Painting and Existence:
Chinese, Japanese and Korean Abstract Painting Travelling Exhibition
Artists: Chen Wenji / Chi Qun / Ding Yi / Feng Lianghong / Ju Ting / Leng Guangmin / Li Kezheng / Liang Quan / Ma Shuqing / Ou Jin / Qian Jiahua / Qu Fengguo / Shang Yang / Shen Han / Shen Zhenglin / Tan Ping / Wang Yi / Wang Zhiyi / Xue Feng / Ye Zhou / Yu Youhan / Zhang Xuerui / Zhu Jinshi / Katsuyoshi Inokuma / Kim Deok Han / Mukai Shuji / Tsuyoshi Maekawa / Tetsuo Mizu / Yukihisa Isobe / Choi Myoung Young / Ha Chong Hyun / Kwon Young Woo / Lee Dong Youb / Lee Ufan / Yun Hyong Keun
10.31 - 12.12, 2020
Beijing 1st & 2nd Space
The traveling exhibition “Painting and Existence: Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Abstract Painting” began its journey in February 2019 at Tang Contemporary Art Hong Kong. The show traveled to Whitestone Gallery in Taipei in August 2019, and it will now close at both of Tang Contemporary Art’s Beijing spaces. As the conclusion to the show, this exhibition will present more than 70 abstract paintings by 35 Chinese, Japanese, and Korean artists, tracing the development of abstract painting from its beginnings with Gutai in Japan in the 1950s to Dansaekhwa in South Korea in the 1970s to its emergence in China in the late 1980s to the present.
The Gutai Art Association was founded by Jiro Yoshihara in 1954 and the group dissolved after his death in 1972. The principles behind Gutai were fully elaborated in “The Gutai Manifesto,” which stated: “Gutai Art does not alter matter. Gutai Art imparts life to matter. Gutai Art does not distort matter. In Gutai Art, the human spirit and matter shake hands with each other while keeping their distance.” Within this framework, Gutai members engaged in a range of aesthetic experiments. Tsuyoshi Maekawa and Shuji Mukai are important second-generation Gutai artists, who maintained their creative drive after the group disbanded. Tsuyoshi Maekawa employs the rough texture of burlap, to which he adds adhesive and oil paint; he has continued to use burlap as a distinctive medium throughout his entire creative career. Shuji Mukai builds spaces using oils, books, and even sections of canvas, covering all visible surfaces with hand-drawn designs. These experiments have given Gutai an important place in the history of contemporary art in Asia and it remains influential even today.
Dansaekhwa began in the 1970s and was part of the Korean art scene for more than a decade. The ideas of the movement have also appeared in the work of the younger generation of artists. Dansaekhwa and Gutai were important and influential movements in Asian modern and contemporary art history. Key Dansaekhwa artists include Ha Chong-Hyun, Kwon Young-Woo, Lee Ufan, and Yun Hyong-Keun. Dansaekhwa was characterized by the use of pure color, repeated applications of paint, and simple visual experiences. In the 1970s, artists used this style to express their material poverty and their desire to resist the military government. Influenced by ancient Korean scholar and calligrapher Gim Jeong-hui, Yun Hyong-Keun thinned paint with turpentine so that he could more easily apply washes to his canvases and create an effect similar to traditional ink and wash painting on xuan paper. Lee Ufan is one of the most important post-war Asian artists, serving as a leader for both Mono-ha and Dansaekhwa. After Mono-ha ended in 1972, he embarked upon explorations of brushwork, voids, and spaces for several decades. After Lee Ufan moved to Japan, he traveled often between South Korea and Japan, playing an important role in artistic exchange between the two countries.
Influenced by Western art, Chinese artists began to engage with abstract art in the 1980s. The majority of the ‘85 New Wave artists who started an abstract practice used abstract art to rebel against and subvert the art system and mainstream values. At that time, abstract painting was significant because it established a new set of values, a realist and political mode of abstraction. In the 1990s, artists began to develop abstract painting techniques with an individual style. The context for abstract painting had changed, giving rise to brushstroke abstraction, conceptual abstraction, and hard-edge abstraction. Artists experimented with mediums, textures, forms, and concepts, and they focused on the expression of everyday, personal experiences, exploring the relationship between personal methods and art historical contexts.
This exhibition begins with Chinese artists active in abstract art in the 1980s and 1990s, such as Shang Yang, Yu Youhan, Liang Quan, Zhu Jinshi, Chen Wenji, Ma Shuqing,Tan Ping, Ding Yi, Feng Lianghong, Ye zhou and Qu Fengguo. The show then continues with members of the younger generation, such as Xue Feng, Ou Jin, Zhang Xuerui, Chi Qun, Ju Ting, Li Kezheng, Leng Guangmin, Shen Zhenglin, Qian Jiahua, Shen Han, Wang Yi and Wang Zhiyi. The exhibition spans time and space to show the breadth of abstract painting and expand the boundaries of abstract art.
![]() Tetsuo MizuJPA Oil on canvas 72.5 × 60.5 cm 1997 | ![]() Tsuyoshi MaekawaUntitled 160433 Acrylic and sewing on cotton cloth 80 x 100 cm 2010 | ![]() Katsuyoshi InokumaIN BLUE Aug '05 Acrylic and coffee powder on panel 192 x 192 cm 2005 |
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![]() Kim Deok HanOverlaid Series. No.20-130-1 East Asian Lacquer on panel 150 x 150 x 6 cm 2020 | ![]() MUKAI ShujiUntitled Acrylic on wood 117 x 80 x 10.5 cm 2017 | ![]() Yukihisa IsobeWORK'65-9 Mix media 138.5 x 93.5 x 6 cm 1965 |
![]() Yun Hyong KeunUmber Blue Oil on linen 161.8 x 130.2 cm 1987 | ![]() Ha Chong HyunConjunction Oil on hemp cloth 120 x 180 cm 2002 | ![]() Lee Dong YoubInterspace/Meditation Acrylic on canvas 160 x 160 cm 2003 |
![]() Choi Myoung YoungConditional Plane Surface Oriental ink on Korean paper on canvas 146 x 82 cm 1985 | ![]() Kwon Young WooUntitled Ink gouache on Korean paper mounted on canvas 116.5 x 89.5 cm 1980s | ![]() Lee UfanFrom Winds Pigment and oil on canvas 60 x 72 cm 1986-7 |
![]() Leng GuangminKilling Time Acrylic on canvas 100 x 120 cm 2020 | ![]() Shen ZhenglinLUCY No.1 Oil on canvas 200 x 200 cm 2014-2015 | ![]() Qian JiahuaTruck Acrylic on canvas 200 x 160 cm 2020 |
![]() Shen HanPetrushka Oil and charcoal on canvas 190 × 150 cm × 3, Triptych 2019 | ![]() Wang ZhiyiGestalt Space Acrylic on canvas 300 x 200 cm 2013-2014 | ![]() Chi QunSeven Lines-Light Grey Oil on Canvas 200 x 135 cm 2016 |
![]() Wang YiHub 2018-2 Acrylic on canvas 220 x 220 cm 2018 | ![]() Ou JinUntitled-175 Acrylic, wood, mix media 30 x 30 cm 2020 | ![]() Yu Youhan2019-5-4 Acrylic on canvas 157 x 208cm 2019 |
![]() Shang YangDecayed Landscape No.3 Mixed media on canvas 168 x 777 cm 2018 | ![]() Ding YiAppearance of Crosses 2019-01 Mixed media on basswood 240 x 240 cm 2019 | ![]() Chen WenjiOverlapped/Dual Series (Purple) Oil on aluminum panel 140 x 140 cm |
![]() Feng LianghongGreen 12-6 Oil on canvas 200 x 190 cm 2012 | ![]() Xue FengSubmerge 9 Acrylic and Oil on canvas 180 x 150 cm 2013 | ![]() Ma ShuqingRemembrance of Provence No.2 Oil on canvas 200 x 200 cm 2008-2018 |
![]() Zhang Xuerui225 202002 Acrylic on canvas 150 x 150 cm 2020 | ![]() Ju TingUntitled 071618 Acrylic on wood 195 x 235 x 13 cm 2018 | ![]() Tan PingUntitled Acrylic on canvas 200 x 300 cm 2017 |
![]() Liang QuanOur Tea Tea, color, ink, acrylic and rice paper on linen collage 115 x 51 cm 2017 | ![]() Qu FengguoSummer Solstice Oil on canvas 150 x 240 cm 2020 | ![]() Li KezhengThe Thinking of Vision-Pale Yellow Acrylic on canvas 180 x 260 cm 2017 |
![]() Ye ZhouTime 201806 Acrylic on canvas 200 x 160 cm x 2, Diptych 2018 | ![]() Zhu JinshiBeef Soup Temple No.2 180 x 160 cm 2017 |
Artists

Lee Ufan
b. 1936, South Korea
Lee Ufan is a painter, sculptor, and philosopher. He is a major proponent of the Avant-Garde artistic movement called Mono-ha (School of Things) with Nobuo Sekine in the late 1960s. This artistic movement focuses on the relationships of materials and perceptions rather than on expression or intervention. After he moved to Japan in 1956, Lee traveled extensively between the two countries and served as a vital conduit between what was happening in both places and helped to introduce Dansaekhwa to a wider audience abroad. Lee’s art process and materials consist of unconventional ideas and anti-authoritarian concepts. His series From Line and From Point, begun in the early 1970s, connected him to many of the ideas in Dansaekhwa. Lee explored themes of gesture and the connection between mark making and the medium of paint itself. This interest was grounded in the tradition of calligraphy, which involved a discipline of repeatedly drawing single lines, and frames the artist's profound investigation of the act of painting.
Lee’s work has been featured in hundreds of solo and group exhibitions since 1967 including Pompidou Metz, Metz, France (2019); Serpentine Galleries, London, UK (2018); Couvent de la Tourette, Eveux, France (2017); Centre de Création Contemporaine Olivier Debré, Tours, France (2017); Château La Coste, Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, France (2016); Palace of Versailles, Versailles, France (2014); Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, USA (2011); the Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan (2005); the Samsung Museum of Modern Art, Seoul, South Korea (2003); Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany (2001); the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris, France (1997); and the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea (1994). He was awarded the Praemium Imperiale for painting in 2001 and the UNESCO Prize in 2000. In 2010 the Lee Ufan Museum, designed by Tadao Ando, opened at Benesse Art Site, Naoshima, Japan.
