Invaluable art

Date:2018-09-10    Source:china culture

Qi Baishi's iconic painting, Twelve Screens of Landscapes in Four Seasons, is shown at the Art Museum of the Beijing Fine Art Academy.[Photo provided to China Daily]

As part of an effort to increase people's understanding of Qi and his art, the Twelve Screens of Landscapes in Four Seasons collection was transported from Chongqing to Beijing, where they are now on show at The Landscape in Mind Surprises the World, an exhibition at the Art Museum of Beijing Fine Art Academy that runs through Sept 23.

Sharing the limelight at this exhibition dedicated to Qi's landscape art are dozens of major works, sketches and drafts from several institutions, such as the Beijing Fine Art Academy, the Palace Museum and the Liaoning Provincial Museum in Shenyang that boast rich collections of Qi's artworks.

The record-breaking sale has ignited people's interest in learning more about Qi, prompting a number of well-curated exhibitions at home and abroad. Besides the exhibition at the Art Museum of the Beijing Fine Art Academy, a show of Qi's art is being held at the Palace Museum through Oct 8.

Wu Hongliang, director of the Art Museum of the Beijing Fine Art Academy, says the museum will exhibit the academy's collection of Qi's works in Liechtenstein and Japan within the year.

Qi became the academy's honorary head when it was established in 1957. He died a few months later and his family donated a number of his works and collections to the academy.

Wu says Qi endeavored in the realm of classic Chinese art - he was adept at painting, calligraphy, poetry and seal carving - and his moves to reject the highly formulated styles popular at the time were "spontaneous with similar movements in Europe in the early 20th century, such as post-impressionism and fauvism".

"I wonder how Qi would feel in the next world," Wu says, joking, "if he knew his works were going places today?"

The master would have felt pleased, as traveling brought significant changes to his landscape works. He undertook five separate journeys across the country between 1902 and 1909, famously known as "five outings and five returns", which inspired him to develop his own individual style.

When Qi set out to visit a friend in the north of China, he was a father of three children, who felt discontented with a potential future as a rural painter in his native Hunan province.

Qi Baishi's iconic painting, Houses and Bamboo, is shown at the Art Museum of the Beijing Fine Art Academy.[Photo provided to China Daily]

His extensive travels over a seven-year period afterward covered major cities, including Xi'an, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

Before the trips, Qi taught himself to paint by learning from Jieziyuan Huapu, a standard manual on Chinese ink painting, and copied the works of great painters from centuries ago.

Nature invigorated him, liberating him from the restraints of conventional rules. He gradually reduced the heavy layering and shading of the subjects and instead applied as few strokes as possible to reinforce the serenity and purity of the natural scenery. He quit using a long-favored monochromatic style and adopted a vibrant palette to convey the vitality of nature.

He rediscovered himself among the mountains and rivers. Even though his depiction of objects didn't look delicate enough to meet the standard approaches he had learned from painting manuals, he continued to convey his feelings through his art.

After returning from his final trip, Qi produced two collections of landscapes, Twenty-four Scenes of Shimen and Jieshan Tu, which show his initial experiments with a new approach. They are both on show at the ongoing exhibition at the Art Museum of the Beijing Fine Art Academy.

"I want to borrow from nature," he had once said of the subjects he painted.

Qi's paintings have led the audiences, whether in the past or the present, into the panorama of nature and introduced them to a Chinese cultural spirit that emphasizes a return to natural simplicity.

His paintings also reveal that he remained positive and peaceful, says Mei Mosheng, a painter and researcher at the China National Academy of Painting.

"He lived a long life, being genuine, simple and diligent."

If you go

9 am-5 pm, closed on Mondays, through Sept 23. 12 Chaoyang Gongyuan Nan Lu, Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-6502-5171.