Newman Huo

ART lovers in Shenzhen, who haven’t had the chance to travel to Taiwan to see the ancient Chinese masterpieces housed in the Taipei palace museum, now get the opportunity to see exact replicas of those works.

Now three exhibitions running until Sept. 26 at Artron Art Gallery feature a total of 132 replicas of ancient Chinese paintings and calligraphic works. The works were replicated by a Japanese company called Nigensha Publishing Co. Ltd., based on the originals in the Taipei palace museum’s collection.

The replicas have been grouped into three categories: replicas of paintings and calligraphic works from the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), replicas of paintings on fans from the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1279-1368) dynasties, and replicas of paintings of plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo, and chrysanthemums from the Song, Yuan, Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.

“With this year’s Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival around the corner, we decided to stage three theme exhibitions to enable city residents to enjoy a free feast of traditional Chinese culture,” said Yang Xing-wei, a spokesman for Artron Art Gallery.

“Every work on display is of high artistic value, but as we put them together according to different themes, we hope viewers can learn more about ancient Chinese art in a systematic way,” Yang said.

The exhibited works are also on sale.

Among the replicas are copies of landscape paintings by painting masters such as Fan Kuan (950-1032) and Guo Xi (1020-1090), bird and flower paintings by Emperor Huizong (1082-1135), and calligraphic works by the Four Master Calligraphers of the Song Dynasty, namely Su Shi (1036-1101), Huang Tingjian (1045-1105), Mi Fu (1051-1107) and Cai Xiang (1012-1067).

The highlight of the exhibition is a replica of Fan Kuan’s “Travelers Among Mountains and Streams,” the greatest single example of the monumental-landscape style of painting, and a model for all Chinese artists. Fan is remembered as one of the leading figures of the Northern Song landscape tradition and one of the most well-known landscape artists of ancient China.

His painting, nearly seven feet tall, is based on the Taoist principle of becoming one with nature.

The painting focuses on a majestic mountain. The foreground, presented at eye level, is executed in crisp, well-defined brush strokes. Jutting boulders, tough scrub trees, a mule train on the road, and a temple in the forest on the cliff are all vividly depicted.

The painting style pioneered by Fan stressed the importance of imagination and detachment from reality. He created imaginary landscapes that were different and unique while preserving the internal order and ideal balance of nature.

His style — reducing human figures to minute proportions and dramatizing the awesome power of nature － has led critics to compare his creative power with that of nature itself.

Born in Taiyuan, Shanxi during the Song Dynasty, Mi Fu, also known as Mi Fei, was a painter, poet and calligrapher.

He gained fame for painting misty mountains in South China, which made his style quite different from painters of the Northern School, such as Fan Kuan.

From replicas of one of his landscape paintings and 14 of his calligraphic works at the exhibition, visitors can also see the close relationship between Chinese painting and calligraphy.

Paintings on fans form a special genre with a long history in China.

In the Song and Yuan dynasties, painters and calligraphers mainly used the silk surface of round fans, but by the Ming Dynasty, after folding fans became popular, the Chinese rice paper of this kind of fan became an alternative surface for painting and calligraphy.

In the replicas of paintings on fans from the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1279-1368) Dynasties, the visitors can see landscape paintings on round fans by well-known painters such as Gao Kegong (1248-1310), Fang Congyi, Sheng Mao and Zhu Deyun (1294-1365), all of whom lived during the Yuan Dynasty.

An interesting part of the exhibition is a group of six flower and bird paintings on round fans by anonymous painters of the Song Dynasty.

Till date, no one knows who created these paintings. But the flowers, plants, vegetables, melons, butterflies and dragonflies are depicted so vividly on fans that few can underrate their artistic value.

Among the replicas of paintings of plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo, and chrysanthemums of the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties are two works by the Italian painter Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), who served in the imperial court of the Qing Dynasty.

In the painting “Birds and Chrysanthemums” by Castiglione, who used the Chinese name Lang Shining, the bright colors make a peaceful and harmonious impression.

In the left bottom corner of the painting, he has written “In honor of your majesty, drawn by Lang Shining,” which indicates that the painting was created specially for the emperor.

The painting combines European and traditional Chinese styles. It bears the seal of Qing Emperor Jiaqing, who kept it in his private collection.

Nigensha Publishing Co. Ltd. was commissioned by the Taipei palace museum to replicate masterpieces of ancient Chinese paintings and calligraphic works in the 1970s.

Artron Art Gallery is planning to stage nine more exhibitions with different themes in the near future.