Visit to Calligraphy and Chinese Brush painting exhibition at Singapore Polytechnic

Recently, I went to a Calligraphy and Chinese Brush painting exhibition at Singapore Polytechnic held by The Society of Chinese Artists. I wanted to go for this exhibition as I took lessons in Chinese Brush painting when I was around 10. My painting teacher, Mr Alan, had his works exhibited there too.

All of the works exhibited were by Singaporeans, so this exhibition gave me many insights into how Singaporean artists view Calligraphy and Chinese Brush painting. To my surprise, there were some paintings that were painted with oil paints. However, most paintings had the traditional Chinese brush painting method, which is painted with Chinese paints, which are very much like watercolour, and are painted with Chinese painting techniques. Before coming to this exhibition, I have never deeply thought about why artists would like to paint in a range of styles and expressions. After visiting this exhibition, and seeing the number of works that are painting in Western styles, I became very intrigued, and thought about this. Here are some of my thoughts.

I feel that since we live in a very globalized world today, it is impossible to totally stick to your roots. We are being influenced everyday with art from all over the world, from the newspapers, blogs, websites, etc. Also, I feel that learning only one form of art would disadvantage the Chinese brush painters, since it is good to have a wide variety and exposure to different forms of art. Thus, maybe the Chinese brush painters had paintings in both Western and Chinese art, with Western art to show how capable they are in the skills segment, and with Chinese art as a main interest and passion. Learning Western art would also expose the Chinese painters to different types of painting and color handling techniques. Thus, they will have a deeper overall understanding of art, which will help them greatly in their work.

Here is an example of a painting that is painted with oil.

Here are examples of paintings that have both Chinese and Western art painting styles.

Here are some examples of paintings painted with traditional Chinese brush painting methods and Chinese watercolour paint.

Chinese brush paintings usually have animals, plants and sceneries as subject matters. In the exhibition, many artists also had animals and landscapes as the subject matter. There were very few paintings of people. This is unlike European art, where the subject matter of people are favoured. I think this is probably because European artists like to focus on the portrayal of human feelings, while Chinese artists prefer to portray sentimental and philosophical feelings.

Here are some examples on the usual subject matter in Chinese art, which was very prominent in the exhibition.

Westerners criticized Chinese art for its lack of perspective and shading, saying it looked "dead" and had "no life at all." The Chinese criticized back by saying Western oil painting was too lifelike and lacked expression. Over expressions of technical skill were considered vulgar to the Chinese. The Chinese focused on capturing 'qi', the life force of the subject matters.

Here are some pieces that I feel are excellent in portraying the 'qi' of the subject matters.

Overall, I am very happy to have the chance to attend this exhibition. I finally managed to have a connection with Chinese brush painting over these years. Also, if one insists on sticking to only one type of art, without any prior exposure to other types of art, I feel that he will forever be a 'frog in the well'. Thus, I learnt how important it is to expose yourself to the different art styles and painting techniques.