Shao Fan: Refrain I 复沓

 

Shao Fan - Whisper From the Abyss.

‘The classical Chinese worldview and philosophy of life are also near and dear to me. According to it, all things are equal and everything is one.’— Shao Fan, 2014

A beautifully ethereal collection of paintings by Shao Fan in his exhibition Refrain I 复沓 at White Cube Mason's Yard. They are a combination of elements drawn from his traditional Chinese culture, with references to the history of Western art. The subject matter for the paintings is culled from different myths, personal iconography and still life studies from the natural world. Fan is renowned for his paintings of hares and rabbits, employing Taoist philosophy in which animals and humans coexist in balance with the cosmos. Fan also paints still lives of fruit and vegetables which he treats as sacred or devotional objects in much the same way as the vanitas paintings by Dutch Masters of the 17th Century. These depictions of hares and other subjects are painstakingly rendered. The scale and selective cropping of the hares in the picture plane by Fan adds a sense of surreality to these works. The rendering of the hares bring to mind that wonderfully observed study of a hare by Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), whereas the sculptural shapes of Fan's fruit and vegetable pictures are reminiscent of the paintings of Georgia O'Keefe which verge on abstraction. What is interesting about the paintings is that they are all delicately executed in monochrome, ink on rice paper which adds to their sense of the dreamlike and otherworldliness. Their execution is meticulous. Layer upon layer of ink is applied in the most delicate washes in a repetitive, meditative technique drawing on Fan's heritage of the ancient calligraphic practices from the Song dynasty (960-1279). Fan states - "We in China don’t paint a picture, we write it. Writing with the brush represents a form of turning oneself into air. Insofar as one expresses one’s inner feelings, one feels relieved; one frees oneself from the enormous burden of one’s own feelings." A close inspection of the paintings reveals a dazzling array of the refined Song dynastic painterly vocabulary or ‘texture strokes’ featuring dots, dabs, rubbed lines and striated washes used to evoke the granular materiality of eroded stone, weathered wood, wrinkled skin. These mark-making techniques are employed to great effect by Fan demonstrating his technical mastery of the medium and can be seen in the close up details of the pictures below.

Rabbit Portrait 1025

Giant Lingzhi

Fruit 1924

Buddhist Washing His Beard

Whisper From the Abyss

Ushnisha 1124

The Northern Sea 3

In the Name of the Rabbit 1022

Water and Fire 1825

Chinese Cabbage 1425

Shao Fan: Refrain I 复沓

until 27th June

White Cube Mason's Yard

London

SW1Y

Madrid

 

"To wander the streets of Madrid is to discover a treasure trove of stories" - Carlos Ruiz Zafón.

I couldn't believe 12 years had passed since my last visit to the Spanish capital (here). Wandering the streets of Madrid again very little seems to have changed. There was a  familiarity which was really quite reassuring. It is too a really easy city to traverse on foot as nothing I wanted to see was more than a 20-30 minute walk away. I thoroughly enjoyed that last visit doing the sights, galleries and spending long lazy afternoons in El Retiro Park drinking Mahou and Slushies with my wing-man. This time I was travelling solo, retracing my steps, chasing ghosts. Madrid is an interesting city in comparison to other major European capitals in that it isn't based by the sea, and there is no great river cutting a swathe through it like say the Seine or the Thames. It is a city built in the wilderness, situated where it is purely by the decree of Philip II of Spain in 1561 for no other reason than it is the geographic centre of Spain. The city is divided into three distinct sections each with its own diverse feel, and for this reason Madrid is often described as the "city of a thousand faces". There is Old Madrid to the east of the city, full of narrow winding streets and ornate 16th century buildings surrounding the Plaza Mayor and Baroque architecture around the Puerta del Sol. Bourbon Madrid to the east of the city features French inspired architecture in the imposing Puerta de Alcalá by the Paseo del Prado, and Neo-Classicism in the form of the Museo del Prado of 1785, with some fine Art Deco era buildings along the Gran Via. To the north of the is the modern sector of La Castellana, an area which is the heart of commerce and finance with modern, more experimental architecture. One landmark I didn't get to see on my last visit was the Metropólis building, (Edificio Metrópolis), which I made sure I remedied this time. I was rather taken by with its neo-renaissance façade featuring Corinthian columns and a slate dome with gold leafed swags and plaques topped by the impressive statue of an angel, a stunning allegorical figure representing Winged Victory. The Metropólis is situated at the junction where Gran Via meets Calle de Alcalá, just a few minutes walk from my hotel. I became a little obsessed with both the building and statue, photographing it each time I passed. It was fascinating to observe it in all light conditions from the greyish dawn to an orange dusk illuminated by the strong Spanish sun. As well as the heat and local food, my visit was of course centred around visits to Madrid's world-class museums. A visit to the Thyssen Bornemisza yielded the surprise treat of a Vilelm Hammershøi retrospective featured in my last post (here). A first ever visit to the Real Academia De Bellas Artes revealed some wonderful paintings by Goya, Zurbaran and Guiseppe Arcimboldo's little gem - Primavera which has inspired some new pieces that I've been working on. At the Reina Sofia ongoing renovations in the garden meant the Chillida sculptures were sadly out of bounds, and of course there were large crowds surrounding Picasso's Guernica. The Prado was as ever amazing, but sadly visitors are no longer allowed to take photographs of the art works. Reacquainting myself with the city was a really rewarding experience although there is still much more to be explored. Madrid is such a beautiful, vibrant city and I hope there is not such a long gap between my next visit.