Chinese artists in Paris

The Cernuschi Museum presents a selection of works by Zao Lin Fengmian to Wu-ki -70 paintings, prints and drawings and 10 sculptures dating from 4 1930 to 1958 - and six contemporary designs in the Park Monceau.

On the occasion of the exhibition "Chinese Artists in Paris," presented at the museum Cernuschi, six contemporary creations are exhibited in the Parc Monceau, including a work made in situ by Wang Keping.

1920-1958: Lin Fengmian to Zao Wu-ki

In 1911, following the fall of the empire, part of the Chinese intellectual elite decided to turn to the West to modernize the country. From the 1920s, more and more artists went to Europe.

Paris was so welcome artists as important as: Fengmian Lin, Xu Beihong, Pan Yuliang, Sanyu (Chang Yu), Zao Wu-Ki (Zhao Wuji) Haisu Liu, Chang Shuhong, Hua Tianyou, Pang Xunqin and Chu Teh-chun (Zhu Dequn).

Their stay in France resulted in a profound break with the Chinese artistic traditions: academic education offered by the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris marked a sustainable artists who were educated as Xu Beihong, while enrolled in the painters independent academies, such Xunqin Pang, appear to be sensitive to the influence of earlier avant-gardes. Finally, we must remember that Paris was also a point of departure to Europe. After their passage through the French capital, and Lin Xu Beihong Fengmian stayed in Germany, Pan Yuliang studied sculpture in Rome and Liu Haisu undertakes a grand tour he published in his Notes on Europe.

This Parisian experience has had a major impact on the formation of a whole generation of Chinese artists. Upon their return to China, and Lin Xu Beihong Fengmian played a decisive role in the reform of arts education. This creative alternative has allowed a generation of artists to be located immediately at the confluence of two cultural traditions. Among the students trained by Lin Fengmian, who would head back to France after 1945, the names of Zao Wou-Ki (Zhao Wuji), and Chu Teh-Chun (Zhu Dequn), are now inseparable from the Parisian art scene of twentieth century.

Six contemporary designs in the Park Monceau

A series of plastic works, mostly sculptures, will also be created and exhibited in the Parc Monceau for the duration of exposure. This is the first time the Parc Monceau is hosting an exhibition of artists living and working in Paris. This course will complement the exhibition at the museum Cernuschi.

Carmontelle (1717-1806), described the garden project that would become the Park Monceau as "a land of illusions," bringing together "all times and all places ...". This vision of garden art prefigures the draft presentation of works of Chinese artists active in Paris. In response, instead, these works were gathered around the theme "Second Nature" - D. Gander-Gosse

The anthropomorphic interpretation of nature embodied in the sculptures and Ma Desheng Wang Keping is also reminiscent of the living presence of roots and stones in the garden strange and Chinese scholar's studio. Meanwhile, the tragic question formulated by animals naked Chan Kai-yuen and monsters created by attractive Ru Xiaofan question the complex relationship between nature and culture.

Other creations extend a very current project designed by Carmontelle the eighteenth century. The installation of Shen Yuan, who renews the theme of rock playing of the supplementary report between microcosm and macrocosm, is probably one of the stagings of the report's most interesting cities to nature. As for Huang Yongping, his historical vision of the garden as a forerunner of the theme park, has attracted an ironic naumachias transposition of the past raises the question of the naivety of our war games and their derivatives.

Chinese artists in Paris

Curator: Eric Lefebvre, curator, Musée Cernuschi

September 9 to December 31, 2011

Open every day except Monday, from 10 to 18

Cernuschi Museum

7 avenue Velasquez

75008 Paris