Preface of Guan Zhen: Contemporary Lacquer Art Exhibition - Asian Tour
Zeng Hui, Art Critic and Curator
As a contemporary artist, Wu Guanzhen is facing a unique topic of contemporary art – how can one express the “contemporary” value and language of contemporary lacquer art, and how can traditional lacquer art be transformed?
To be contemporary is to manifest distinctive artistic characters. The artist shall be free to embrace his own language in order to express the mentality and aesthetics of contemporary art. Meanwhile, it is also a form of art which looks into the future, inspiring and fueling humanity to grow persistently. It shall be an ever-innovative creation of the heart. If it reduced itself into some stagnant decoration, it would be considered an opposite spirit of contemporaneity. Contemporary lacquer art shoulders significant aesthetic missions and academic values. It shows how art influences contemporary aesthetics and alters people's perception and underlying stereotypes of traditional lacquer art. Wu Guanzhen takes the groundbreaking step to move lacquer art from heavy-weighted board to light lawn. His works are infused with powerful oriental imagery, transforming traditional lacquer art into a spiritual and aesthetic lifestyle, integrating it into the spaces in everyday life. In recent years, Wu Guanzhen has created series of oriental contemporary lacquer art, including “Daydream” and “the Nature” series at Today Art Museum, “Long Rolls of Dunhhang”, Na Shan Project”, as well as contemporary lacquer installations such as “Memories through Lacquer and Threads”. Beijing, as one of many destinations of Guan Zhen Contemporary Lacquer Art Tour in Asia, is demonstrating the exceptional artistic characters of such works.
The contemporary lacquer art exhibition is named after the artist, Guanzhen, whose name literally means to see with one’s heart what is true and authentic. To be true is to forsake anything pretentious and artificial. Authenticity is the essence of art, the law of nature and life. Hence the title “Guanzhen” embodies the truth of art: through art, one shall see with the eyes of the soul what is true and be enlightened by that. The works of Wu Guanzhen symbolizes a philosophical and spiritual journey of the East and a specific kind of artistic concept, uncovering the truth of art and sincere quest to contemplate. The ultimate goal of an artistic creation is not just about the visual form, but to create a symmetric dialogue between one’s nature and the truth throughout the process. Art is, in fact, a path to research on the intrinsic values of human cultures.
Wu Guanzhen has merged raw Chinese lacquer with permeable Boehemeria nivea to create an ambience of lightness and grace. The artist recollects childhood memories among the woods and adopts a playful arrangement of light and shadow in his works. The semi-transparent raw Chinese lacquer is the perfect materials to recreate natural light, aesthetically recalling the “fragments of reminiscence”. China is the motherland of lacquer art. Wu Guanzhen handles such natural materials with care, respects traditional craftsmanship, while persisting to express the conceptual artistic way of thinking with innovative practice of contemporary lacquer art. He is bold in breaking boundaries of tradition and creates lacquer art with not just traditional formula. Instead, he takes lacquer art as a carrier to express the invisible within the visible. This is the trueness that Guanzhen contemporary lacquer art exemplifies.
Wu Guanzhen pays tribute to both the contemporary and the future with his lacquer art. Likewise, we honor him for bringing us the true beauty of lacquer art!
