ART CITIES:Paris-Qiu Shihua
At first glance, the paintings of Chinese artist Qiu Shihua seem to be monochrome, completely white canvases. Yet upon closer inspection, vast landscapes emerge from the painted surface which, depending on where the viewer is standing, either reveal an increasing number of details or slip away again before his eyes. Only through long, intense examination is it possible gain a full perception of his complex white paintings.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Galerie Karsten Greve Archive
Qiu Shihua in his solo exhibition in Paris presents a selection of fifteen canvases painted between 2000 and 2019 and on display for the first time. Always untitled, Qiu Shihua’s work has no intention either to be strictly representative, or truly figurative. The paintings change depending on the light and the distance of viewers, details appear and disappear in a flowing ballet of brush strokes. As when viewing impressionist paintings, looking too closely prevents from seeing anything. During his first trip to Europe in 1984, Qiu Shihua discovered Claude Monet and his artistic movement, in which impressions are key. Qiu Shihua finds his inspiration in Shanshui, a pictorial tradition that appeared during the 4th century in Southern China. A Shanshui painter does not seek to create an illusory or realistic representation, sometimes working without ever having seen the landscape that they are painting. What matters is to paint the sensations that the idea of the sight brings to the spirit. Qiu Shihua stays true to this ancient pictorial tradition from his country, keeping to its visual language: the absence of linear perspective and the rhythm of blank patterns to engage viewers in active contemplation. He goes further in that quest and reappropriates Shanshui through Western techniques, preferring to use oils rather than the traditional ink. The result is unique – neither landscape nor total abstraction, a fusion of the ancestral and the contemporary, the Western and the Eastern. This evolution coincides with the artist’s trip to the Gobi Desert at the end of the 1980s, a trip he refers to often. This spiritual pilgrimage was a turning point in the painter’s lifestyle and artistic approach as he converted to Taoism, an ancient philosophical doctrine founded by Lao Tse. In Taoist ideology, humans and nature are complementary, similarly to the Yin Yang. The quest for wisdom lies in harmony, which is found when the heart and spirit are aligned with the Tao, the Way of Nature, said to allow humans to free themselves from limits and let their spirits “ride the clouds”: when the external and internal are one. In his canvases, Qiu Shihua gives shape to the Taoist concept of “action through inaction” – letting results arise through their own paths – or rather, its opposite: non-action through action. Through creative action, he realises paintings that raise questions in their apparent absence. He succeeds in painting emptiness. It is no accident that in Chinese, the words “white” and “emptiness” (respectively Baise and Kongbai) have the same root (-bai-). The colour white then represents the quest for emptiness as the ultimate essence of all things. In order to see, we need to reach beyond the glare of white light, beyond a brief glance, towards absolute perception.
Photo: Qiu Shihua, Untitled, 2017, Oil on canvas, 51.5 x 81.5 x 2 cm (20 1/4 x 32 3/4 in), On the side lower left signed and dated, © Qiu Shihua, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Karsten Greve
Info: Galerie Karsten Greve, 5 rue Debelleyme, Paris, France, Duration: 28/8-9/10/2021, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-19:00, https://galerie-karsten-greve.com
