from the Rietberg Museum Zurich, the Musée Guimet Paris, and the M K Lau Collection Hong Kong.
 
Despite the variety and multiplicity in contemporary Chinese landscape art seen in the galleries, the exhibition asserts that the roots of the shanshui tradition traverse through much of today’s work because of the brush ink painting techniques that continue to be revered and taught at Chinese art academies—endowing young artists with a strong practice to draw upon as well as reference. The works were brought together through the perspective lens of shanshui (which literally translates as “mountain-water-painting”), and in this sense have found a perfect setting in their tranquil lakeside venue surrounded by mountains.
 
This distinctive Swiss-Chinese venture, organized with keen insight by museum curator Peter Fischer together with the celebrated Chinese conceptual artist (and recently released political dissident) Ai Weiwei and Uli Sigg (the former Swiss ambassador to China and one of the world’s leading experts on Chinese contemporary art), explores the relevance of this time-honored artistic expression in a contemporary context. Since it is almost impossible to consider nature today without taking into account industrialization, it is no surprise that some of the artworks—such as Ai Weiwei’s Provisional Landscape suite of photographs depicting bleak project sites—opens the question of industrialization’s impact on ecological resources.
 
Yet, while certain works hint, and probe to varying degrees, the theme of civilization’s slow encroach upon the natural environment, the exhibition—true to its title—mostly focuses on the spirit and poetry of the landscape, offering stunning examples of playful, elegant, and artistically open renderings of mountains, trees, and water in many forms.
 
In addition to international stars such as Ai Weiwei, Huang Yan, or Zhou Tiehai, the exhibition features a number of younger artists—recent discoveries on the global art scene who distinctively mix tradition with current artistic strategies to offer fresh perspectives on the notion of landscape and propose new contexts for cultural traditions.
 
Image Credits:
 
Ai Weiwei
The Wave 1, 2006
Porcelain, 42.5x38x16 cm
© the artist
 
Yang Yongliang
View of Tide, 2008 (Detail)
Inkjet print on rice paper, 45x1000 cm
© the artist
 
Huang Yan
Chinese Landscape Tattoo, No 6, 1999
C-print, 50,5x61,5 cm
© the artist
 

Founded by Juli Cho Bailer, ART NOTES is a short guide to exhibitions in Zurich, Zug, and Lucerne. ART NOTES recommends exhibitions, profiles artists and art world figures working and exhibiting in the area, and lists selected gallery and museum events. Ms. Bailer is a curator, art advisor, and exhibition consultant with over 15 years of museum experience. Ms. Bailer is also Art Editor at Zurich4You, Zug4You, and Lucerne4You. She has lived in Canton Zug with her husband and children since 2007. More information: www.julibailer.com

 

 

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