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SHU Qun, <Absolute Principle No.1, No.2, No.3>, Oil on canvas, 150×200cm / each, 1984 © Shuqun Studio
SHU Qun, <Absolute Principle No.4>, Oil on canvas, 150×200cm, 1986 © Shuqun Studio
SHU Qun, <Endless Road No.2-No.14>, Gouache on paper, 21.5x23.5cm, 21.5x23.5cm, 23.5x27cm, 21.5x23.5cm, 21.5x23.5cm, 21.5x23.5cm, 7.5x12.5cm, 7.5x12.5cm, 7.5x8cm, 7.5x8cm, 36x26.5cm, 36x26.5cm, 26.5x33.5cm, 1983-1985
[China] SHU Qun Absolute Principle No.1, No.2, No.3 Absolute Principle No.4 Endless Road No.2-No.14
A member of the “Northern Art Group” during the ’85 Art New Wave Movement, Shu Qun was an early promoter and practitioner of “rational painting.” In Shu’s view, the ultimate issues in art are essentially questions of logic, and the meaning in a work of art is not generated through exhibition but rather, its ability to solve the problem. Hegel’s Absolute spirit, Nietzsche’s hyper-human philosopher and Heidegger’s existentialism are converged into the “civilization of the northern belt”, the composition in religious painting from the middle ages. Metaphysical painting of de Chirico and New Formalism by Mondrian nurtured the abstract and desolate visual forms of “rational painting.” Endless Road series is depicted the fossilized body and the universal environment, the planetary universe, ruins and the seemingly frozen and lifeless bodies. They are temperate criticism on those unconscious brushstrokes. The dark universal space in Absolute Principle (1984-1987) provides a sense of infinity and eternity, the cross, from far to close symbolized time, and the architectural network structures display characteristics of solemnity, sublime and reason. At present, having “reached the sublime” and established “iconic order”, Shu has embarked on a new path towards utopian society. |
