Watercolor Artist – October 2019

ArtistsNetwork.com 9

Happenings

Expressive Ink: Paintings

by Ya ng Ya npi ng a nd

Zeng Shanqing

Art Institute of Chicago

Through November 10

/ MUST-SEE SHOW /

In this exhibition, Yang Yanping and Zeng Shanqing’s fi rst

in a major American art museum, the artists’ pre- and

post-cultural revolution paintings will be on display. Th e

married artists were a part of the generation of Chinese

creatives stifl ed by Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution

from 1949 to the late 1970s. International infl uences

were banned, and the work and expression of China’s

artistic community were heavily regulated.

Yanping originally was trained as an architect and

worked in oil, but has since adopted the traditional

Chinese media of ink on paper, focusing primarily on

lotuses and landscapes. Th e Art Institute of Chicago notes

that her work is “rooted in traditional Chinese painting

but indisputably modern.”

On the other hand, Shanqing’s work is often fi gurative

with horses—commonly accepted subjects in early revolu-

tionary China. And yet, the artist was still subjected to

several years of hard labor during the Revolution.

According to the museum, Shanqing’s “contorted forms,

sometimes in the fetal position, hint at the trauma of his

earlier years.” artic.edu

Control by Zeng Shanqing

COURTESY OF THE ARTIST