Zhou Chunya

signed in Chinese and Pinyin, dated 2008, framed

Private Collection, China
TIANHENG, Shanghai, 15 December, 2008, lot 638

China, Shanghai, Shanghai Art Museum, 1971—2010 Forty Years Retrospective Review of Zhou Chunya, 2010

Zhou Chunya, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, p. 527

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Zhou Chunya: Freehand Expressionism

In Zhou Chunya's paintings one always experiences the internal transformations of everyday objects; green dogs, peach blossoms, rocks, amongst other objects all express the value of their existence. In Under the Loquat Tree from 2008, pink peach blossoms are sensually intermingled with the green leaves on the branches of a loquat tree. Painted in vivid red and greens, they pulsate with life, oblivious to the snickering skeleton beneath. Good fortune in life is always tempered by tragedy, and beauty shines in spite of pain. In Taihu Rock, which is stylistically closer to traditional painting, an enormous rock dominates the center of the composition. Its eerie presence and undisturbed solitude are dramatized by the heavy chiaroscuro of its texture and shape. The red paint issuing from its perforations evoke violence and eroticism, countering and complicating the traditional cultural symbolisms of rocks. Fusing the aesthetics of German Neo-expressionism and traditional Chinese ink painting, Zhou Chunya anthropomorphizes rocks through his sensitive and free imagination. Reconstituted in Zhou's artistic language, rocks cannot simply return to the Asian cultural imaginary, but are incorporated into the artist's personal understanding about culture and society. Melancholy, euphoria, enthusiasm, and helplessness—all these feelings arise from Zhou's first-hand encounter with the world. As he himself has said, "When I now paint landscapes and nature, I actually incorporate my views on humanity."