A roaring ceramic camel made in 11th- century China will be lined up alongside a cutting-edge, modern Chinese graphic work for the first time in a top European art gallery in September.
Demonstrating the Chinese spirit in the eyes of Europeans is what is being projected by the organizers of a grand exhibition that will feature both traditional and modern Chinese art works.
"The roaring ceramic camel and the modern graphic work, for example, both demonstrate the explosive power of the Chinese, which we Europeans believe to be a most important feature of the Chinese spirit," said Bernhard Mensch, director of the Ludwig Gallery at Oberhausen Castle, Germany.
The Ludwig Gallery's coming exhibition "China - Tradition and Modernity," which is assisted by the Ludwig Gallery , will also include works that are representative of "the power of concentration," another side of the Chinese spirit, as Mensch puts it.
Understanding both sides of the Chinese spirit is vital for Europeans to know about the reality of Chinese contemporary art and modern China, as well as the connections between traditional and modern art, according to Mensch.
"Some Europeans have a prejudice towards Chinese art, especially Chinese contemporary art, partly due to our distorted media reports," said the director.
"Whenever they think of Chinese art, they think first of 'Political Pop,' and only of 'Political Pops,'" he added.
The exhibition, which attempts to correct this prejudice by showing the heritage and diversity of Chinese art, will be the second major cooperative project between the Ludwig Gallery and the China National Art Museum.
A number of traditional Chinese art exhibits, including calligraphy and ink paintings, will be borrowed from the collection of the art museum in Beijing.
In 1996, Peter and Irene Ludwig, leading art collectors and founders of the 11 Ludwig Galleries around Europe, donated 89 world-class art masterpieces to the China National Art Museum. Among the most treasured works are some large paintings by Pablo Picasso.
Art diversity
The upcoming exhibition will be staged in the Ludwig Gallery in Oberhausen from this September to January 2003 before traveling to the Ludwig Galleries in Budapest and St. Petersburg.
More than 100 Chinese art pieces will be displayed on the three floors of the ancient German castle where the Oberhausen Ludwig Gallery is located.
On the ground floor, visitors will be able to see part of the Ludwigs' strong collection of Chinese contemporary art. More than 50 contemporary Chinese paintings, graphic art, and photographic works will be displayed. Most of them were completed in the 1990s.
According to Zhu Qingsheng, an art professor from Peking University who studied in Germany, only a few years ago many Europeans' knowledge of Chinese contemporary art was limited to "Political Pop."
Largely following Western Pop Art, the lesser school of Chinese modern art has been applauded by the Western media.
In 1996, this kind of art, mostly oil paintings, was especially highlighted in an exhibition entitled "China!" in Bonn, which strengthened the misunderstanding of Chinese contemporary art among Europeans.
"The problem of the Bonn exhibition is that it stressed politics too much but did not include what was really typical of Chinese culture," Zhu complained.
Seeing such art, some European critics even claimed that the type of contemporary art is not part of Chinese art, "since it only shows the influence of Western Pop Art."
"We want to show that Chinese contemporary art has a variety of forms and themes, among which 'Political Pop' accounts for less than 1 percent," said Peter Pachnicke, curator of the exhibition.
Among this variety, Pachnicke stressed the modern calligraphy works by Beijing artists Huang Miaozi and Gu Gan, who give ancient Chinese calligraphy a modern form of expression.
Pachnicke, however, said that most Chinese contemporary art pieces in Western collections "haven't achieved a respectable status."
"Chinese contemporary art needs to go back to its roots and find its particular strengths," said Pachnicke.
Professor Zhu pointed out that it is also necessary for Westerners to conduct objective research into art and society in China before they collect or exhibit Chinese contemporary art.
"In the past, many Westerners were often curious about the Chinese flavor displayed in works by those Chinese artists living in the West," Zhu said. "Unfortunately, most of such works have nothing to do with China's modernization and do not reflect the new artistic explorations happening in China.
"It is good that more and more Germans, for example, are aware of new trends in China such as modern calligraphy and modern wash-ink painting," Zhu said.
Glorious tradition
According to Pachnicke, the core of the exhibition lies on the first floor, where precious ancient Chinese art works are displayed.
The ancient works, including paintings, calligraphy, metal vessels, ceramics, porcelain and documents of Buddhism and Taoism, are from the collection of the Ludwigs and of the China National Art Museum.
Among the works will be a set of nine qings (ancient Chinese stone chimes), which date back to the BC 8th century.
Besides modern and traditional art works, the gallery will display on its second floor photographs about the daily life of Chinese people. All these photos were taken by European citizens living in China after 1949.
The exhibition will not simply be a mixture of China today and yesterday. Using video guides and illustrations, the gallery strives to build a bridge between China's traditions and modern life.
In the words of Peter and Irene Ludwig, this bridge "lies in the same Chinese spirit inherited by the modern Chinese from their ancestors, as reflected in the art works."
"The Chinese possess on the one hand the power of concentration, which is the greatest power of humankind," wrote the late Peter Ludwig.
"On the other hand, they have the potential to explode and make breakthroughs, as is often documented in 19th-century European books," Ludwig added.
According to Pachnicke, the power of concentration is conveyed in the exhibition through the ancient calligraphy works, musical instruments, the 11th- century seated Buddha and the documents of Buddhism and Taoism. This traditional power is inherited today by modern calligraphy works and some graphic art pieces in the exhibition, Pachnicke noted.
The power of explosion, as is depicted in many contemporary art pieces, can find its roots in some paintings of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and some handicraft works.
Just as there is inheritance, conflicts also exist between the traditional and the modern. The power of explosion partly comes from this tension, Pachnicke said.
This exhibition on China will be the fourth of the Ludwig Galleries' series "Read Culture in Masterpieces of World Art," which have been held around Europe. The previous three were "God, Heroes and Idols," "Picasso - Ceramic and Graphic" and "A Photographical View."
The exhibition series tries to build bridges between Chinese culture and European culture.
This idea of a "bridge" is the core of the Ludwigs' thoughts on the collection, according to Mensch.
Unlike most collectors, who focus on a certain culture or a certain time period, the Ludwigs endeavored to build bridges between different spirits.
"Art is the bridge between spirits. We, as Europeans, should understand this inheritance between the old China and the new China," said Mensch.
(China Daily March 27, 2002)
