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Almond, Darren: All Things Pass

Almond, Darren: Terminus

Almond, Darren / Blechen, Carl: Landscapes

Andreani, Giulia

Appel, Karel

Arnolds, Thomas

Brown, Glenn

Brown, Glenn: And Thus We Existed

Butzer, André

Butzer, André: Exhibitions Galerie Max Hetzler 2003–2022

Chinese Painting from No Name to Abstraction: Collection Ralf Laier

Choi, Cody: Mr. Hard Mix Master. Noblesse Hybridige

Demester, Jeremy

Demester, Jérémy: Fire Walk With Me

Dienst, Rolf-Gunter: Frühe Bilder und Gouachen

Dupuy-Spencer, Celeste: Fire But the Clouds Never Hung So Low Before

Ecker, Bogomir: You’re NeverAlone

Elmgreen and Dragset: After Dark

Elrod, Jeff

Elrod, Jeff: ESP

Fischer, Urs

Förg, Günther

Förg, Günther: Forty Drawings 1993

Förg, Günther: Works from the Friedrichs Collection

Galerie Max Hetzler: Remember Everything

Galerie Max Hetzler: 1994–2003

Gréaud, Loris: Ladi Rogeurs  Sir Loudrage  Glorius Read

Hains, Raymond

Hains, Raymond: Venice

Hatoum, Mona (Kunstmuseum
St. Gallen)

Eric Hattan Works. Werke Œuvres 1979–2015

Hattan, Eric: Niemand ist mehr da

Herrera, Arturo: Series

Herrera, Arturo: Boy and Dwarf

Hilliard, John: Accident and Design

Holyhead, Robert

Horn, Rebecca / Hayden Chisholm: Music for Rebecca Horn's installations

Horn, Rebecca: 10 Werke / 20 Postkarten – 10 Works / 20 Postcards

Huang Rui: Actual Space, Virtual Space

Josephsohn, Hans

Kahrs, Johannes: Down ’n out

Koons, Jeff

Kowski, Uwe: Paintings and Watercolors

La mia ceramica

Larner, Liz

Li Nu: Peace Piece

Mahn, Inge

Marepe

Mikhailov, Boris: Temptation of Life

Mosebach, Martin / Rebecca Horn: Das Lamm (The Lamb)

Neto, Ernesto: From Sebastian to Olivia

Niemann, Christoph

Oehlen, Albert: Luckenwalde

Oehlen, Albert: Mirror Paintings

Oehlen, Albert: Spiegelbilder. Mirror Paintings 1982–1990

Oehlen, Albert: Interieurs

Oehlen, Albert: unverständliche braune Bilder

Oehlen, Pendleton, Pope.L, Sillman

Oehlen, Albert | Schnabel, Julian

Pecis, Hilary: Orbiting

Phillips, Richard: Early Works on Paper

Prince, Richard: Super Group

Reyle, Anselm: After Forever

Riley, Bridget

Riley, Bridget: Circles and Discs

Riley, Bridget: Paintings and Related Works 1983–2010

Riley, Bridget: The Stripe Paintings

Riley, Bridget: Paintings 1984–2020

Roth, Dieter & Iannone, Dorothy

Scully, Sean: Dark Yet

True Stories: A Show Related to an Era – The Eighties

Tunga: Laminated Souls

Tursic, Ida & Mille, Wilfried

de Waal, Edmund: Irrkunst

Wang, Jiajia: Elegant, Circular, Timeless

Warren, Rebecca

Wool, Christopher: Westtexaspsychosculpture

Wool, Christopher: Road

Wool, Christopher: Yard

Wool, Christopher: Swamp

Wool, Christopher: Bad Rabbit

Zeng Fanzhi: Old and New. Paintings 1988–2023

Zhang Wei (2017)

Zhang Wei (2019)

Zhang Wei / Wang Luyan: A Conversation with Jia Wei

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Zeng Fanzhi: Old and New. Paintings 1988–2023
Texts Fabrice Hergott, Richard Shiff; Interview Jane Jin


English / Chinese
Hardcover
24 x 30 cm
176 pages
105 color illustrations
978-3-947127-47-4
60.00 Euro


 

With his Mask Series, Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi became known world-wide in the mid-1990s. He painted people from the Beijing metropolis, who posed on canvas while wearing their lively but often similar facial expressions as masks. Zeng struck a nerve: the precarious balance between asserted individuality and collectivized expression related to the social conditions in China but also had identification potential in the West. The present book, which documents an exhibition at the Museum of Art Pudong in Shanghai, starts earlier, in 1988, when Zeng was an art student painting portraits in an expressionist style. Later, in the 2000s, he began a series of abstract landscapes, influenced by traditional Chinese painting, in which scrubby lines concealed ghostly figures. He quoted from Dürer and van Gogh and painted dark vanitas skulls in dissolving colors. The light of his most recent Sparkling Paintings is like an exaggeration of post-impressionist perception theories—through the decades, Zeng’s depiction of inner and outer states has been carried by his exploration of color as a material and medium.


COLOUR, IMAGE, SCALE, BRUSHSTROKE
(excerpt from the interview with Zeng Fanzhi by Jing Jin)


Q: When did you first realize the appeal of brushstrokes?


A: In 1983. At that time, I was painting at the Dandongmen community in Wuhan. One day, around 4 p.m., my mentor Yan Liulin pointed out that my brushwork was a bit disorderly. So, I went to the Rong Bao Zhai shop, bought the largest brush I could find at the time, and experimented with it on a 4K-sized paper. I painted thick layers and kept bold brushstrokes. All of a sudden, I could create textures that had a unique sense of beauty. After that, every time I looked at other artworks, I would pay attention to the brushwork. I started experimenting with various techniques as well, including combining the brush with palette knives. On my 20th birthday, I bought some crabs, found a cobalt-blue cloth and painted a still life. The entire crab was done with a palette knife. A few years ago, I revisited this process and painted crabs again in the same way. In my view, brushstrokes not only build the texture of oil paintings but they also add an element of drawing. They keep the image fresh. That is why I’m interested in the work of Adolph Menzel, for example.


Q: Are there any other artists who have inspired you in terms of brushwork?


A: Willem de Kooning has had a significant impact. His brushstrokes convey a sense of speed and rhythm. I think he probably didn’t mix colors on the palette but on the canvas instead; that’s what makes his brushstrokes so spontaneous. He continues to inspire me to this day, because every stroke contains variations, making every act of painting fresh and interesting.


Q: Brushstrokes have always been an essential aspect of your work. The only exception is the Mask Series, where you seem to carefully conceal them.


A: As I explained earlier, I tend to be rebellious person in my creative trajectory, always challenging certain artistic habits I might have developed. Compared to my earlier work, the Mask Series features more refined colors and a quiet style. I would first construct the composition with thick brushstrokes and then scrape them all off again with a palette knife. As a result, the picture would look quite ‘flat’. This approach also allowed me to leave behind some other things found in my previous works. Then after a decade of working this way, I decided to reapply the methods I had abandoned and attempted to paint with more intense brushstrokes, which eventually led to the Abstract Landscapes.


Q: Many reviews state that the inspiration for your brushwork in Abstract Landscapes is rooted in Chinese calligraphy. Do you agree?


A: The aesthetic appeal of brushstrokes has been central in traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy from the beginning. I practiced calligraphy when I was young. However, when I began working on my series of Abstract Landscapes, I did not think of it too much. I did experiment with oil painting techniques and materials to paint “calligraphic” works—although technically this has nothing to do with calligraphy. Of course, the brushstrokes also contain rhythm and variation. Nonetheless, they rather remind me of sculpture since they lean towards constructing space. These first experiments inspired me to go further. For example, I realized that it’s actually quite difficult in the Western mode of oil painting to create a very long line. In order to do so, one has to conduct extensive research on the painting materials and modify them accordingly, which is exactly what I did.

 

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In collaboration with Museum of Art Pudong