RMCA

OVERVIEW
ACTIVITIES

Opening Ceremony

Neo-Mōrōism

Curator: Pi Daojian

Participating Artists:

Cai Guangbin/Ding Beili/Yoshito Takahashi/Hang Chunhui

Lin Dongpeng/Lin Yusi/Liu Meiyu/Tomohito Ishii/ Shen Qin

Shao Wenhuan/SHIMURAbros/Tai Xiangzhou/Wang Shuye

Wen Fengyi/Wu Qiang/Xu Bing/Ye Jianqing/Zeng Jianyong

Zhang Quan/Zhang Tianjun/Zhu Jianzhong

Duration: 2015.4.3-2015.6.2

Venue: Hall 1,Redtory Museum of Contemporary Art (RMCA)

Co-hosted

Tokyo Gallery+Beijing Tokyo Art Projects

Beijing 798 Creative Industry Investment Co,LTD

Redtory Culture&Art Organization

Special Acknowledgment

Xu Bing Studio

Media Supported

Art .China.cn/Artron.Net/art.ifeng.com/Art&Fortune

L’officiel Art /Hi Art/www.99ys.com/Bazaar Art

Co-organized by the Redtory Culture and Art Organization and Tokyo Gallery + BTAP, curated by Pi Daojian, the Neo-Mōrōism (Guangzhou) launched in Hall 1, Redtory Museum of Contemporary Art on April 3^rd. Continuing the concept of the first Neo-Mōrōism, the exhibition gathered 21 artists from Japan, China and Taiwan. Participating artists are Cai Guangbin, Ding Beili, Hang Chunhui, Ling Dongpeng, Lin Yusi, Liu Meiyu, Shao Wenhuan, Shen Qin, SHIMURAbros, Tai Xiangzhou, Tomohito Ishii, Wang Shuye, Wen Fengyi, Wu Qiang, Xu Bing, Ye Jianqing, Yoshito Takahashi, Zeng Jianyong, Zhang Quan, Zhang Tianjun and Zhu Jianzhong. Neo-Mōrōism aims to look at the way in which different cultures with unique histories and practices formed complex interactions through painting, so that contemporary pictorial expression may be reinterpreted from a global perspective. Demonstrating multiple visual and lingual forms including painting, photography, installation and multi-media.

The term mōrō (vague and hazy) entered the discourse of painting roughly one hundred years ago. Japanese painters practicing Nihonga (or Japanese-style painting) under the direction of Okakura Tenshin began to seek for innovative stylistic means to modernize Japanese paintings that resonated with their contemporary needs. Finding inspiration from western oil painting these artists eliminated the descriptive lines, which were the main component and most intrinsic expressive tool of Nihonga. Through subtle gradation of color, shade and misty execution of all form covering the entire picture, their new techniques depicted climatic conditions and nuances of light that were difficult to portray through traditional methods. Although critics condemned these works to be too Western-influenced and bestowed the pejorative name mōrō-tai, which ironically stuck as the styles certified term, the artists’ effort to integrate different methods and aesthetics in search for a new visual expression is considered today as an important art historical turning point.

Depicting the changes in light and in the air was not unique to Europe and Japan, but it was also widely practiced in North America exemplified by American Tonalism which flourished around the same period as mōrō-tai. We should also direct our attention to the long tradition of pictorial expressions in East Asia that originate from Shan shui (or Chinese landscape painting) of the Song and Yuan dynasties.