《穿越时空的星河》局部

曹俊1966年在中国江苏出生长大，那里的湖泊和河流塑造了他童年生长环境。他在泰山附近学习和工作了18年，泰山是中国古老的祭祀和礼仪场所之一。在水景和山地地形的具体体验，为曹俊的艺术创作提供了借鉴。在北京接受过正规训练后，定居于新西兰，还游遍了欧洲和美国。最近他去了南北极和阿拉斯加北部地区旅行。

《对自然的赞美诗》是曹俊在美国的首次展览。它探讨了他的艺术在自然体验中的深层根源，以及他如何描绘自己所体验的大自然。这也体显了曹俊对古人的绘画新颖的再现，鼓励人们去思考中国传统艺术的与现在艺朮之间的动态对话。

展览按主题安排，以他早期描绘野生动物的作品开始。然后转向他那些使用泼墨技术创作的山水画，继而展现的是他的书法和陶瓷作品，最后展示的是他后期抽象作品，探索空间现象可能出现的各种形态。

《对自然的赞美诗》附有由约翰·萨利斯主编，中美学者撰文的文集，这些学生们研究了曹俊的艺术如何将中国古典绘画元素与类似西方艺术的现代抽象形式融合在一起。该文集还讨论了这位艺术家作品的哲学和诗情哲理的维度，以及曹俊与自然世界的深厚关联。

《对自然的赞美诗》由John Sallis策划，并由波士顿学院在McMullen博物馆推出。

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River of Stars Crossing Time and Space 穿越时空的星河, 2016, mixed media on canvas, 162 x 330 cm ©曹俊

A Pond with the Fragrance of Lotus一塘荷气, 2006, ink on paper, 190 x 520 cm © 曹俊

National Spirit 国风, 1999, ink and watercolor on paper, 180 x 144 cm © 曹俊

Thousands of Rivers Converge 万水归堂, 2016, ink and watercolor on paper, mounted on board, 120 x 114 cm © 曹俊

A Cloud-Enshrouded Mountain Enters into a Dream 云山入梦, 2012, ink and watercolor on paper, mounted on board, 140 x 78 cm © 曹俊

Golden Autumn 金秋, 2017, ink and watercolor on paper, mounted on board, 108 x 78 cm © 曹俊

A Cool Breeze with the Fragrance of Flowers 花气杂风凉, 2007, ink and watercolor on paper, 274 x 69 cm © 曹俊

Poetry’s Evocative Power over Wind and Fog 诗句成风, 2014, ink and watercolor on paper, 108 x 78 cm ©曹俊

A Pond of Lotus 塘荷气, 2010, porcelain, 40 x 28 cm © 曹俊

Cao Jun was born in 1966 and raised in Jiangsu Province in southern China, where the lakes and rivers shaped his childhood environment. For eighteen years he studied and worked near Mount Tai, one of China’s most ancient places of worship and ceremonial ritual. Concrete experience of both aquatic sites and mountainous terrain informed Cao Jun’s approach to artistic creation. After formal training in Beijing, he settled in New Zealand yet traveled throughout Europe and the United States. More recently he journeyed to the polar regions and northern Alaska.

Hymns to Nature is Cao Jun’s first exhibition in the United States. It examines the deep roots of his art in the experience of nature and how he portrays our place within it. It also illuminates his novel responses to admired, earlier paintings by his countrymen, encouraging us to ponder a dynamic dialogue between Chinese art of the past and that of the present.

Arranged thematically, the exhibition opens with his early works depicting wild animals. It moves on to later paintings where he employs the techniques of ink- and color-splashing to render mountain landscapes, water, and flowers. Subsequent areas display his calligraphy and porcelain. The exhibition concludes with more recent abstract works exploring the various configurations in which spatial phenomena can appear.

Hymns to Nature is accompanied by a catalogue, edited by John Sallis, with contributions by Chinese and American scholars that examine the ways in which Cao Jun’s art fuses elements of classical Chinese painting with modern abstract forms akin to those of Western art. Essays also discuss the philosophical and poetic dimensions of the artist’s work, as well as Cao Jun’s profound connections to the natural world.

Organized by the McMullen Museum, Hymns to Nature has been curated by John Sallis and underwritten by Boston College with major support from the Patrons of the McMullen Museum.