China News Service, Sydney, February 28th
: Why does "Landscape and Panda" have a unique international impact?
——Exclusive interview with Australian Chinese artist Zhang Hongjun
China News Service reporter Gu Shihong
The well-known Australian Chinese artist Zhang Hongjun not only won the painting award, but also had his works collected by prestigious art museums and signed contracts with mainstream galleries. He has also made a name for himself in European and American art exhibitions and art markets.
His "Landscape and Panda" series of works have had an international impact with his unique artistic language.
China News Service's "East-West Question" recently interviewed Zhang Hongjun to explore how he blends Eastern and Western art to create a unique style.
The interview transcript is summarized as follows:
China News Service reporter: How did you gradually become an international artist?
Zhang Hongjun:
I moved to Australia in 1997.
When surrounded by various forms of Western art, my thinking became clearer and simpler.
I don’t want to blindly follow trends and become a conceptual artist.
I first pursue the top techniques and styles of painting, and then express the spirit of my own nation while ensuring that its visual style is contemporary and international.
This became the main planning direction for my subsequent creations.
In 1998, "David and His Easel Paintings", which I created based on my younger brother David, was selected for the Australian Doug Moran National Portrait Award for the first time and won the final award. On display in the Central Hall of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
Subsequently, my work was nominated for the third best work and I gradually gained recognition in the Australian art community.
Zhang Hongjun and his work "Landscape, Panda - Tribute to Rothko" series.
Photo by Gu Shihong
I am not content with the status quo and am eager to exhibit my works at important international art exhibitions in Europe and the United States.
I am full of imagination and expectations for my career.
Just like what the predecessor master Zao Wou-Ki advocated, we must become a global painter who integrates China and the West.
For more than 40 years, I have been working intensively and dedicating my heart and soul. Through my appearance on the international stage, I finally became one of the international artists.
China News Service reporter: Your "Landscape and Panda" series of works show strong Chinese characteristics. Why do you choose to keep digging into these elements? What Chinese philosophical thoughts and aesthetic concepts are contained in these elements?
Zhang Hongjun:
Art is a tool for emotional and national expression, as well as a way of communication between the world.
Why paint landscape paintings?
Ancient Chinese created landscape paintings in order to build an ideal world and find their inner ideal state.
As a contemporary artist, I continue to express my love for landscapes, create panda images that are close to people's hearts, and strive to build a new world with humanistic feelings.
If my works can impress the world through sensory projection, express the spirit of Chinese culture, and bring a glimmer of hope to the world, then this will be closer to the artistic value I want to embody.
In my paintings, I pursue a splendid and elegant style, and present a timeless and breathing painting through sophisticated modern visual patterns and impasto textures.
I take the spirit of Chinese philosophy, especially the concept of "unity of man and nature" as the core of my discussion.
Zhang Hongjun's "Landscape and Panda" series of works.
Photo by Gu Shihong
China News Service Reporter: How do your works highlight the peace and inclusiveness of Chinese culture while integrating multicultural elements?
Zhang Hongjun:
The foundation of my painting lies in "learning and reference".
In terms of classical studies, I have comprehensively studied the profound spirit from the European Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci to the contemporary painting masters Lucian Freud and Antonio López García.
On the modern side, I absorbed the color and light of Impressionist master Van Gogh and the freedom of American Abstract Expressionist Jackson Pollock.
At the same time, I was also influenced by pop art and minimalist cold abstraction.
By "grafting" the spatial sense and superb composition of Song Dynasty paintings, he developed his own method, a "post-classical" painting with a multi-dimensional structure.
I believe that the elements, forms and techniques used by artists are means of expressing true inner feelings and emotions.
I am committed to creating works that resonate with viewers, whether abstract or figurative, in order to express the basic concepts of human civilization, including history, life, humanity and nature.
I have launched a series of works, such as celebrity portraits, terracotta warriors and horses, zodiac signs, Tibetan children, landscape and panda series, etc. These works highlight the peacefulness and inclusiveness of Chinese culture, and impress the viewer with a healing and ethereal feeling.
In August 2016, Zhang Hongjun's "Terracotta Warriors" series of works were displayed at a solo exhibition at Sydney's Nanjing/Hobbs Contemporary Gallery.
Photo provided by interviewee
China News Service reporter: What role does your work play in promoting art exchanges and mutual learning between Chinese and foreign civilizations?
Zhang Hongjun:
Recently, I am creating a new series of works that juxtapose landscapes, pandas and the color field paintings of the American abstract expressionist master Mark Rothko.
My works try to eliminate the politics of painting and directly describe the reality of another existence. I fully present Chinese civilization through landscape culture and panda images. By combining it with Rothko's color field paintings, I try to reveal the classics of Eastern and Western art. How the two poles of the world merge wonderfully, proving that East and West can coexist harmoniously.
(over)
Zhang Hongjun's new work "Landscape, Panda - Tribute to Rothko" series.
Photo by Gu Shihong
Interviewee profile:
Zhang Hongjun.
Photo by Gu Shihong
Zhang Hongjun won the Shanghai Art Creation Award in 1992, moved to Australia in 1997, and twice won the Doug Moran National Portrait Award finalist in Australia.
From 2005 to 2012, he was shortlisted for the Archibald Prize, the Australian National Painting Award, six times.
Since 2018, his works have been selected by galleries in London, Sydney and other countries to participate in international contemporary art fairs in London, Sydney, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and other places.
Zhang Hongjun is famous for his multi-architecture "post-classic" works. Many of his works are collected by public art institutions such as the Australian National Portrait Gallery, the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, and the British Royal Family.