Asia Art Center is honored to announce that the new exhibition entitled “The Flowing Origin: China Water-based Woodblock Youth Program – 2023 Annual Exhibition” will be held on October 28th, 2023, with Wang Zhengyi as curators. This exhibition will display more than fifty Water-based Woodblock artworks by ten artists Cao Ou, Ding Ke, Dong Yayuan, Lee Wen-hsiang, Li Ying, Shao Beiyan, Shang Youlu, Zhang Guanyi, Zhang Qian, Zhou Zhifen.

.

Why should I launch the “Chinese Water-based Woodblock Youth Program”?

Chen Qi

China is the country where printmaking was invented. The traditional printmaking art has a gorgeous and splendid history. Regarding printmaking map in the world scope, there are two major sections of Western printmaking language styles, mainly copperplates, lithographs, mimeographed woodcuts, and oriental printmaking language styles represented by Chinese water-based woodblock printmaking. From a certain point of view, water-based woodblock is by no means a purely technical version, but works as an externalization of Chinese artistic spirit. water-based woodblock has played a crucial role in showing the artistic image of Chinese prints and spreading Chinese cultural values in the international printmaking industry. Over the years, I have been devoted to the promotion and dissemination of water-based woodblock, and I regard it as the most significant work besides my own teaching and creation. I know this is a long and arduous job. water-based woodblock creation and talent training require a lot of time investment and the process is slow, so it is difficult to achieve substantive results quickly.

Since 2019, I have been creating a water-based woodblock with the theme of “auspicious snow” at the end of each year for an annual charity sale. The proceeds from the sale will be used to support the exhibition and publication of the” Chinese Water-based Woodblock Youth Program”. My goal is to encourage young artists to participate in creating and researching water-based woodblock art through my modest efforts, promoting its development in China. After focusing on the “Fourth Generation” in 2021 and “Diffuse Boundary” in 2022 as the main topics of discussion, the 2023″ Chinese Water-based Woodblock Youth Program” will shift its focus back to the artistic essence of water-based woodblock. Under the theme of “The Flowing Origin”, we will delve into the development of the artistic essence of water-based woodblock and engage in an in-depth exploration of the path leading from “self-awareness of the entity” to “self-awareness of culture”.

.

The Flowing Origin

Wang Zhengyi

The essence of water-based woodblock printmaking lies not only in the specific events from which it originated, but also in the generation of its artistic entity and its interaction with the surrounding systems. Therefore, this “essence” should be seen as an integrated process that encompasses countless events. Through this, we can clearly observe the state of flow within it – the flow between internal events and the flow between internal and external systems. It is through this flow that water-based woodblock printmaking continuously strengthens its physical expression, constructs a solid artistic entity, and shapes its spiritual space amidst the changing times. The origin of water-based woodblock printmaking is thus summarized as a fluid state, an anchor point of the entity, and an overlapping structure formed by the demands of the era and the artist’s temperament. This exhibition does not intend to conduct an artistic archaeology of water-based woodblock printmaking, but rather proposes a hypothesis based on the above summary- when fluidity becomes the existing state of the essence, how will its language and physical expression evolve? Can we move from “self-awareness of the entity” to “self-awareness of culture”? Regardless, an exhibition cannot provide us with an answer. It requires a more diverse range of samples for verification and construction. Just as the discussion on the origin of art continues to this day, it will continue into the future.