Denver, Colorado.- The Denver Art Museum is proud to present “Xu Beihong: Pioneer of Modern Chinese Painting”, the first exhibition in the United States to explore the work of the 20th century artist who is widely recognized as the father of modern Chinese painting. One of the first Chinese artists to study in Europe, Xu integrated Western techniques with traditional styles, creating a new, modern style of Chinese painting. As a prominent teacher and global ambassador for Chinese art whose work was exhibited widely throughout Asia and Europe, he is credited with revolutionizing the nation’s arts institutions and reshaping international perceptions of Chinese painting. On view through January 29th 2012, DAM’s landmark exhibition offers a rare opportunity to see major works from Beijing’s Xu Beihong Memorial Museum, most of which have never before been on view in North America.
The 61 works, including ink paintings, oil paintings, drawings, pastels, and calligraphy, trace the full arc of Xu’s career — from early landscape paintings and drawings created during his studies in Europe, to portraits of political leaders including Mao Zedong and Mahatma Gandhi and his iconic horse paintings. Key works on view in the exhibition include, “Six Galloping Horses” (1942) – This large ink brush painting is an example of Xu’s iconic horse paintings, which became a symbol of China’s future in a time of national peril. The work incorporates Western perspective, and the compositional arrangement and control of ink throughout a complete grayscale range demonstrate Xu’s skills and rich imagination. “Spring Rain on the Lijiang” (1937) – In this depiction of the beautiful Lijiang (Li River), Xu takes a fresh Impressionist approach to Chinese ink brush landscape painting, replacing lines with ink washes and watery strokes, and using few contour lines. Ink patches of varying tones overlap one another, creating the subtle impression of the riverbank, the dock and the huts in the spring rain. “Male Nude” (1924) – This refined drawing, created during Xu’s studies in France, demonstrates the artist’s drawing skills. The background is omitted in order to focus on the figure study. Using varied contour lines, Xu portrays the structure of the figure and the transitions between light and shade along the edges. Sketching, particularly of figures, was not part of the artistic tradition in China before Xu. Drawing on his training in Europe, he became the first artist to introduce Western practices of sketching from life to traditional Chinese painting, and established sketching as the foundation for students at major art institutions in China.
Xu Beihong was born into a poor family on July 19, 1895 in Yixing, Jiangsu Province. He studied Chinese classics, calligraphy, seal engraving and traditional Chinese painting from his father, a selftaught artist and portrait painter. Xu gained a government scholarship to study in France and attended the Académie Julian and the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. Between 1919 and 1927, he studied sketching and oil painting in France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland. Returning to China in 1927, he was determined to renew the tradition of learning from nature in traditional Chinese painting by integrating Western techniques. In order to revitalize the Chinese tradition, he was the first to systematically incorporate European sketching and oil painting methodology into the curriculum at major art institutions. From 1927 until his death in 1953, Xu trained students in this new direction. Many became accomplished artists and art educators who continued to influence Chinese painting in modern times. In addition to his important role as an educator, Xu exhibited widely in Asia and the Europe throughout his lifetime. In 1926, he held a large-scale retrospective in Shanghai that firmly established his reputation as a modern Chinese master. During the 1930s, his work was featured in successful solo exhibitions in Brussels, Lyon, Berlin and Frankfurt. In 1933, he organized a group exhibition of paintings by contemporary Chinese artists that traveled to Europe, raising the international profile and understanding of Chinese art among European audiences. While in India in 1940, he presented an individual exhibition in Calcutta. Xu Beihong’s influence extended beyond his art when he became the first president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1949. His influence can be seen today in the artists that study and teach at the Central Academy.
Alongside this exhibition, the museum will also be showing “Threads of Heaven: Silken Legacy of China’s Last Dynasty”. Drawn exclusively from the DAM’s collection of Chinese textiles and costumes, “Threads of Heaven: Silken Legacy of China’s Last Dynasty” presents a glimpse into the latter years of the court and culture of the Qing Dynasty and the final days of empire in China. Among the approximately 100 pieces on view are court robes and accessories, many of which denote the wearer’s specific rank. In addition to objects from the museum’s Charlotte Hill Grant collection, acquired by the donor in China during the early 20th century, there are numerous pieces either never before exhibited or not seen for many years.
The Denver Art Museum is a private, non-profit, educational resource for Colorado. The mission of the museum is to enrich the lives of Colorado and Rocky Mountain residents through the acquisition, preservation, and presentation of art works in both the permanent collections and temporary exhibitions, and by supporting these works with exemplary educational and scholarly programs. Since its beginnings in the 1890s as the Denver Artists’ Club, the Denver Art Museum has had a number of temporary homes, from the public library and a downtown mansion to a portion of the Denver City and County Building. The museum opened its own galleries on 14th Avenue Parkway in 1949, and a center for children’s art activities was added in the early 1950s. In 1971, it opened what’s now known as the North Building. Their most recent expansion, the Frederic C. Hamilton Building, opened in October 2006. Today, the 356,000-square-foot museum complex includes collection gallery space, three temporary exhibition venues, and the Lewis I. Sharp Auditorium. In addition to its art collections, the Denver Art Museum is internationally recognized for our family-friendly environment, and has received critical acclaim for encouraging art appreciation through interactive activities. The museum has nine curatorial departments: architecture, design & graphics; Asian art; modern and contemporary; native arts (American Indian, Oceanic, and African); New World (pre-Columbian and Spanish Colonial); painting and sculpture (European and American); photography; Western art; and textile art. The modern and contemporary collection of 20th-century art contains over 4,500 works with an emphasis on both internationally known and emerging artists. The department also includes the Herbert Bayer collection and archive, an important Bauhaus artistic and scholarly resource, containing some 2,500 items including works by artists such as Man Ray, Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Robert Motherwell, Damien Hirst, Philip Guston, Knox Martin, Dan Flavin, John DeAndrea, Gottfried Helnwein and Yue Minjun. The European collection is richest in Renaissance and 19th-century French paintings. The American collection consists of paintings, sculpture, prints, and drawings representing all major periods in American art before 1945. Artists represented include Sandro Botticelli, Defendente Ferrari, Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Georgia O’Keeffe. Other painters represented include; Jacopo del Casentino (“Madonna and Child”), Bernardo Zenale, Niccolò di Pietro Gerini (“4 Crowned Saints Before Diocletan”), Filippino Lippi, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Berthe Morisot, Max Beckmann, Juan Gris,and Georges Braque. Visit the museum’s website at … www.denverartmuseum.org