"Spirit in Ink——Art Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Painting" in Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University of Turkey, selects 48 Chinese painters active in the contemporary art circle. They are the forerunners in contemporary Chinese painting. Although the 48 pieces of artwork cannot fully represent the development of Chinese painting, they reflect the status quo of contemporary Chinese painting. From the exhibits we can see that the artists are all aware of the saying that “art should keep pace with the time” and they express the new century and the new vision with the help of the latest art language. On the one hand, art language expands the techniques of traditional Chinese painting; on the other hand, it endows the meaning of a new era of traditional Chinese painting, making the dots and lines, rich and weak colors, splash-ink, and splash-color brim over with vitality. These pieces of artwork convey the real feelings buried deep inside the artists, and they reveal the personal feelings and personal style of the artists as well as the bright characters of the era.
Among these works, LIU Dawei expresses the charm of traditional Chinese painting with professional skills and accurate images. FENG Yuan endows traditional Chinese painting with new meanings through masterful techniques and rich accumulation of Chinese culture and art and precise modeling ability. LIU Jude conveys the vivid images through his ink artwork. CHEN Suping emphasizes the expression of inner image. LI Chuanzhen forges the image of urban migrant workers as a body of flesh with sincere humanistic care. YUAN Wu creates the touch of power and force in his artworks. The landscape painting of ZHU Daoping reveals the harmonious and peaceful feeling of the painter. The freehand ink painting of TIAN Liming, reflecting the style of watercolor painting, conveys the beauty of purity. SHAO Fei creates a world of romance with a painting blazing with colors. The work of DU Dakai follows his heart and spontaneously reveals a wonderland with simple contrast of geometric construction and colors. ZHANG Peicheng uses exaggerating and distorted images to bring about the sense of humor. Chinese young artists have become a group that cannot be ignored in Chinese painting creation. They have active mind and the courage to explore, putting more focus on revealing the spirit of contemporary urban Chinese youth, among which WANG Guanjun, LUO Hanlei, YANG Liu, CHEN Zi and ZHANG Jian are the most outstanding ones.
In brief, one artist differs from another with his distinctive style and feature. The development of contemporary Chinese painting is closely related to the history of Chinese society and the philosophical ideas and aesthetic viewpoint of oriental culture. We firmly believe that with the help of these works of art, Turkish people will better understand Chinese painting and the unique beauty and spirit it possesses.