Author: Sandrine Virginie HILAIRE

Bu Hua: Beijing Babe Loves Freedom

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Bu Hua born in 1973 is a female Chinese artist. In her strong imagery and flat, decorative backgrounds there is a trace of the traditional woodblock prints of the revolutionary period, and also her love of Japanese art and design. Often described as a pioneer of digital animation in China, Bu Hua was one of the first to use animation software in an art context, creating surreal narratives about contemporary life. Her animations and still images often feature a feisty, sassy pigtailed child dressed in the uniform of the Young Pioneers, a Communist Party youth group. A clever combination of innocence and knowing, cuteness and cunning, playfulness and cynical parody through a characteristically crisp graphic style creates an allegory of industrialisation, pollution and militarisation. Her heroine, armed only with a slingshot, takes aim at flocks of white birds which prove, on closer examination, to be military aircraft. More about Bu Hua http://bit.ly/1BAxKsH

La Négresse Blanche by Brancusi

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Brancusi’s art focused not only on the medium and form of his sculptures, but also on the relationships between his works and the light and space around them. His atelier became the site of groundbreaking experimentation, as he regularly combined and recombined the component parts of individual works and rearranged their placement within groups. The complete ensemble of Brancusi’s White Negress unites the natural elements of stone and wood into an exploration of modern, abstract form, weight, and mass balanced with great lightness and delicacy. More about Constantin Brancusi http://bit.ly/1ugZjOy

Gunpowder & Tiger by Cai Guo-Qiang

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Cai Guo-Qiang was born in 1957 in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China. His father, Cai Ruiqin, was a calligrapher and traditional painter who worked in a bookstore. As a result, Cai Guo-Qiang was exposed early on to Western literature as well as traditional Chinese art forms. As an adolescent and teenager, Cai witnessed the social effects of the Cultural Revolution first-hand, personally participating in demonstrations and parades himself. He grew up in a setting where explosions were common, whether they were the result of cannon blasts or celebratory fireworks. He also “saw gunpowder used in both good ways and bad, in destruction and reconstruction”. It seems that Cai has channeled his experiences and memories through his numerous gunpowder drawings and explosion events. More about Cai Guo-Qiang http://bit.ly/1jl0kT6

Louvre Abu Dhabi: Can Museums Be Exported?

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Abu Dhabi has a new cultural center on the island of Saadiyat. Importing the expertise of the most recognized institutions, the city brands its image as universal and global. The most famous architects of the post-modernist era such as Jean Nouvel have been selected and are at the source of this new branding approach. Lack of knowledge and experience in creating cultural institutions led the Arabian power to collaborate with the Louvre, the Guggenheim Museum and the British Museum. As a result, a collection belonging to the Louvre was moved to Abu Dhabi for a summer exhibition. The Louvre Abu Dhabi is born. However, this does pose questions. The issue of exporting culture has become crucial as our world becomes increasingly fragmented since global. Can culture be exported? Can art be read in a foreign context regardless its place of creation? For some experts, separate artistic creation from its nation of origin would lead to eliminating its sense and integrity whereas on the other hand, some institutions such as the Guggenheim Museum highlights the history of avant-garde through museums perceived as …

Untitled by Lu Guang

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Lu Guang’s work covers a wide range of consequences due to China’s rapid industrialization. A reoccurring theme is that of ‘cancer villages’ in certain affected provinces, the negative environmental conditions such as water pollution and the effect of industrialization on Chinese countrysides and its people. Guang has stated that his choice of subjects is done to raise awareness in both China and on a global scale. More about Lu Guang http://bit.ly/1twa0wj  

Hong Kong-born Artist Paul Chan Wins Prestigious Prize In NY

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The artist Paul Chan was awarded the prestigious Hugo Boss prize in New York last week. Initiated in 1996, the prize is awarded every two years to an artist who has made “a significant contribution to the evolution of the contemporary visual arts“. Paul Chan is prototypical of his generation, exploiting the potential of the World Wide Web and its information overkill to excess, redesigning it and establishing links with goal-oriented, unbridled enthusiasm. He has already created a wide-ranging oeuvre that reveals him to be one of the most inventive and multifaceted practitioners in contemporary art. His studies of current political and social issues, as well as the great and timeless concerns of history, literature, and philosophy, are incorporated into his art with lighthearted verve. More about Paul Chan http://bit.ly/1xHql3C

The East is Red by Ling Jian

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Ling Jian was born in the Shandong Province of China in 1963. He graduated from the Qinghua University Art College and has exhibited his work in Germany, Bangkok, Amsterdam, and Italy. Ling Jian’s art is neither westernized Chinese art nor orientalized western art but a carefully negotiated hybridization calibrated to the artist’s expressive concerns. More about Ling Jian http://bit.ly/1uELDQI