Qin Feng's 45-year career_国际爆炸新闻英文网

Preface to Qin Feng's 45th Art Exhibition

By Zhu Qi

Qin Feng's art precisely runs through the process of China's reform and opening up after 1979. This is a tumultuous and tortuous journey, with its core being the dialogue between China's glorious artistic tradition and the modernist avant-garde of the West in the 20th century. This dialogue can be traced back to the expectations of Kang Youwei, Chen Duxiu and others from the Western perspective for the transformation of the modernity of Chinese art in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China. Since 1979, Chinese contemporary art has presented a diverse exploration route. With China's rise as the world's second-largest economy, the cultural subjectivity of contemporary art has become the core demand of this process.

When it comes to the language practice of art, the modernity of calligraphy has become Qin Feng's unwavering pursuit for over 40 years. During his 45-year artistic career, Qin Feng has attempted to take calligraphy, the core of Chinese art tradition, as an avant-garde experimental field. The artistic issues in this field have shifted from the tradition of calligraphy to the modernity of writing. The traditional language of calligraphy was re-integrated into the artistic framework of modernism in the 20th century. This practice has been a globalist cross-cultural art movement since the 1950s, from the abstract calligraphy of Japanese artists such as Yuichi Inoue, the abstract expressionism of American artists like Mark Tobey and Marseville, to the abstract expressionism of European artists such as Tapies. However, the absorption of calligraphy by Europe, America and Japan, relying on the framework of abstract art and expressionism of Western modern art, was merely an external formalist borrowing and did not truly touch upon the aesthetic character of Chinese calligraphy as well as the essence of writing and brushwork.

After decades of pioneering practice in the West and Japan ahead of China, Qin Feng still ventured into this field, determined to catch up and surpass others. Rooted in the traditional Chinese calligraphy without being bound by ancient methods, he incorporated the essence of calligraphy into a language framework with a more global perspective, transforming the traditional calligraphy into a modern and holistic writing style. He separated writing from the structure of Chinese characters, integrating the brushstrokes and ink techniques of writing with conceptual art, abstractionism, contextualism and installations, thus bringing the linear language of traditional Chinese art and the ink techniques of the brush into a visual language of contemporary art.

Due to China's long history, the relationship between tradition and modernity has always been the practical focus of Chinese art in the 20th century. The modernity of culture and art needs to be based on the core lineage of the upright schools, but this is not simply a return to traditional fundamentalism. Instead, it is about absorbing traditional elements within a contemporary ideological and linguistic framework. This absorption is not about imitating the original state of traditional language, but about absorbing traditional aesthetic and linguistic principles and endowing them with a new form accordingly. Qin Feng's artistic journey of nearly 45 years has precisely emerged on the right path of modern transformation, evolving from the ancient to the new.

Written on April 21, 2025

In the contemporary art world where the wave of globalization and cultural diversity collide, Qin Feng, with his creative practices spanning the East and the West and his academic resume, has become a pioneering explorer that breaks cultural boundaries. Qin Fengke, an artist who taught at the University of the Arts Berlin and the Central Academy of Fine Arts, is currently a researcher of contemporary art at Harvard University. He has always been committed to building a bridge between the tradition of ink painting and contemporary art, and has established his position in the international art scene with the unique language of "postmodern ink painting".

Qin Feng

From the Berlin City Government Award, the Boston International Arts and Culture Award to the National Art Contribution Award, Qin Feng, with the support of dozens of domestic and international awards, together with the records of over 60 institutions such as the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, as well as nearly 100 private collections, has jointly depicted the image of a cultural ambassador with both local roots and a global perspective - his art is not only a contemporary translation of the spirit of the East It is also a visual carrier for cross-cultural dialogue.

An art explorer in a cross-cultural context

Qin Feng's artistic roots are deeply rooted in the soil of local aesthetics. Before 1985, he graduated from Shandong University of Art & Design, where he received systematic training in traditional craftsmanship and Eastern aesthetics, laying the foundation for his subsequent creations with the gene of "carrying the way through objects". In 1993, he founded the Beijing Museum of Contemporary Art and became an early promoter of Chinese contemporary art. This experience not only enabled him to keenly capture international art trends but also prompted him to think about the contemporary breakthrough of the local language. Entering the 21st century, his status as a visiting professor at the University of the Arts Berlin and the Central Academy of Fine Arts has enabled him to shuttle between the art education systems of China and the West. The establishment of the Qinhan Contemporary Art Research Institute in 2020 marks his systematic construction from practice to theory. His current position as a contemporary art researcher at Harvard has further extended his research into the global art history perspective, exploring the reconstruction of art identity in a cross-cultural context.

In the early exploration period of the 1990s, Qin Feng demonstrated the courage to break through the boundaries of ink wash painting. In 1996, he participated in the Raab Gallery in Berlin, and in 1998, he held a solo exhibition at the Asian Museum in New York. He attempted to combine ink wash painting with Western expressionism. In the "Ruins" series, he deconstructed traditional landscapes with rough brushstrokes, initially taking shape in the form of cross-cultural dialogue. During the period from 2001 to 2010 when his language was mature, he formally proposed the concept of "postmodern ink wash", reconstructing the ink wash medium with materials such as linen paper, acrylic, and steel mesh. His representative works, "Six Classics", collage ink wash with fragments of ancient books, and the "Law of the Jungle" series seal animal specimens and ink wash traces with resin. His appearances at international auctions such as Christie's and Sotheby's This marks that its language system has been recognized by both the market and the academic community. Since 2011, during his cross-media phase, he has extended his creations to installations, sculptures and architectural Spaces: The "Clouds Rise" at the Peninsula Beijing uses steel mesh ink wash to construct a suspended landscape. The "Light" series of installations in the BRICS Presidents' Lounge integrates ceramics and light and shadow. In the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale special exhibition, ink wash installations were embedded in the Gothic space of St. George's Church, achieving "synchronized breathing of art and architecture".

The exhibition site of Qin Feng's works at Christie's

"Desire Landscape Series 1514" at Christie's Hong Kong Spring Auction in 2015

Seek a balance between tradition and modernity

Qin Feng's artistic philosophy is rooted in "asymmetric integration" : he refuses to view Chinese and Western art as opposing systems, but instead extracts the romantic philosophy of Western Expressionism and the poetic spirit of "vitality and charm" of Chinese ink wash painting, achieving the symbiosis of formal language in material experiments. Its signature flax paper base not only retains the randomness of ink penetration but also endows the picture with geometric order through the steel mesh structure. For instance, the "Zero Boundary" series uses torn flax paper collages, metaphorically symbolizing the fluidity of cultural identity in the process of damage and reconstruction. This creative perspective was called "the ethical practice of a passive utopia" by the Italian curator Oliva, who believed that his works "constructed a social behavior production system that transcends geographical boundaries". In terms of composition, he abandons the blank space aesthetic of traditional ink wash painting and draws on the full-width layout of abstract expressionism. However, he creates visual tension with asymmetrical line distribution, forming a unique "dynamic image" aesthetic - as in the "Heaven and Earth Images" series, the richly colored blocks and the slender steel mesh form a mechanical balance, which is in line with the dialectical thinking of "the mutual promotion of hardness and softness" in Chinese philosophy.

Qin Feng's "Heaven and Earth Statues" Series No. 4

In the exploration of the intrinsic language of ink wash painting, Qin Feng is adept at transforming everyday materials into cultural symbols. The "Fallen Angel" series, with the ink-wash mist carried on a two-zhang Xuan paper, breaks through the traditional implicit expression of ink-wash with the distorted postures of the characters' bodies. It has been called "the contemporary declaration of Eastern tragic aesthetics" by Art Forum. The "Diary" text series collects old book fragments and family negatives, covering the text with ink while preserving the texture of the paper, creating a visual metaphor of "memory archaeology". In the field of public art, he is committed to creating "habitable art" : the "Mountain Shadows" installation at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beijing transforms ink lines into metal screens, and the "Superimposition" series at the Himalayas Art Museum in Shanghai uses transparent films to layer ink, achieving the integration of spatial function and aesthetic experience. It is particularly worth noting that his works have frequently entered the international political arena - the ink-wash installations at the National Convention Center (Shanghai) during the G20 Summit in Hangzhou and the China International Import Expo, which convey the cultural equality concept of "harmony without uniformity" through non-narrative language, have become visual diplomatic symbols that transcend ideology.

Qin Feng, "The Fallen Angel

Dual output from exhibition to theory

Qin Feng's exhibition history itself is a memorandum of cross-cultural dialogue. The "Qin Feng Special Exhibition" of the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale was held at St. George's Church, creating a spiritual dialogue between ink-wash installations and religious Spaces. The New York Times commented that it "rejuvenated the ancient church with a new Oriental poetic quality." In 2019, the solo exhibition "Falling from the Sky" at the Grand Palazio Museum in Milan filled the classical exhibition hall with the giant installation "Divine Sorrow". The juxtapositions of bronze fragments and ink-wash traces sparked a re-examination of "Oriental modernity" in the European academic circle. The "Hindsight" exhibition at the Spring Art Museum in Shanghai in 2024 looks back on three decades of creation and presents for the first time its latest material experiment - combining AI-generated ink lines with handcrafted brushstrokes, foreshaping the possibilities of ink media in the digital age. In addition, the continuous invitations from top platforms such as Art Basel (Switzerland/Hong Kong) and Volta Art Fair (New York), as well as the long-term cooperation with international galleries like Pace and Goedhuis, have built a global exhibition network, making "Qin Feng" an important sample for the international art circle to understand Chinese contemporary art.

"Venice Architecture Biennale - Qin Feng Special Exhibition" 2016 (Venice)

The solo exhibition "Encounter with Angels" at St. Catherine's Cathedral in Hamburg, Germany in 2017

The "Hindsight" exhibition at the Spring Art Museum in Shanghai in 2024

The 2022 Basel Hong Kong Art Exhibition

Unlike the practice-first approach of his contemporaries, Qin Feng has always emphasized the simultaneous construction of his theoretical system. The concept of "Oriental abstraction" he proposed is neither the formal self-discipline of Western minimalism nor the social criticism of Chinese new Pop art. It emphasizes the retention of the "recessive code" of cultural genes in abstract forms. For instance, the "Color Gamut Series" implies the spatial logic of traditional landscape painting through the gradation of ink colors. In his speeches at universities such as Harvard and Yale, he repeatedly called for transcending the binary narrative of "Orientalism" and "Western centrism", and advocated that art education should cultivate "cultural translators" rather than "cultural porters". This theory has consciously received a response from the international academic community: In his article "Qin Feng: Constructing Necessity in Contingency", Oliva affirmed the "intelligent contingency" principle of his works - that is, to retain creative intuition in controllable material experiments and form a unique artistic grammar. Art News commented that he was a "pioneer of the globalization of ink painting", believing that his creations "broke the Western imagination of the exotic of Eastern art and proved that contemporary ink painting has the ability to participate in the writing of global art history".

Art gives back to society through public practice

Qin Feng's creations always contain a strong sense of social concern. Nearly a hundred works have been donated to art education institutions, disaster relief projects and orphan assistance programs. The "Boundless Artist Residency Program" of the Beijing Museum of Contemporary Art has cultivated dozens of cross-disciplinary creators. Its studio is also open to art college students on a long-term basis, practicing the concept that "creation is education". In terms of empowering public Spaces, the "Growth" sculpture at the K11 headquarters in Hong Kong is composed of stainless steel ink-wash lines forming a spiral structure, while the "Dialogue" series of installations at the Square of the Asian Art Museum in Texas, USA, transform Chinese and English characters into touchable artistic forms, realizing the ideal of "letting art step out of the white Cube and integrate into the real life scene". The "West Wind, East Water" solo exhibition at the Four Seasons Hotel Beijing in 2018 transformed the entire hotel space into an exhibition site. The ink-wash installations in the guest rooms and the tableware art in the restaurant enabled guests to complete a dialogue with art in their daily experiences.

The solo exhibition "West Wind, East Water" at Four Seasons Hotel Beijing in 2018

As a cultural ambassador, Qin Feng's works have repeatedly taken on special missions: his ink-wash installations at the BRICS Summit and G20 meetings have been hailed by foreign media as "China's visual business card". The "Art Dialogue" project, in collaboration with the Foreign ministries of Italy and Germany, promotes cultural understanding among governments through mutual visits by artists and joint exhibitions. In the interdisciplinary field, his collaborations with architect Zhang Yonghe and musician Tan Dun have attracted much attention: During the Venice Biennale, the interaction between his ink-wash installation and the structure of the architectural space was included in the "Case Collection of Architecture and Art Coexistence". At the Grand Palais exhibition in Milan, the live performance of the guqin and the installation of light and shadow change simultaneously, creating a multi-sensory cultural experience. This practice that breaks through disciplinary boundaries confirms its belief that "art is a universal language for cross-cultural understanding."

Freeze the eternal in the flowing cultural space-time

From the perspective of contemporary art, the significance of Qin Feng has long transcended the level of individual creation. His continuous experiments on materials such as linen paper, steel mesh and digital technology have opened up multiple transformation paths for traditional ink-wash media. Its stance of rejecting cultural essentialism provides a vivid sample for the reconstruction of cultural identity in the era of globalization. While the Western art circle is still debating whether ink wash belongs to the contemporary era, he has proved through practice that ink wash is not only a technical system but also a spiritual container that holds the experience of The Times.

The "Qin Feng / 45 Years Art Exhibition (1980-2025)" is precisely a concentrated retrospective of this long artistic journey. The exhibition was held at the Beijing Contemporary Art Museum, located at 500 Daxingzhuang, Songzhuang Town, Tongzhou District, Beijing from April 22nd to August 1st this year, systematically presenting the artistic creation trajectory of Qin Feng.

From the academic podiums in Berlin to the ancient churches in Venice, from high-priced auctions to the silent dedication to public welfare projects, Qin Feng has always been seeking that delicate balance point - allowing the spirit of the East to be perceived by the world in a contemporary form, and enabling artistic creation to achieve symbiosis between commercial value and social significance.