Exhibition period: October 12th to October 21st, 2012

Exhibition location: Halls A and B, 1st floor, Guanshan Yue Art Museum

Organizers: Henan Provincial Department of Culture and Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Culture, Sports and Tourism

Undertaking units: Henan Provincial Art Museum and Guanshanyue Art Museum

Hua Jianguo was born in Kaifeng, Henan Province. He is currently the president of Henan Provincial Art Museum, Henan Sculpture and Painting Academy, vice chairman of Henan Artists Association, director of Henan Collectors Association, and member of China Artists Association. This exhibition features 90 abstract ink paintings of lotus flowers that he has recently created. Since the 1980s, Hua Jianguo's works have been recognized and recognized by industry professionals, winning numerous domestic and international awards, and being collected by collectors at home and abroad. This event will provide Shenzhen citizens with a unique visual and spiritual feast.        

The newly created ink painting "The Furious Pond" by Hua Jianguo in recent years is a representative work of his shift in creative themes from rural to urban areas. The author replaced the tranquility in pastoral works with some unease and agitation. Hua Jianguo believes that "when people reach the season of knowing their destiny, they often have a thorough understanding of problems, but sometimes there is still a lot of instability and turmoil in their hearts towards certain things, and they still retain some of the nature of being angry with the youth. For example, the lotus pond in autumn looks rustling, but deep in the soil, there are various struggles and erections of life." For such a complex state that combines life experiences and psychological feelings, it is difficult to express it with language and thoughts. Hua Jianguo uses the varied brushstrokes and complex image structures of ink painting to express this kind of life feeling of "wanting to say still, but the road is cool and autumn is good". Enlightenment.        

In terms of expression methods, Hua Jianguo's recent ink and wash creations have not only maintained the linear brushstrokes of early paintings, but also gradually increased multi-level ink rendering. From the original linear brushstrokes as the main focus, they have gradually transformed into a combination of lines and surfaces. Through ink and wash rendering and block surface segmentation of lines, the expression of the black and white relationship in the picture has been strengthened. This black and white relationship actually has an inherent overlap with the composition of calligraphy, but it has more freedom in painting, resulting in arbitrary composition and free spirited action. The black and white distribution on the plane already has an abstract meaning deeply embedded in it. His brushstrokes may seem chaotic, but in fact, there is an inherent logic generated by the artist's confidence. Hua Jianguo has a certain return to the form of literati painting in the use of brushes, that is, he pays more attention to the elements of "brush" or "writing" emphasized in Chinese painting, and comprehensively applies traditional brush and ink elements such as ink infiltration, brush speed, and level rendering. Although this application does not demonstrate the traditional skills of painters, it is more about expressing their psychological feelings towards modern life through the comprehensive effects and structural relationships of brush and ink. This is precisely the irreplaceable spiritual value and artistic function of modern ink in contemporary society.        

The works of Hua Jianguo are not imitations of nature, but the landscapes in the painter's mind. His works have transitioned from expressiveness to abstraction, reaching the edge of concreteness and abstraction. Taking "The Furious Pond No. 7" as an example, in his paintings, he only maintains the characteristics of traditional freehand brushwork in partial ink effects, while in overall conceptual communication, he has moved towards modern ink forms, which is a reasonable extension of Chinese ink tradition to modern experimental ink. Hua Jianguo comes from the deep cultural foundation of the Central Plains region, and his works mainly focus on modern ink painting. The organizer of this exhibition, Shenzhen Guanshanyue Art Museum, hopes to use this exhibition to enable Shenzhen citizens to understand not only the development of modern ink painting, but also the art creation situation in the Central Plains region.