Finding Animals 20th-Century Chinese Paintings from the Yitao Collection

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Sun Museum will present a new exhibition “Finding Animals 20th-Century Chinese Paintings from the Yitao Collection”, from Oct 7 to Dec 22, 2022. This exhibition features nearly 40 paintings by 10 Chinese painters of the 20th century selected from the Yitao Collection.

As a unique artistic language, animal images in Chinese ink paintings are endowed with different symbolic meanings. For example, deer means good luck, magpie means “happy”, and chicken means “lucky”. The appearance of animals in Chinese paintings must be carefully designed. Animal painting focuses on the overall layout, features and charm. Other than a single animal, it is also common to combine animals with different plants. The paintings in the exhibition feature a variety of animals, including horses, cows, cats, squirrels, eagles, chickens, etc., demonstrating the search for techniques and innovation in subject matter by 20th century Chinese ink painters.

Inspired by rural life, Qi Baishi specialized in painting of shrimps, crabs and birds. The animals he painted are lively, with a simple and innocent taste. Xu Beihong emphasised the lines and contours of his horses’ muscles and painted their joints and mane in ways that create a zestful and dynamic visual impact,combining the techniques of Chinese and Western paintings. Li Keran is used shade and light to amplify the layering effect and a sense of perspective in his work. Gao Qifeng made use of “Bumping Water and Powder” techniques to create amazingly realistic portrayal of the soft feathers of eagles.