The Beauty of Life & the Joy of Art

Soka Art Beijing is  ten years old. 

As one of rare galleries existing in Beijing for ten years, Soka Art Beijing witnessed the growth of art market as well as the great change of Chinese art in the ten years. In this exhibition, Commemoration ---10th Anniversary of Soka Art Beijing, many remarkable works will be shown in the two parts, Memories of the Past and Windows to the Future. 

The Memories of the Past is focused on the art masters in the twentieth century. Andy Warhol’s two paintings Princess Diana and Prince Charles were finished in 1982 for celebrating the household romantic marriage. After the works, Warhol came to Beijing and took a photo in Tiananmen Square. Coincidentally, the two paintings also come to Beijing after twenty years, witnessing an impressive marvel in the history of western and eastern art.  Another important works is Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Nets finished in New York as the prototype of her art style, fascinating viewers by infinite stretched nets. 

The first generation of Chinese oil painters got the harbor in Soka. In this exhibition, we display a series of works by the representative artists who studied earliest in Europe. The Village is Lin Fengmian’s landscape masterpiece in early days. In Qin Xuanfu’s Cleaning Snow, the painter’s open-minded life at the age of fifties is seen from the lively figures in the painting. Zhou Bichu’s Indonesia Volcano shows us a colorful picture of tropical scenery just like the painter’s enthusiasm. Self-portrait is most representative of the painter, like Rembrandt. Dai Bingxin’s Self-portrait, a frowned old man, shows the painter’s weary and worries at the condition of art and his goal of art for art education. We also exhibit some important collections representing Soka’s special taste of art and perseverant pursuit of outstanding art, such as Liu Ye’s musician series Deng Lijun and Zao Wou-Ki’s collections in 1971.

In the Window to the Future, we exhibit, on one hand, the works of the cooperated artists who made exhibitions at Soka, such as Sun Yuntai, Yu Xiaofu, Yang Jianping, Wang Xiangming, Ji Dachun, Gao Huijun, Yin Qi, Bao Zhong and Yang Jing; on the other hand, the works of artists who are going to cooperate with Soka, such as Mao Xuhui, the representative of southwest art research, Wang Yigang, the representative of northeast art, Hong Ling, called the successor of Zhao Wuji, and the emerging artists at Soka including Zhao Bo from Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, Xu Guipin from Yun Nan University, Ma Junfu and Zeng Shenghui from Taiwan.

Ten years of art pursuit is only a short span of life.  Soka Art Beijing will continue to make sincere and further effort to provide service for collectors and artists, and hold more exhibitions for people to enjoy the beauty of life and joy of art at the Palace of Art--- Soka Art Beijing.

By Hsiao Fu-yuan, at Mid-Autumn Festival

Beijing, Sep.2011