This week, the Louise Blouin Foundation in London is opening a major survey of contemporary Chinese painting. Curated by professor Lü Peng from Hangzhou’s China Art Academy, "Pure Views: New Painting From China" gathers more than 80 pieces by both established and emerging artists from the country. All the works are available for sale and a percentage of the profit will be donated to the Louise Blouin Foundation to contribute to the foundation’s promotion of cultural dialogue. Just off the plane, Peng spoke with ARTINFO UK about recent developments in Chinese art, as well as the importance of global exchange.
The exhibition borrows its title from an artwork by painter Xia Gui. What is this piece about and how does it encapsulate some of the artistic concerns or tendencies present in the show?

I borrowed the title "Pure Views" from an artwork by Song Dynasty painter Xia Gui to suggest that Chinese contemporary art should pay more attention to Chinese traditional civilization. In the past three decades, when the use of Chinese history and traditional resources needed to be balanced, we witnessed a new phenomenon among many Chinese artists. While Western modernism inspired those born in the 1980s, and Western postmodernism inspired those born in the 1990s, there appeared artists who favored the traditional Chinese art concepts and styles. After the turn of the new millennium, we could accept this transitional period as a time marked by artists starting to master their historical resources. We gradually became aware that a new contemporary Chinese art was coming about through the combination of resources extracted from traditional art and the artists' perceptions of contemporary society.

"Pure Views" brings together artists from different generations. Besides their shared nationality, how do they relate to each other?

Nationality is indeed influential and when you see the works, you will find that even though the artists come from different generations, they have one thing in common: their desire to understand the past based on a "contemporary vision" and their use of painting materials that differ from traditional ones. These artists retain traditional Chinese values and the temperament of traditional civilization, but they show this in a contemporary way.

"Pure Views": Curator Lü Peng on the Louise Blouin Foundation's Show of Contemporary Chinese Painting II