HONG KONG.- Sotheby’s S|2 presents Two Generations: Ink Art by Peng Xiancheng and Peng Wei – A Selling Exhibition at Sotheby’s Hong Kong Gallery from 16 to 29 October 2015. Featuring more than 40 works directly from the artists, Two Generations is the first exhibition to showcase the father-daughter duo in a joint exhibition. While Peng Xiancheng is known for his classical style and Peng Wei a contemporary style, this exhibition presents a tender dialogue between the two generations and reveals the influence each artist has on the other through the common medium of ink.
As an award winning artist, Peng Xiancheng is nationally recognised as one of the most distinguished artists in China and celebrated for his mastery of the boneless ink wash technique (painting without outlines) and his spirited, colourful compositions. His fascination with Chinese ink paintings began as a teenager and developed into an active career spanning over forty years. Though widely exhibited in national Chinese institutions and museums, his works are rarely available to collectors. Two Generations marks the first gallery exhibition of Peng Xiancheng in Hong Kong in twenty years. Featuring 25 paintings spanning two decades, the exhibition ranges from his iconic portraits of Tang dynasty ladies and horses, to his poetic still-life series of birds, flowers and insects, and stunning colourful landscapes.
Drawing upon her father’s legacy and distinctive style, Peng Wei conveys a similar passion for her art in her oeuvre, transforming paintings into contemporary objects. Fascinated with the classical past, she unites this influence with contemporary themes and concepts. Peng combines a lyrical reinterpretation of traditional landscape and scholar stone imagery with textile design and Western literatures into a gentle, yet engaging art form that is distinctively her own. On the occasion of this exhibition and as a tribute to the close relationship her father, Peng Wei inscribed selected works with excerpts from letters by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to his father and wife. In combination with imagery inspired by the past, Peng’s appropriation of words and letters between artists from the 19th century reveals her own profound connection to past and to the man that raised her. Peng’s poetic cultural pastiche is uniquely her own and presents a renewed interpretation of tradition. Two Generations will present 18 works by Peng Wei.
Kevin Ching, Chief Executive Officer of Sotheby’s Asia, says: “Two Generations: Ink Art by Peng Xiancheng & Peng Wei is the first joint exhibition of the Pengs in history and held at our Sotheby’s Gallery in Hong Kong. Although Peng Xiancheng and Peng Wei have chosen ink as their main medium, their style, creative concepts and artistic directions are completely different. When viewing their work side by side in this exhibition, we do not need to look painstakingly for similarities and differences, or to determine who has been influenced by whom. Since they are from two generations and have evolved in different directions, each has something to share with the other. What we should feel and appreciate is the deep and passionate connection between father and daughter.”
Clare Cosman, Gallery Director, Sotheby’s Hong Kong Gallery, says: “It's a special thing when the work of two talented artists in dialogue creates a sum greater than its parts. Sotheby’s Hong Kong and S|2 are honoured to present this unprecedented, milestone father-daughter dual exhibition, Two Generations: Ink Art by Peng Xiancheng and Peng Wei. This truly unique and personal presentation features a thoughtful selection of works; an overview of Peng Xiancheng's paintings and styles spanning twenty years as well as recent works by Peng Wei created as a tribute to her father.”
Peng Xiancheng was born in 1941 in Chengdu, Sichuan. He is a member of the China Artists Association, a council member of the Chinese Painting Institute, and a researcher at the China National Academy of Painting. Peng’s works are present in the public collections of the National Art Museum of China, Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University, Beijing Fine Art Academy Museum, Sichuan Provincial Museum, Zhejiang Art Museum, Shenzhen Art Museum, and the China National Academy of Painting.
Born in Chengdu in 1974, Peng Wei received her Bachelors and Master’s degrees in Philosophy and Oriental Art from Nankai University. She is the former editor of ART magazine (2000-2006) and currently an affiliate of the Beijing Fine Art Academy. As one of the few internationally recognised female artists working in China today, she is frequently invited to showcase her works in museums and institutions in Asia, Europe and the United States. Peng Wei’s works are in prominent public collections including the National Art Museum of China, Hong Kong Museum of Art, M+ Museum Hong Kong, Guangdong Art Museum, He Xiangning Art Museum, Beijing Fine Art Academy Museum, San Francisco Museum of Asian Art, and Brooklyn Museum.
Exhibition Highlights
Peng Xiancheng Coquetry 1995 Ink, colour and gold leaf on paper 138.5 x 69 cm
Coquetry is distinguished by its gold leaf ornamentation, vivid use of colour, and saturated composition. It is among only ten or so works that make use of such novel materials. During the 90s, Peng was interested in exploring the potential of ink in achieving the sensuousness of oil painting, and he tested a wide-ranging palette of various media and colours to maximize the richness of his paintings. This masterful composition is only one of three known similar works created during this period.
Peng Xiancheng Beauties 2011 Ink and colour on paper 70.2 x 137.7 cm
Peng Xiancheng is as well known for his paintings of horses as he is for his Tang dynasty ladies like those pictured in this painting, with their hair in elaborate updos and their slightly rotund figures, as was the fashion at the time.
Peng Xiancheng Emperor Ming Huang’s Journey to Shu 2009 Ink and colour on paper (quadratypch) From left to right: (i) 102.9 x 21.3 cm (ii) 103.8 x 21.4 cm (iii) 102.2 x 21.5 cm (iv) 103.1 x 21.4 cm
In his own words, the artist writes, “When I paint shanshui I am not simply painting ink landscapes—I am creating prose poems from my journeys in the mountains. When Chinese people travel in the mountains, what they embark on is always a spiritual and emotional journey, and ultimately the natural scenery before them is not the most important element of the voyage. Instead of trying to perfect the depiction of a landscape, what I care most about is whether I can create different ink effects and techniques via painting shanshui. There is no way to replicate the transcendent emotional and spiritual bond between man and nature. What I’m trying to capture with my shanshui sketches is my own interior state the moment I am confronted with the natural scenery.” - Peng Xiancheng, “When Brush and Ink Speak” (excerpt), 2011
Peng Wei That Day 2015 Ink and colour on paper 140.5 x 38 cm
“These games I play with painting come entirely from modern printed matter. I observe painting (classical) and literature (inscriptions), and then I use the private correspondence of Western authors to ’distort’ the inscriptions, and even titles, of classic landscape paintings. As a result, the concept of the West has entered into Chinese landscape texts. As I appropriate classical painted images, the letters and poems of Western artists replace the inscriptions; these words still have the same position, calligraphy, and effect of an inscription. Paintings and inscriptions are part of an interesting conversational game between scholars and subsequent generations. Herein I have started a dialogue between the letters of Western authors and the paintings of Chinese literati, but presented here they also converse with a contemporary audience.”
Peng Wei Dearest, Faithfully Yours No.2 2015 Ink and colour on paper 24 x 148 cm
Each detail of the folded album is exquisitely painted in colour and ink. The imagery that accompanies her paintings is nostalgic memories with her father, Peng Xiancheng. Dearest, Faithfully Yours No 2 is a memory of being homesick once one is grown-up and in a distant land.
Peng Wei Dear Father No.1 2015 Ink and colour on paper 180 x 70 cm
Created specifically for this exhibition, three Stone series works titled Dear Father are inscribed with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s letters to his father in tribute to the artist’s own father. In her own words Peng Wei writes, “To me, my father is my ’rock’. (September 2015)
