Exhibition Name: "Youth Impressions -6th Guan Shanyue Art Museum Youth Gongbi Painting Exhibition"

Exhibition Venue: Hall A, B, and C on the first floor of Shenzhen Guan Shanyue Art Museum

Opening time: December 21, 2019 15:30

Exhibition period: December 20th to December 29th, 2019

Chinese Gongbi painting has a long history, dating back to the Warring States period silk painting. During the Tang and Song dynasties, it reached its peak and gave birth to an insurmountable artistic peak, as well as classic works that will forever remain in the annals of Chinese history. After the Tang and Song dynasties, with the decline of ancient China's national strength and the rise of literati painting, Gongbi painting gradually declined, and by the end of the Qing Dynasty, it could be said that it had declined to the extreme.     

Since the Opium War, China has embarked on a process of national rejuvenation, with several generations of people searching and struggling to move forward. Fortunately, since the 20th century, especially since the founding of the People's Republic of China 70 years ago, the Chinese people have continuously created miracles, and Gongbi painting has also begun to recover. The truly rapid development of Chinese Gongbi painting was in the 1980s after the reform and opening up. We can say that the rise and fall of Chinese Gongbi painting and the rise and fall of the Chinese nation are synchronous.     

As for Shenzhen, it took a leap from Bao'an County being abolished as a county in 1979 to the establishment of an economic special zone the following year. By 2018, the city's gross domestic product has increased by more than two thousand times, and its economic output ranks third among mainland cities in China. Today, Shenzhen has become a model for understanding the 40 year development process of China's reform and opening up, and has formed a new modern urban cultural characteristic that is different from traditional social culture, pursuing a cultural value of "harmony but diversity, inclusiveness". This is due to the integration of different regional cultures, and it is also a cultural reflection of the development of reform and opening up and the socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics.    

In the historical process of reform and opening up, and in the academic atmosphere of cultural integration and infiltration between the East and the West, the exploratory spirit and creative consciousness of contemporary meticulous painters have been promoted. With a tolerant, open, diverse, and innovative attitude, everyone continues the tradition of meticulous painting, while also drawing nourishment from visual art from ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad. This has greatly expanded the spiritual connotation and formal language of meticulous painting, and has become one of the most creative and pioneering types of painting in contemporary Chinese painting. We can say that Chinese meticulous painting has begun a comprehensive transformation and revival.  

The rise and fall of Chinese Gongbi painting and the rise and fall of the Chinese nation are synchronous, and the cultural characteristics of Shenzhen's urban culture today are also intertwined with the cultural characteristics of Chinese Gongbi painting. This is precisely why the Guan Shanyue Art Museum has been focusing on the development of contemporary Chinese meticulous painting since 2014, integrating high-quality social resources, and hosting "Youth Impressions" for five consecutive years.                                                                       

This year, "Youth Impressions" welcomed its sixth session.In order to better research and promote outstanding young artists, this exhibition adopts a more targeted and open "theme exhibition+spatial projects" exhibition structure. The collection of works continues the combination of previous invitations from renowned artists, nominations from subject experts, and submissions, aiming to present the latest creative achievements of the new era of meticulous painting art from multiple perspectives and explore new ways of expression in contemporary Chinese meticulous painting.

Vice President of the Chinese Gongbi Painting Society

Director of Guan Shanyue Art Museum

Chen Xiangbo