Zhou Chunya

signed in Chinese and dated 1993, framed

Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 9 October, 2006, lot 1730
Private Asian Collection
Ravenel, Taipei, 24 November, 2012, lot 535
Acquired by the present owner from the above sale 

China, Shanghai, Shanghai Art Museum, 1971-2010 Forty Years Review of Zhou Chunya, 13-23 June, 2010, p. 193

Wang Lin ed., Chinese Fine Arts in 1990s- Experience in Fine Arts of China, 1993, p. 91
Hong Lei ed., Zhou Chunya, Timezone 8, Beijing, China, 2010, p. 193
Blooming Stories, Sichuan Fine Arts Publishing House, China, 2007, p. 45

This work is generally in fair condition. There are series of minor paint loss along the edges, possibly due to the previous stretcher. An old stretcher mark is visible along the top edge. A web of craquelures are found in the darker paint areas. Having examined the work under ultraviolet light, there appears to be no evidence of restoration.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

“I am grateful to Expressionism and to literati painting, which gave me the reason to
showcase my artistic individuality.”

Evolution of the Rock Series
Zhou Chunya

Based on Zhou Chunya’s extensive emotional and intellectual groundwork, the Rocks series was the product of his two kinds of artistic experiences—of European Expressionism and of the traditional literati painting of his native China. With this series, Zhou discovered an artistic path at once resonant with his sensibilities and antithetical to tradition. “In this anti-rational, anti-natural attempt, I achieved something strange and magical. According to the conventional vision of orthodoxy, my works are no doubt heretical in imagery and colour, and seem less constructive than deconstructive, unproductive, or even destructive. If my paintings are valid, then according this ‘conventional vision of orthodoxy’ my irreverent provocations must be unacceptable. This excites and pleases me… I am grateful to Expressionism and to literati painting, which gave me the reason to showcase my artistic individuality.” It is not difficult to detect the influence of the Rock series in Zhou Chunya’s subsequent works. For example, the two series Green Dog, with its bright-green palette and violent moods, and Peach Blossoms, with its red colours and suggestions of sexuality, were both inspired and anticipated by Rock series. After 2000, Lake Tai rocks—transfigured “mountain rocks”—began to appear in Zhou Chunya’s works, demonstrating once again the importance of the earlier series. As the artist himself has recognised, “I treasure the works in the Rocks series. In some sense, it was the first milestone for the formal distillation and thematization of culture in my painting practice.” In the present sale, we are pleased to offer an important eponymous work from the series from 1993, Rock Series (Lot 150).

Mountains and rocks are standard subjects in Chinese literati painting, but Zhou Chunya approaches them purely out of personal interest, without regard to iconography or symbolism: “I liked how rocks look in classical literati paintings but was not satisfied with their excessive quietude and inwardness. I came up with a bombastic and risk-taking approach: to use these elegant classical images to convey violent or even sexual feelings.” Before developing the Rocks series, Zhou Chunya consulted and was much inspired by the ink painter Huang Binhong’s stylistic signature of “blackness, density, thickness, and heaviness,” and paid special attention to the structure and texture of rocks.

In the present work, we witness the fruits of Zhou Chunya’s theoretical and technical research. The iconographies of desiccated trees and strange rocks here immediately recall Su Shi, the Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty, and other founders of literati aesthetics. Zhou Chunya does not simply understand trees and rocks through their material properties or iconographical formulae, but rather attempts to dwell on and render their inherent visual and sculptural qualities. Ingeniously, Zhou mixes oil-based pigments to recreate blue, ochre, and other colours of traditional Chinese painting on a canvas. Taking full advantage of the properties of the oil medium, he replaces traditional Chinese painting’s meek understatedness and relative flatness with rich details and textures and complex, well-articulated dimensionality. At the same time, Zhou’s overlays saturated reds on classical Chinese rocks, creating a striking and haunting contrast with the quiet blue tones. This ambivalence between familiarity and alienation is precisely Zhou Chunya’s intention. His rehearsal of the classical iconography of “mountain rocks” is self-sufficient as formalistic expression and needs no further explanation. But once these pre-existing visual experiences are disrupted, mountain rocks painted from a conceptual and technical standpoint become all the more shocking to the viewer.

Indeed, reviewing Zhou Chunya’s three decade career, we see that he has always maintained an independent and sober attitude towards artistic creation. As he himself says, “Since I first began making art, I have refused to place myself into any particular genre or mode, although I did go through an exploratory period when I came under the influence of emotionalism.” This “exploratory period” refers to the 1980’s, when Scar Art swept the Chinese art world and young Chinese artists infused socialist realism with humanistic passions to reflect the historical traumas of the Cultural Revolution. Then twenty-five years old, Zhou Chunya went to Tibet and created New Generation of Tibet, which won a Second Prize in the Second National Exhibition of Art. Although somewhat under the spell of Scar Art, Zhou was ultimately more concerned with his interior world and subjective emotions than with externally-directed humanistic concerns: “When I drew from life, I confronted living and breathing Nature directly. So I always created art in an impassioned state.” Zhou’s distance from various artistic trends is a consequence of his self-reflectiveness. As the critic Lü Peng writes, “After a trend is over, the artists concerned with their inner worlds and personal stances stand out in sharp relief. After extended artistic explorations, he has become the artist with the most freedom and most able to express an artistic individuality.”

This also explains why, when the ’85 New Wave was all the rage in China, Zhou Chunya chose to go to Germany to study at the Kassel Academy of Art. Far from home in Europe, experiencing Neo-Expressionism at its height, he was able to reflect soberly on his cultural heritage: “Between 1986 and 1989, when I studied in Germany, I visited many museums and familiarised myself with the strongest contemporary art trends in Europe. I broadened my horizons immensely and realised that artistic expression can take many different forms. I admit that my early work was influenced by the German Neo-Expressionists, but I was not satisfied with their flashy aesthetics and always felt that many of their paintings couldn’t bear prolonged viewing. I like traditional Chinese literati painting, although I also reject the contrived and pretentious elements in it. The literati’s subtle sensibilities and mystical paintings have always fascinated me. In sheer force, Chinese painters are inferior to Western ones, but we are more sensitive than they are. I realised this very early on. So in the mid-1990’s I slowly emerged from the shadow of Neo- Expressionism and wanted more and more to express my independence.”

Even in Europe, Zhou Chunya remained deeply connected with literati sensibilities and enamoured with literati painting. This was perhaps due to his upbringing in an intellectual family. His father, a literary critic, left him with a lot of books on literary and aesthetic theory and original works by Zhang Daqian, all of which nourished and made an indelible impression on his young mind. By 1989, when Zhou returned to China, its political and economic environment was already drastically different. Characteristically, Zhou distanced himself from trends like Cynical Realism and Political Pop. Instead, he began to delve into traditional Chinese painting and aesthetics in search for a cultural counterpoint and to redress his alienation from his own country during his years in Europe. “In 1989, I came back from three years of studying in Germany. Having been briefly estranged from Chinese traditions, I now felt very close to them. I plunged myself into traditional Chinese painting and began systematically to study classical literati painting. The imageries of the Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty, Bada Shanren, and Dong Qichang especially interested me. This was an important turning point in my career as a painter: I decided to embark on a brand-new, completely unexpected path.” The result of Zhou Chunya’s new direction was none other than the Rocks series of the early 1990’s.