Museum Collection Show
Warm Wind From Shimalaya
Although quite different from the art of Lingnan school and Chao Shao-An, the painting of Ming Ren also reflect an artist’s negotiation between Chinese and Western painting. Ren came of age during the Culture Revolution, and his early training in painting was in Socialist Realism before learning about and experimenting in more contemporary styles. Since the late 1980s he has traveled extensively and lived both in China and the United States. His paintings, like this imagined mountain landscape high in the Himalayas (ximalaya in Chinese), are created with an element of chance. Ren pours ink and colors in a manner that never be completely controlled, resulting in “happy accidents.” The result is more impressionistic than scientific, inviting the viewer to meditate on these accidental forms that evoke the natural world, the cosmos, traditional Chinese landscapes, and energetic abstract painting.
Curator: Li He
