Original title: Live Preview | Zhou Brothers × Zhou Guoping × Xu Bing × Zhang Yue: Feeling – The Soul of Art
Zhou’s Shanzuo and Zhou’s Great Wilderness, world-renowned contemporary abstract artists, their initials ZHOU.B and the totem-like figures in their paintings have become iconic symbols, behind which are the recognition and praise of the international painting community.
Today, the name “Zhou Brothers” is both familiar and unfamiliar. The so-called familiarity is that they attracted the attention of the art circle as early as the early 1980s; the so-called unfamiliar is that they went overseas after the first acquaintance of the domestic art circle, and have little contact with the domestic art circle since then. Behind the shock of the world and their success, few people know the hardships they have experienced.
The Zhou brothers are a pair of artists who grew up in the changing times. With excellent artistic endowments and passionate pursuit of ideals, they took a unique approach to draw nourishment from the primitive art relics of their hometown Guangxi, “Huashan Rock Paintings”. In the early 1980s, in the Chinese painting circle, which was brewing ideological changes and breakthroughs in art forms, their works with Huashan rock paintings as the theme showed a strong sense of modern form and abundant expressiveness. Xu Bing, who served as a judge of the “International Youth Art Exhibition” in 1985, felt a special touch in these works: “I was struck by the wildness, ancient feeling and the strength of the materials used in the paintings of the two young artists from remote areas of Guangxi. ——I was moved by something rare in the big cities, in the art academies, in the current trend of advocating formal beauty and Western viewpoints in the art world at that time.”
In the 1980s, the Zhou brothers traveled to the United States to pursue their dreams, and became important representatives of the Chinese art landscape in the 20th century, going overseas and promoting the reform of Chinese art. After stepping abroad, the Zhou brothers did not cater to the needs of the Western art world, nor did they directly follow the international popular artistic trends and styles, but firmly settled on the basis of their own art and formed the intentionality through the modern integration of Chinese and Western art. Abstract painting pushes the rhythm and rhythm of point, line and surface to a new level in the drastic sway. As the poet Bei Dao said, “The Zhou brothers started from a ‘foreign country’ and brought the essence of Chinese freehand painting and the original symbols of ancient murals into modern Western art.” Those symbolic symbols derived from Huashan murals, It flashes rich visual sensibility and strong spiritual power, creating an artistic style with oriental cultural heritage and no lack of modernity. In the magnificent expression style, a freehand language with Chinese temperament is injected.
It can be said that the Zhou brothers are the spiritual powerhouses who have always adhered to a serious academic line among Chinese artists going overseas. The critic Mr. Fan Di’an once wrote, “The relationship between the Zhou brothers and Western art is not so much commercial as it is academic, and their success depends on the spirituality of their works.” Critic Li Tuo pointed out that the Zhou brothers’ greatest contribution to art is that when art was on the verge of a dead end, they insisted on the pictorial nature of painting with their own creative behaviors and works, rather than declarations.
The Zhou brothers in their Chicago studio in 1993
“We destroy each other, we create each other, and we are art in themselves.” The two people’s joint creation spanning half a century has created a new art form in the art world. One is restrained and quiet, the other is arrogant and wild, the Zhou brothers condense into a rare art pair. The artist Xu Bing saw a kind of “beauty of complementarity and entanglement” in the process; poet Bei Dao believed that “the energy of the Great Wilderness is just in balance with the overall momentum of Shan Zuo… Without my brother, the energy of the Great Wilderness would have Some kind of destructiveness; without his younger brother, Yamasaku’s aura would lack the necessary restlessness.”
From the first joint creation of the pioneering youth in 1973, to the “Zhou Brothers” becoming a contemporary art code; from the early realistic painting style to the abstract expressionism integrated with the oriental charm; from the primitive painting in Wuming County, Guangxi From mountain villages to wandering on the world stage and integrating into Western mainstream art, the Zhou Brothers’ overseas artistic journey is a spiritual journey, and it is also a journey of dialogue between Chinese artists and Western art. They have won worldwide acclaim for their unrelenting efforts. It is a success story, a time of choice, endurance and conflict, and it also precipitates a firm inner drive towards art.
“When we were young, we fantasized about becoming the ideal Zhou Brothers. After that, some appeared, achieved it, and some didn’t, but sometimes it was a new beginning, and that’s how it beckons us to move forward.
“Our life is an artistic journey, which is to make everything come from nothing, and everything seems to come from nothing, and this vitality becomes the driving force of life as we understand it. Life needs to go through a lot of temptations, trials, trials, struggles, each step is a step forward and a step forward. We are not afraid of the most difficult times, so we have a future.” – Zhou Brothers
At 19:00 on June 8, 2022, we specially invite two old friends of artists, Mr. Zhou Guoping, a famous philosopher and writer, Mr. Xu Bing, a well-known contemporary artist, Ms. Zhang Yue, a well-known host, and senior media people Xi Yan, Bai Cheng, together with the artists Zhou brothers Beijing SKP 4F SKP RENDEZ-VOUS has a fireside chat, an impromptu dialogue on “Art: The Soul of Feeling” around the new book “Interviews with Zhou Brothers on Art”.
【Event Guests】
Zhou Brothers
Zhou’s brothers Zhou’s Shanzuo and Zhou’s Dahuang (ZhouB – Zhou Brothers) are world-renowned contemporary abstract artists, and a rare group of brothers with the longest collaboration in the history of art. It is a Chinese symbol known as “Going to World Civilization”.
Since he went to the United States in 1986, with his own efforts and talents, he has created a legend of art-seeking dreams, and successfully demonstrated profound oriental philosophy and a powerful “contemporary art concept”.
Zhou Guoping
Famous contemporary Chinese scholars, writers, philosophers, researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, representative works “Nietzsche: At the Turning Point of the Century”, “Watching Distance” and “Niuniu: Notes of a Father”.
Xu Bing
He is a professor and doctoral supervisor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. In 1999, he won the highest award in the American cultural field: the Mac Arthur Award.
Seo Yeon
My real name is Zhou Xian, a senior media person, currently in charge of the operation of Zhou Brothers Zhou B in China, chief planner, author and executor of “Feeling: The Soul of Art – An Interview with Zhou Brothers Art”.
Bai Cheng
His real name is Xu Baicheng, a senior art media person, a young art historian, a curator, and the author of “Feeling: The Soul of Art – An Interview with the Zhou Brothers”.
Zhang Yue
1984-1988: Student of Chinese Department of Capital Normal University, 1989-1997: Teaching at Beijing School of Accounting, 1995-present: Host of CCTV’s “Half the Sky” and “Night Line”.
He has participated in the screenwriting work of TV series “I Love My Home”, “Temporary Family”, “Computer Home” and “Waiting Hall”. He has won the Golden Microphone Gold Award, the National Excellent Social Education Program Host Award, the National Outstanding Legal Program Host Award, the title of China TV 25 in 25 years, the CCTV Outstanding Announcer and Host and many other awards. In 2011, he initiated the establishment of the animal protection organization “Beijing Love It Animal Protection Public Welfare Foundation” (It Fund), and is currently the chairman of the foundation.
Live time:June 8, 2022 19:00-21:00
Sohu video live link:https://tv.sohu.com/s/m/special/qfact/index.html?roomId=338556045&channeled=1200130017&_=202011081100roomId=338556045&channeled=1200130017&_=202206081100Return to Sohu, see more