April 14 2009No Commented

Categorized Under: Featured

Philadelphia
Ink Not Ink, April 2 - May 9, 2009
Drexel University
The Bossone Research Center & Atrium
The Paul Peck Alumni Center
The Leonard Pearlstein Gallery
墨非墨，四月二日至五月九日
卓克赛尔大学
柏松研究中心/保罗﹒佩克校友会/里奥纳多﹒裴斯坦画廊
On the same day of Zeng Fanzhi’s openning, Ink not Ink show opened at Drexel University in Philadelphia. The show is curated by Shenzhen Art Museum, organized by Ministry of Culture of the PRC and Drexel University School of the Arts. The show is a diplomatic move from the Drexel University. Years ago, Jiang Zeming’s son graduated from Drexel. Jian also stopped here to make a speech. At the opening, major of Philadelphia, delegation from Ministry of Culture, Lu Hong curator of the Shenzhen Art Museum, Robert Storr, Dean of the Yale School of Art, Richard Vice, Senior Editor, Art in America, and Melissa Chiu, Director of the Asia Society Museum, Christophe Mao, Founder and Director of Chambers Fine Art all attended the elaborate the openning of the show. Dr. Pan Qing, assistant curator from the National Art Museum of China hosted the symposium on Contemporary ink painting. The symposium is one of the most impressive one I attended recently. Pan served as the moderator and translator at the same time and asked each panelist to address the question on the state of Contemporary ink painting development/movement globally. Robert Storr perhaps is one of the most non official and intellectual American thinker: “there is always misunderstanding between the masters and their teachers….there is no division between the west and east, We live in cosmopolitan society. We are citizens of many countries.”
在曾梵志画展的同一天，“墨非墨”也在费城的D大学开幕。这次展览由深圳美术馆策展，中国文化部和D大学组织承办。此前江泽民的儿子从D大学毕业，所以这次展出可以看作为一次文化外交活动。开幕上，费城市长，中国文化部代表团，深圳美术馆策展人鲁虹，耶鲁大学艺术学院院长罗伯特﹒斯托，美国艺术高级主编理查德﹒韦恩，亚洲艺术协会的梅丽莎﹒周，前波艺术的创始人和总监克里斯托弗﹒毛都到场庆祝。中国美术馆的副策展人潘晴博士主持了讨论会。这次研讨会是笔者参加过最为震撼的一次。潘作为主持人和翻译，问了研讨会成员有关于现代国画在国际上的发展和运动。罗伯特斯托也许是最不正统而又最睿智的美式思考家，他说道：在大师和他们的老师的关系上，总是给后人误解……东西方之间是没有分歧的..我们活在一个世界性的社会里。我们都是多国公民。

Ink not Ink is the first government survey-scale exhibition of Contemporary Chinese art presented in Philadelphia. 80 paintings, prints, sculptures and videos by 40 artists were shown. Artists include Wenda Gu, Peng Wei, Lin Tianmiao and lesser known Chinese artists. According to its press release, the central theme of the exhibition is the critical role that the ancient tradition of ink painting plays in the cultural memory and imagination of many contemporary Chinese artists while they respond to China’s explosive economic growth and globalization. The outside cultural influences become obvious to artists in China. Artists are boldly experimenting with the new medium and technologies on an imposing scale, creating unprecedented admixtures of Western and Eastern imagery. Perhaps such theme is too general and non academic. What is really happening in Contemporary ink painting development, what are great works vs mediocre works? What do the artists want to say? How do they relate to their experience and cultural experience specifically? Perhaps the exhibition is a case study for us to look at the good, the bad and the ugly….
“墨非墨”是第一次中国政府在费城组织的现代水墨画回顾展，展示了80余幅绘画，印刷，雕塑和影响艺术作品。艺术家包括谷文达，彭伟，林天苗和一些鲜为人知的艺术家。根据官方报导，这次展出的中心是：生活在一个高速经济增长和全球化的世界里，中国现代艺术家对于古典国画的传统的记忆和想象。事实上，外界文化的影响对中国艺术家的影响是很明显的，因此这个中心有些太宽泛而不是那么学术。在中国现代国画的发展中，什么力量在推动它？什么样的作品才算是艺术？艺术家真正想表达什么？这种想法如何和他们的经历的文化联系起来？也许这次展出是一个很好的案例研究：艺术也分好的，不好的，很糟糕的。
The most impressive installation is by Wenda Gu. Wenda is one of the most important conceptual ink painters emerging from the 80s. Wenda’s United Nations is an on-going series of work bgeun in 1093. Wenda is as important as Xu Bing and Cai Guo-qiang who has established a global audience for his art. For Ink Not Ink, Wenda’s Man & Space Year 2000, a colossal, 100-ft high installation made of human hair that represent flags of all nations is the most significant work among the exhibition 100 flags were hung at The Bossone Research Center & Atrium, extending to one city block - “When I was in China, the nationality and culture is superior, the benefit of being in New York to be able to live in a multi-national society… United Nations is a title of the work… I want to extend my artistic idea to have all the cultures and racism in my work. I want actual people to participate in my work…” - video interview with Wenda Gu. Edward Lucie-Smith also explained Wenda’s UN projects. “in one sense, Wenda Gu’s project, with its all-embracing ambition, relates to European romanticism - to ideas inherited by the modernists from the culture of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In another sense, it is linked, as he himself points out “to growing self-awareness of regionalism and otherness.”
给人印象最深的是谷文达的装置。谷文达是８０年代以来最重要的概念国画家。他的“联合国”系列从１９９３年延续至今。他已经和徐冰，蔡国强一样树立了自己国际艺术家的形象。其中，艺术家谷文达庞大的装置作品《联合国-人间》将悬挂于作为重要展场的由贝律铭设计的Bossone Research Center 研究中心的展览入口处，艺术家收集世界各地区人发而创作了这堵由186面国旗组成的100英尺高的国旗墙。“当我还在中国时，中国的文化是主导性的。住在纽约的好处就是有着多国社会的环境。联合国是作品的名字……我想要扩展我的艺术观念到我的作品里，使其与所有的文化和种族息息相关。我想要人们参与到我的作品里。”这是爱德华﹒史密斯对谷文达的采访。爱德华也解释了谷文达的联合国作品：“从某种意义上来说，谷文达的作品带有‘拥抱一切’’的野心，和欧洲的浪漫主义一脉相传，也有从１８／１９世纪的现代主义传承下来的元素。从另一个角度来看，包括他自己也说到，他的作品是为了‘培养地域性的自我主义和利他主义’”

April 14 2009No Commented

Categorized Under: Featured

We are citizens of many countries
我们全是多国公民
There is no division between the east and west…. We live in a cosmopolitan society. We are citizens for many countries
- Robert Storr, Dean of Yale School of Art, April 2, 2009, Ink not Ink Symposium in Philadelphia
东西方之间是没有分歧的..我们活在一个世界性的社会里。我们都是多国公民。
—罗伯特 斯托，耶鲁大学艺术学院院长

It has been a long winter. Everyone is worries about market. Why can’t we forget what is selling and not selling? Why can’t we look at the intrinsic value of the art itself, how culture/art can save us and bring more value to our history, everyday life…
已经过了漫长的一个冬天。所有人都在为市场担忧。为什么我们不能忘记买卖而真正审视艺术的内在价值？文化与艺术如何给我们的历史与生活增值？
Let’s move beyond looking at numbers. Flowers are blooming in the park, in Tokyo, Paris, New York, San Francisco, Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Guangzhou, Philadelphia. The temperature is just right, not too hot or too warm, but occasionally with Spring thunderstorms. It is a turning point while the US is experiencing a severe downturn in economy, while world assets are moving towards Asia…Asian Contemporary Art exhibition openings are like Spring bamboos after the rain, one after the another. Here, there and everywhere.
还是先来看一下市场。国际艺术在百花齐放：东京，巴黎，纽约，三藩，北京，上海，苏州，广州，费城。八个字概括：不温不火，时有暴雨。事实上，当美国市场受到重创，世界资产都向亚洲转移。亚洲当代艺术展览像雨后春笋般浮现。

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