Chinese Artists in Paris

9 September - 31 December 2011

1920-1958: from Lin Fengmian to Zao Wu-ki
In 1911, following the fall of the empire, some of the Chinese intellectual elite decided to turn to the West to modernize the country. From the 1920 years, more and more artists went to Europe. Paris was to welcome artists as important as: Lin Fengmian, Xu Beihong, Pan Yuliang, Sanyu (Chang Yu), Zao Wu-ki (Zhao Wuji), Liu Haisu, Chang Shuhong, Hua Tianyou, Pang Xunqin, Chu Teh-chun (Zhu Dequn).

Their stay in France resulted in a profound break with Chinese artistic traditions: the academic teaching provided by the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris durably marked the artists who studied there as Xu Beihong, while painters enrolled in independent academies, such as Pang Xunqin, seem to have been sensitive earlier to the influence of the avant-gardes. Finally, we must remember that Paris was also a starting point to Europe. After their passage through the French capital, Xu Beihong et Lin Fengmian stayed in Germany, Pan Yuliang studied sculpture in Rome and Liu Haisu undertakes a great tour which he publishes in his Notes on Europe.

This Parisian experience has had major repercussions on the training of a whole generation of Chinese artists. Upon their return to China, Xu Beihong et Lin Fengmian have played a decisive role in the reform of arts education. This creative alternative has allowed a whole generation of artists to be immediately at the confluence of two cultural traditions. Among the students trained by Lin Fengmian, who were going back to France after 1945, the names of Zao Wou-ki (Zhao Wuji), and Chu Teh-chun (Zhu Dequn), are now indissociable from the Parisian art scene of the twentieth century.

Works presented: 70 paintings, 10 prints and drawings, 4 sculptures dated from 1930 to 1958.

Six contemporary creations in Parc Monceau
A series of plastic works, mainly sculptures, will also be created and exhibited in Parc Monceau during the exhibition. This is the first time that Parc Monceau hosts an exhibition of artists living and working in Paris. This tour will complete the exhibition presented inside the Cernuschi Museum.

Carmontelle (1717-1806), described the garden project that became Parc Monceau as "a land of illusions", bringing together "all times and all places ...". This vision of the art of the garden prefigures the project of presentation of the works of Chinese artists active in Paris. In response to the place, these works were gathered around the theme "Second Nature".

The anthropomorphic interpretation of nature embodied by the sculptures of Wang Keping ou Ma Desheng is also a reminiscence of the living presence of strange roots and stones in the Chinese scholar's garden and studio. At the same time, the tragic interrogation formulated by the naked animals of Chan Kai-yuen and the enticing monsters created by Ru Xiaofan question the complex relationships between nature and culture.

Other creations extend in a very current way the project designed by Carmontelle in the 18th century. The installation of Shen Yuan which renews the theme of rockery by playing the complementary relationship between microcosm and macrocosm, is undoubtedly one of the most interesting staging of the relationship of cities to nature. As for Huang Yongpinghis historical vision of the garden as an ancestor of the theme park has led to an ironic transposition of the naumachies of the past, which raises the question of the naivety of our war games and their excesses.

Commissioner: Eric Lefebvre, Curator at the Cernuschi Museum