Duiying--Yingdui

2007/05/22
http://www.btmbeijing.com/contents/en/btm/2007-06/art/dui

For many artists, whether visual artists, composers or writers, an idea can provoke a response that leads to action and creation. Those who produce works that capture the public’s imagination over a long period of time or in another special way, we call great.

No chance to experience the work of the greats should be missed. On June 30, 2007, a somewhat unusual show under the direction of curator and famed Chinese art critic Liu Xiaochun and co-curator and sculptor James Surls of the United States will open at the National Art Museum of China (Zhongguo Meishuguan), featuring the works of ten artists from China and the United States. The show will travel to the United States in 2008. It is being co-organized in China by Beijing artists Zhang Jin, Xiao Bing and Wang Nanfei.

Duiying–Yingdui, whether written in Hanyu Pinyin or in Chinese characters, is a play on words chosen by Liu “to symbolize eastern and western communication and its difficulty.” The reversal of yingdui (the right side of the combination) simply drives home the point. In English, the translation means roughly “corresponding and responding.”

Liu said, “Contemporary art is open in all respects. Artists from foreign countries try to present their art around the world. During the last century, as China opened more to the West, Chinese artists became more involved in modern art. This has resulted in greater communication and a great fusion, but it has also resulted in the scrutiny of our national culture like never before. And the closer we get to the roots of our national cultures, the more we feel the difficulties of Duiying–Yingdui.

The timing of the show, which was almost accidental, fits into the plans of Meishuguan director Fan Di’an’s plans for 2007. At the opening of Chinese artist Wei Ligang’s contemporary shufa exhibition at NAMOC in March, Fan said the museum would focus on two major things in 2007, increasing communication between China and the United States via the arts and expanding the presence of Chinese artists on the world’s stage.

Duiying–Yingdui does both.

The exhibition is unusual because unlike other Sino-US art collaborations held at the Meishuguan, this one was organized by the artists themselves without corporate support. Indeed, the show came together so fast that solicitations of corporate support were impossible.

Liu said, “There’s never been a show quite like this one at the Meishuguan.” Surls said, “Charles Dukes, who lives in Beijing and I were travelling across Texas, New Mexico and Colorado on a snowy day when the idea of having a show in China came up. My wife, the artist Charmaine Locke, who will also be in the show, is heavily involved in the martial arts and we were planning to come to China. So trying to have a show there seemed like a good idea.“

When Charles returned to China, he discovered that there were people there who wanted to have a show like this, and they invited us to join. We were very happy to do so. I am honoured to work with Mr. Liu Xiaochuan and the others in organizing these events and to be in an exhibition with these great artists. It’s going to be a very special thing both in Beijing and in the United States in 2008, especially with 2008 being an Olympic year in Beijing.”

Anchoring the show are master artists of China and the United States who emerged in their countries in the 1980s and who have continued to provoke, teach and entertain ever since. Nearly all of the artists also have experience in teaching art at the university level. They are joined on both sides by other artists who are close to them, including several newly emerging artists from China and the United States.

Surls has been described by former Kimbell Art Museum Director Edmund Pillsbury as “perhaps the greatest living sculptor in the United States.” His works are found in the great art museums of the world, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Museum of Fine Art in Houston. John Alexander, a fellow “Texas artist” and a contemporary of Surls, is shown around the world, with pieces in collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of the Arts in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.

They are joined by Charmaine Locke, Jody Guralnick, Pamela Ann Joseph, Robert Brinker, The Art Guys of Houston (Jack Massing and Michael Galbreth), and Tai Pamora. Several of the artists recently participated in the Finding Balance exhibition that was mounted in the United States, also curated by Surls.

On the Chinese side, Liu has arranged for the showing of works by Cao Jigang, Yu Zhenli, Zhang Yuan, Jiang Dahai, Su Xiaobai, Zhou Changjiang, Wei Jia, Lin Yan, Zhang Jin, Xiao Bing and Wang Nanfei. Most have been exhibited worldwide. Some, such as Cao Jigang and Zhang Yuan are also professors at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Their works are in collections throughout China and Asia, and some have been collected in the United States and Europe.