Make love, not war
Guangzhou has two major art museums with outlooks so radically different they could be on different planets, not merely on opposite banks of the Pearl River. The Guangzhou Museum of Art, which opened in 2000, is advertised as a 'base for patriotism education', an ideal reflected in its artefacts and artwork. It's not to be confused with the Guangdong Museum of Art, which has repeatedly taken chances and challenged convention since its opening in 1997, and even more so under the direction of Wang Huangsheng. With 8,000 sq metres of exhibition space plus an outdoor sculpture garden, it's the largest museum in China specialising in 20th-century and contemporary art.
On my last visit in June, I caught five new exhibits that reflected the Guangdong Museum of Art's refreshingly international outlook, including a contemporary Taiwan ink wash exhibit; bizarre, beautiful Japanese contemporary photography; and one of the few Tibetan art exhibits I've seen that managed to get past the usual thangkas, temples and various shades of the colour red. Even the contemporary Chinese art show was a joint production, curated by Thierry Raspail of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Lyon.
So I was surprised to see materials advertising works by a 'highly patriotic' political cartoonist who had encouraged the Chinese to fight against the Japanese invasion. Was I in the wrong museum? It turned out to be a major survey of works by little-known Hong Kong-based artist Chen Baijian (also known as Chan Pak-kin). There were more than 80 pieces, from 1942 anti-war political cartoons to nudes finished this year.
Chen's war cartoons make up a small part of the exhibition, which sprawled across four large rooms. Seen from a 21st-century point of view, they appear more anti-violence than anti-Japanese. Other 'political' pieces were equally ambiguous. In a 1960 woodblock print titled 'The Musician', a handsome young man waving a baton is followed by a raging mob with torches and guns - all carved in the bold strokes of communist propaganda art. But was the conductor leading the mob into battle, as the piece was probably interpreted in the years leading up to the Cultural Revolution, or running from them?
Though tagged as a cartoonist, Chen's best works are his watercolours, of which he has produced more than 1,000 in his lifetime. He uses deep, bright colours, something not usually associated with the medium. By saturating the paper with paint, he creates hot pinks, forest greens and other unexpected hues. But because he's working with watercolour - and not acrylic or oils - Chen's works have a luminous, translucent quality that can only be seen when you're standing in front of the paintings.
In his programme notes, Chen states that he's concerned with capturing a sort of sunlight specific to southern China. He does this by clashing cool and warm tones: for example, a sunset at a typhoon shelter is represented by a pool of molten gold light on a wave of grey-blue water.
In 1986, Chen moved to Hong Kong and discovered a different kind of light - city light. A stand-out piece is his 1991 painting of the Legislative Council building.
Central, as every Hongkonger knows, never goes completely dark, and Chen paints the backdrop of skyscrapers in blues and violets.
In vivid contrast, the inner heart of Legco is depicted as a bright glowing light shining out from the centre of an otherwise grey building. A crowd of people, also highlighted with lively dots of bright oranges and yellows, gather in front.
Now aged 79, Chen lives and works quietly on Peng Chau with his wife, largely disengaged from Hong Kong's art scene. His only contact with other artists comes when he travels to Cheung Sha Wan for group life-drawing sessions. Here, he creates nudes as unique as his other works. The same surprising colours that turn up in his landscapes and city spaces are now applied to the human body, sometimes humorously.
In Girl in Sportwear, a woman drawn in lemon and lime wears a bright red hooded top seen on many of the city's teens.
Model with Hand on Chin (2003) is drawn in a vaguely Cubist style - one breast is green, the other yellow and the rest of the body outlined in magenta.
One wonders when Chen will be similarly rediscovered in the city where he's made his home for almost two decades.
