Kunsthaus Graz English
Liu Xiaodong The Process of Painting 06.06. – 02.09.2012 Space01
Kunsthaus Graz, Universalmuseum Joanneum, Lendkai 1, 8020 Graz, T +43–(0)316/8017–9200, Tue–Sun 10am – 5pm [email protected], www.museum-joanneum.at This text is published on the occasion of the exhibition
Liu Xiaodong The Process of Painting
Kunsthaus Graz Universalmuseum Joanneum June 6 until September 2, 2012 Liu Xiaodong is one of China’s most renowned contemporary painters. His paintings are large-sized, realistic, clear and very direct in their expression. The subjects he chooses sometimes relate to natural or created catastrophes or even to private matters. They also often refer to the question of change.
For his exhibition at the Kunsthaus Graz, Liu Xiaodong stayed in Eisenerz for a month, where he lived amongst the residents and studied the town. Liu Xiaodong has portrayed two great moments in the history of this community in various aspects of his work: as paintings, film, photography and as a diary.
The Process of Painting Out of Beichuan, Into Taihu
Liu Xiaodong revitalised the tradi- Beichuan in China had long been tional Chinese easel painting a lovely, peaceful place until an technique and has thus become earthquake flattened it in May one of its major representatives. 2008, burying 70,000 people He understands the essence of oil underneath the ruins. Ever since, painting as a comprehensive pro- Beichuan has become a ghost cess of perception and observa- town whose reconstruction was tion, creating a style which one impossible. Instead, it was practi- could describe as New Realism. cally rebuilt in the middle of He neither exaggerates the visible nowhere about an hour’s drive idealistically, nor dramatizes away. In 2010, Liu Xiaodong vis- events. His large-sized paintings ited the original site of Beichuan rather have documentary value, in order to get a picture of the raising questions that go beyond place and the consequences of its the painting itself. destruction. Liu Xiaodong goes directly to the Situated in the Delta of the places which interest him. He Yangtse River, picturesque Taihu paints the place portrayed in the is home to China’s third largest painting, either outside, or in a fresh water lake, supplying roughly made shelter beneath a numerous cities with potable tarpaulin, which protects him water. In 2007, the lake water from bad weather. Although he became undrinkable due to per- paints en plein air, the atmos- manent chemical contamination. phere of the place interests him Consequently, several megacities more than light. He is not inter- were cut off from drinking water ested in capturing single supplies. Liu Xiaodong links the moments in time, but rather in two catastrophes in Out of circumstances that have existed Beichuan, Into Taihu. His film over longer periods. He captures shots show starved existences them in numerous snapshots and amidst the debris and ruins of films, photos and diaries and puts Bechuan. In his oil painting, he them together like pieces of a combines the contaminated lake great puzzle. with portraits of young boys gaz- ing indifferently, as if the loss of way can it remain a refuge for us. pure water did not affect them. However, reality is different. Liu commissioned actors from an Urbanization is spreading much opera group whose task it was to too quickly, destroying everything act their own parts in the drama that we loved or did not love, about the huge contaminated forming a new city out of every- lake infested with algae. thing”, says Liu, who in his series Hometown Boy holds a mirror in front of himself and his former Hometown Boy friends, reflecting the pain of change, nostalgia and lost inti- Liu Xiaodong painted many of his macy. Some 200 pages of his pictures during his travels with a diary and a film created together perspective interchanging with Taiwanese film producer Hou between distance and involve- Hsiao-Hsien document his intense ment, seemingly undecided and involvement with the place where actually thriving from the in his roots once were. However, he between. In 2010, he returned to also realizes that the artist’s view his hometown Jincheng, a working on change differs from the people class estate that had once grown living there. around a paper mill, in the North- eastern province of Liaoning. Over a period of four months, he Eisenerz painted pictures and wrote diary entries about people, numerous The history of Eisenerz is closely other things and events in the linked to the nearby Erzberg. Iron town. “As soon as you begin to ore mining and the necessary talk about your homeland, some- industrial plants and equipment thing starts to happen inside you have shaped the once flourishing – something like homesickness. town over centuries. From the I think that, in my innermost self, middle of the 19th century on, the I do not want anything to change town began to thrive, becoming a in my hometown. You just want lively centre of iron production your old home to stay as it always around 1900. Industrial estates used to be. Only if it stays that were built for the ever-increasing population. Both World Wars Liu Xiaodong lived in Eisenerz for meant that the town and the a month in order to get mines were severely exploited. acquainted with the place and The increased demand for iron ore local residents. He neither experi- for the war effort led to further enced the place like a tourist on a housing problems. More estates fleeting visit, nor like an immi- were built for the working popula- grant. For a certain time, he and tion, including barracks for forced his team were an actual part of labourers and prisoners of war. the place, its everyday happen- After the war, the town’s mining ings and its history. One of the capacity was once more exploited paintings shows the historic cen- during the period of national tre from a perspective that is reconstruction; as a result, Eisen- reminiscent of better days. erz was granted the rights of a Johann Max Tendler, a local bie- town in 1948. The townspeople dermeier-painter portrayed Eisen- then built a large sports stadium, erz as a booming vibrant place in football fields and two tennis the mid 19th century. Liu Xiaodong centres including modern indoor copied the contours of the houses and outdoor swimming baths, and which have hardly changed until founded numerous clubs and the present day. Yet the shops are societies. Today, the town’s post- empty and all life seems to have war heyday is long over and disappeared. Four students from Eisenerz has launched a sustain- the local grammar school acted able development project for the as models symbolizing the pre- recovery of the townscape. sent. They represent hope for the Because the town has suffered a town which has suffered a high dramatic decline in population loss of population and with it, the ever since 1961, with figures hustle and bustle of prosperity. shrinking from 12,400 to only The works swimming baths com- 4,806, the town council has plex in Münichtal was once a decided to redevelop vacant prestigious communal project – accommodation potential. Areas now it is an overgrown wilderness that cannot be maintained will be and abandoned ruin. The picture demolished to make way for a not only resembles the content of restoration of the historic centre. the Hometown Boy series. Urban change happens quite simultane- Liu Xiaodong ously on a global level. For Liu Xiaodong, the painting process is 1963 Born in Liaoning Province not just a process of seeing and 1988 Bachelor of Fine Arts in Oil capturing, but above all, getting Painting, Central Academy of Fine involved with people and places Arts, Beijing, China and the times that change them. 1995 Master of Fine Arts, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China 1998–1999 Master’s at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Complutense, Madrid, Spain Currently teaches in the Oil Painting Department at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China Curator Günther Holler-Schuster Text Monika Holzer-Kernbichler Translation Y’plus, Graz Graphic concept and design Lichtwitz – Büro für visuelle Kommunikation Layout Karin Buol-Wischenau
Supported by: Orange