The First Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

Re-born, no. 60-9 (from 'Re-born' series) 1990 Chinese ink and synthetic polymer paint on Xuan paper 176.4x92.8cm Collection: The artist CHINA SHEN HAOPENG Shen Haopeng was born in 1959 in Shanghai, China. He studied art at the Institute for Light Technology inShanghai from 1978 to 1981 and then worked with the Wenhui newspaper, Shanghai. In 1989 and 1990 Shen Haopeng held solo exhibitions in Shanghai, and has participated in the following group exhibitions: 'Eight Reporters', 1988; 'China Avant-garde', Beijing, 1989; 'Third Horizon Exhibition', Shanghai, 1990; 'Four Modern Chinese Painters', Kassel, Germany, 1992; and 'Shanghai Modern Ink Painting', Shanghai, and Taibei, Taiwan, 1993. In 1988 60 Shen Haopeng received an award as 'Outstanding Shanghai Artist'. He is currently employed with the China Youth News, Shanghai and is on the selection committee for the Shanghai Youth Art Exhibition. Lines are an important structural element within the paintings of Shen Haopeng and have formed the basis of his enquiry in recent years. Some of his lines are imbued with a calligraphic quality whereasothersappear as clear and bold blocks of colour. Overlapping blocks of colour of different lengths break up the pictorial surface of his paintings creating a network of internal lines. Sometimes the zone where the blocks of colour meet and overlap is extremely sharp, creating a total break. Shen Haopeng often uses simple and concise lines or smears of paint to accen­ tuate the sense of separation and partition. In this way he succeeds in creating a lively and complex visual effect. The series titled 'Re-born' was begun in 1990. These works exhibit both complexity and simplicity. Shen Haopeng has gradually abandoned Xuan paper, used for traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy, and the special bleeding effects that can be achieved through its use, as well as the solidity and substance of oil painting together with its coloured, skin-like painted surface. Instead, he has embraced pure, simple and resonant linework and the space created through the use of lines. His interest in reciting Tang dynasty poetry, Song dynasty verse and Yuan dynasty singingversehas endowed his works with a melodic quality that may be compared to the rhythm in music and song. The aesthetic dimension of Chinese words is given full expression through his use of free-flowing and elegant cursive ink script (xingshu). Shen Haopeng is an aesthete. The elegance and sentimentality that he borrows from classical Chinese literature are used to construct a new art form. The concept of 're-birth' lies beneath a brilliant exterior. The notion of the aesthetic is for him pre-eminent and eternal. Li Xu