Ye Qianyu was a renowned artist and art educator, whose achievements were reflected in many aspects, especially in comics, Chinese painting and sketching. This exhibition selected nearly 180 works to present the essence of Ye Qianyu’s sketching, providing us with opportunities to have an in-depth understanding of his artistic contributions. At the same time, the exhibition was unfolded through a series of questions, combined with social, personal and artistic levels leading to a discussion. It took a new curatorial concept and way of research to bring the audience different feelings and thinking.
Times, the destiny and life of the nation have always been the themes of Ye’s artistic creation. Influenced by his family, Ye was fond of painting from childhood. In the middle school, he started to take lessons in painting which made him even more obsessed with it. From 1927 to 1937, Ye spent ten years mainly for drawing comics, and his long comic series Mr. Wangwas very popular at the moment. From the 1930s, Ye drew numerous lively and vivid sketches, and then he turned to the creation of Chinese painting. His well-known Chinese paintings of dancing figures were benefited from his technique of sketching, which not only showed a different style but opened a new realm of figure paintings. Xu Beihong praised him that: “Qianyu’s Chinese paintings are just like his sketches of figures, both with high proficiency; It is not difficult for him to draw straight or curved bodies as he could perfectly capture the features of a figure moving and never shy away from expressing it. For such a master of Chinese painting, only Qiu Shizhou and Wu Youru can compete with him over the five hundred years. Thus, Qianyu’s artistic achievements are very important and should not be overlooked.”
The specially selected artworks for this exhibition were a display of sketches. It was not easy for the curator to decide the theme and choose the works from nearly 6,000 works. Firstly, while some people might think the meaning of the title was not clear, it was actually the intention of the curator, who hoped the audience to see the exhibition with questions in their mind. Then, instead of using the regular ways of presentation such as displaying artworks by time periods or art categories, it started from questions and was divided into five parts: original formation of sketching, social observation, showing special preferences, space for writing and forgetting the means by which the end is attained, which fully expressed the essence of Ye’s sketches.
Ye was both a famous painter and art educator, with outstanding students everywhere. From 1947, he was invited by Xu Beihong to teach in the National Beiping Art School. For Ye, sketching is not just a creative material or an independent art form. After many explorations, he made full use of sketching to create a modern Chinese painting system with the integration of “tradition, life and creation” and the integration of “copy, sketch and composition”, which had a significant impact on the Chinese painting teaching system of CAFA.
Ye was loved and respected for his good personalities, open-mindedness and a spirit of exploration. In late life, he not only donated his well-known works to his hometown and left a will to give all of his paintings and collections to several art institutions including the CAFA. Almost all the artworks presented in this exhibition were from the collections of the CAFA that donated by his family members. Here we would like to express our deep appreciation and sincere gratitude to them!
Zhang Zikang
Director of the CAFA Art Museum
Ye Qianyu was a renowned artist and art educator, whose achievements were reflected in many aspects, especially in comics, Chinese painting and sketching. This exhibition selected nearly 180 works to present the essence of Ye Qianyu’s sketching, providing us with opportunities to have an in-depth understanding of his artistic contributions. At the same time, the exhibition was unfolded through a series of questions, combined with social, personal and artistic levels leading to a discussion. It took a new curatorial concept and way of research to bring the audience different feelings and thinking.
Times, the destiny and life of the nation have always been the themes of Ye’s artistic creation. Influenced by his family, Ye was fond of painting from childhood. In the middle school, he started to take lessons in painting which made him even more obsessed with it. From 1927 to 1937, Ye spent ten years mainly for drawing comics, and his long comic series Mr. Wangwas very popular at the moment. From the 1930s, Ye drew numerous lively and vivid sketches, and then he turned to the creation of Chinese painting. His well-known Chinese paintings of dancing figures were benefited from his technique of sketching, which not only showed a different style but opened a new realm of figure paintings. Xu Beihong praised him that: “Qianyu’s Chinese paintings are just like his sketches of figures, both with high proficiency; It is not difficult for him to draw straight or curved bodies as he could perfectly capture the features of a figure moving and never shy away from expressing it. For such a master of Chinese painting, only Qiu Shizhou and Wu Youru can compete with him over the five hundred years. Thus, Qianyu’s artistic achievements are very important and should not be overlooked.”
The specially selected artworks for this exhibition were a display of sketches. It was not easy for the curator to decide the theme and choose the works from nearly 6,000 works. Firstly, while some people might think the meaning of the title was not clear, it was actually the intention of the curator, who hoped the audience to see the exhibition with questions in their mind. Then, instead of using the regular ways of presentation such as displaying artworks by time periods or art categories, it started from questions and was divided into five parts: original formation of sketching, social observation, showing special preferences, space for writing and forgetting the means by which the end is attained, which fully expressed the essence of Ye’s sketches.
Ye was both a famous painter and art educator, with outstanding students everywhere. From 1947, he was invited by Xu Beihong to teach in the National Beiping Art School. For Ye, sketching is not just a creative material or an independent art form. After many explorations, he made full use of sketching to create a modern Chinese painting system with the integration of “tradition, life and creation” and the integration of “copy, sketch and composition”, which had a significant impact on the Chinese painting teaching system of CAFA.
Ye was loved and respected for his good personalities, open-mindedness and a spirit of exploration. In late life, he not only donated his well-known works to his hometown and left a will to give all of his paintings and collections to several art institutions including the CAFA. Almost all the artworks presented in this exhibition were from the collections of the CAFA that donated by his family members. Here we would like to express our deep appreciation and sincere gratitude to them!
Zhang Zikang
Director of the CAFA Art Museum
