As an international artist who has long paid attention to social and ecological issues, Mr. Hu Xiangcheng saw the hope of marine garbage disposal when he paid attention to the news that Hainan banned disposable plastics and comprehensively promoted degradable materials. The limit of growth left a deep impression on Mr. Hu Xiangcheng in his youth. How to present his thoughts on society in an artistic way made him strongly feel the social mission and responsibility that artists should have.

George Shura, the founder of the lighting technique in the history of Western art, the pioneer of the trend of change in the history of modern art ideas, and the great master who provided great inspiration to the modernity of art, Mr. Hu Xiangcheng learned from George in the exhibition “Shura and our times”. Shura, a turning figure who has an impact on various schools of modern art and science and technology, has made an in-depth interpretation of his thoughts and works, especially the value of Shura’s epistemology, which has been neglected for a long time, has been re emphasized. In the specific artistic treatment, Mr. Hu Xiangcheng applied various innovative techniques such as analysis, deconstruction, reorganization and misappropriation. From this, we can also see that future artistic creation needs to have diversified and profound skills in various fields

In the exhibition of works, there are groups of marine ecology, environmental data and degradable materials. This way of combining art with the current situation makes the exhibition beyond the scope of visual experience and the display mode of conventional art museums.

The complexity of the world is far beyond our imagination. In this era of isolation, fragmentation and mountain separation, we believe that art can span time and space, connect all walks of life, realize overall thinking from micro to macro, and become a medium that deeply understands reality and carries the times. Art can also become a place and space for internal and external communication. In this era of crisis and opportunity, let us maintain a clear understanding, And take positive actions to reconstruct a better world of sustainable development.

Chen Lin / February 28, 2022 at bailuxi Art Museum of Sanya University

Exhibition Name: Shura and our times -- Hu Xiangcheng Works Exhibition

Exhibition time: 2022.02.25-2022.03.25

Venue: No. 191 Xueyuan Road, Yingbin Avenue, Sanya

Organizer: bailuxi Art Museum of Sanya University

Support: Shanghai Huixiang cultural development foundation, art school of Sanya University

Academic chair: Wu Xiaoqi

Curator: Chen Lin

Assistance: Yu Chen, Yang Xiaohua, song Xiaohui, Meng Lijuan, Chen Xiaolong, Chen Rui, Li Ping, Dong Peipei

Chen Xiaoyang, Xu Wencheng, Xie Dehong, he Guihui, Zhang Liang, yuan Yahui, Bai shangshun

Design: Song wenhanyu

Photographer: Gao Pengfei

Dialogue between Wu Xiaoqi and Hu Xiangcheng

Wu: Newton found that under the action of rhombic mirror diffraction of light, impressionist painting learned the relationship between light and color, which was applied. What do you think are the similarities and differences between new Impressionism and Impressionism? What’s the special significance?

Hu: let’s first understand the Impressionist Art’s understanding of color before. If there are pots of yellow flowers, the leaves are green, the pots are earthy red and the flowers are yellow. Because at that time, it was thought that color was inherent in things, so add some black or dark coffee to the dark part of leaves, pots and flowers, and add some white to the bright part. In fact, this is equivalent to putting three monochrome sketches of green, red and yellow together. The progress of optical theory makes us understand that the color perceived by human retina is the reflection of light on objects. Therefore, Impressionist artists like to go out of the studio and invest in the research on the relationship between light and color in the external light environment. They were more interested in the phenomenon of light color reflected by objects than the shape of objects, which was a great experiment at that time. Of course, it can also be regarded as a naturalism of more objective reproduction of light color. However, Impressionism separates painting from the story and plot of ancillary works, and it is another value for painting to return to painting itself. Known as the new Impressionism, Shura has the same attributes of the treatment of light and color in the Impressionist school, but the fundamental difference is that Shura is rational, juxtaposing and contrasting color particles to form the phenomenon of color mixing. He doesn’t care about the intuition of the outside world. Although the picture of his most famous “Sunday afternoon of Dawan island” is the river, the natural environment and people, from the stippling of millions of particles to the composition, it is a world created by rational and subjective design in the interior for more than two years.

Wu: Shura’s life is short, but it has left a brilliant page in the history of art. In the 21st century, how do you view Shura’s contribution and the value of artistic life?

Hu: Shura lived only thirty-one years old, and painting by countless stippling methods is particularly slow, and there are few handed down works. Therefore, when the social communication is not enough, the only creative value of Shura is easy to be ignored. In fact, 1886 was a special year for Western art circles. In the eighth Impressionist exhibition in Paris, the world capital of art at that time, Shura exhibited the “Sunday afternoon of big bowl island”. This landmark work affected almost all new art genres in the future, from which Van Gogh, Cezanne, Picasso, dari and monterian all benefited. Because Shura let us know that art can be adjusted subjectively and objectively to design the world, and truth, falsehood and reality can be understood from different dimensions. In addition, in the 21st century, Shura’s way of thinking and creation are rare cases in which art affects science and technology. Stippling is to divide and combine the whole and shape the world with rational geometry, which is the characteristic of the era of industrial standardization. Stippling also inspired the emergence of color printing and digital bitmap. Today, it is hard for us to imagine that in an era without modern exploration tools, Shura has insight into the fact that the tiny composition we only know now is the truth with his naked eye and his rational thinking.

Wu: after the reform and opening up, Chinese and foreign art exchanges have been frequent. The integration of art and science has enriched the form and connotation of artistic expression. Do you think there is still value to explore the former modernist art such as Shura?

Hu: contemporary art is very common in today’s China. It should be said that there is a modernist stage before the history of contemporary art. Although modernism represented by Juelan society has been weak since it was launched in Shanghai in the 1930s, it has been affecting some artists in Shanghai, Zhejiang and other places. Even during the cultural revolution, we were still partially affected in the learning and teaching of drama. Modern art originated from Impressionism. After the reform and opening up, Chinese art has experienced all-round docking with the world. Now Chinese art should review and sort out the clue, and know yourself and the enemy