A life by the river
Exhibition of the artist Chen Jialing at the Réfectoire des Cordeliers (Paris), guided tour by Cao Dan and He Jing, curators of the exhibition.
For his first personal exhibition in France, the Chinese artist Chen Jialing, born in 1937, presents to the public around forty paintings, ceramics and tapestries illustrating the importance of the river theme within his production.
This exhibition is part of the 60e anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between France and China as well as that of an intercultural and artistic project between Paris and Shanghai. Taking the river as its theme, it demonstrates the link between the artist and water; born in Tonglu, a city at the confluence of two tributary rivers of the Yangtze, in the southeast of China, he then studied at the Hangzhou School of Fine Arts, near the Great West Lake before established, in the 70s, in Shanghai, a city also located on the water's edge. The river is thus a reflection of the artist and his life.
From an aesthetic point of view, Chen Jialing is one of the great representatives of the Shanghai School, an artistic movement initiated in the mid-19rd century, which is at the origin of the renewal of traditional Chinese painting. The artist, who is part of the heritage of the great Chinese tradition of shanshui (mountains and water) which consists of painting natural landscapes with brush and ink, also seeks to renew this age-old art.
The scenography, created by Frenchman Pascal Rodriguez, who notably worked for the Center Pompidou, highlights a route designed like a walk in a Chinese garden. While some works were created in the 1990s, others were created especially for this exhibition.
 “Autumn moon over a peaceful lake.” Ink on Xuan paper. Polyptych.180 cm X 485 cm. 2024. |
The polyptych Autumn moon over a peaceful lake (2024) depicts the Great West Lake near Hangzhou, a city of great importance to the artist. Part of the Shanghai School, Chen Jialing creates a work here at the crossroads of tradition and contemporary art. Indeed, the landscape strives to take an abstract form which does not exist in traditional Chinese painting. Another painting, which bears the poetic title of The blossoming of the brush (2024) shows Huangshan, the Yellow Mountain, and one of its characteristic details recognizable by all; the artist has represented, in the heart of this imposing mountain, a unique tree, born from a seed deposited by a bird during its adventures.
Chen Jialing also uses particularly bright colors to convey all the liveliness and delicacy of the elements of nature. So, Autumn colors (2017) demonstrates all the modernity sought by the author which moves away from traditional Chinese painting. The new way (2024), for its part, illustrates this permanence of the metaphor of life in Chen Jialing's art.
Inspired by the Chinese ceramics discovered at the National Museum of Asian Arts – Guimet during a stay in France in the 1990s, Chen Jialing began, in the following decade, to paint his own ceramics. Of imposing volume, these objects are made by artisans with whom the artist works in close collaboration. The latter enjoys measuring himself with the difficulties of firing ink and enamels on clay. Chen Jialing, who appreciates that the texture and colors are different from those used on Xuan paper, likes to leave room for cooking accidents. For him, they are the free expression of the “god of fire” and the force of nature.
 “Lotus Series” (8 pieces). Porcelain fired at high temperature. 1250 ° CH 160 cm – D. 45 cm. 1998. |
 “Iris No. 1”. Porcelain fired at high temperature. 1250 ° CH 120 cm – D. 165 cm. 2022-2024. |
Through this art of ceramics, Chen Jialing is part of the long tradition of Jingdezhen kilns. Some of his productions show us lotuses, symbols of purity in Buddhism, or even irises, “symbols of France” according to the artist, which decorate imposing jars of more than 522 cm in circumference and plates.
The last part of the exhibition presents a tapestry in silk threads executed using the traditional kèsī technique, based on a painting created in 2009.
 “Shaping the mind and the soul”. Kèsī type tapestry in silk threads. Polyptych. 183cm x 98cm. Original painting 2009. Tapestry 2023-24. |
Thus, this exhibition at the Réfectoire des Cordeliers – for which Éric Lefebvre, Director of the Cernuschi Museum, was scientific advisor – testifies to the versatile talent of Chen Jialing, whose artistic production is characterized by a constant balance between tradition and modernity.
