Asian Art

“Shanghai Art Fair”

Who: Shanghai Art Fair (Various Exhibitors)

When: Nov. 13, 2014 – Nov. 15, 2014 (View Hours Here)

Where:

ShanhaiMart
99, Xingyi Rd.
Shanghai, China

How Much: 50 Yuan

More Information: Here

Shanghai Art Fair 2014 (18th), as Aisa’s celebrated art exchange with long history and high internationalization degree, will be grandly held from Nov.13-16 at ShanghaiMART, continuing the scale as before, presenting domestic and overseas collectors a gorgeous art event in Shanghai as well.
Shanghai Art Fair, established in 1997, has been successfully held under the support of Saulterretimized art event, which not only bridged the gap between worldwide and Shanghai, public and art, but also shaped a paradigm for the domestic art fairs.
More than 20 countries and areas’ art galleries, organizations, agencies participated in this lively art exchange during the past dozen years. Many original artworks from the world-class masters, such as Picasso, Rembrandt, Chagall, Dali, Renoir, Monet, Zhu Dequn, Qi Baishi, Xu Beihong, Zhang Daqian, made the debut in China or Asia through the great stage established by Shanghai Art Fair. Number of spectators was around 60000 persons, turnover of 2013 exceeded one hundred and forty million yuan. Meanwhile, Shanghai art Fair creates a proud history of the transaction:
SAF 2000: The most spectacular one is Rodin”s sculpture called, The Thinker, brought by Sayegh Gallery (France), which was purchased at the price of $1,000,000 by Pudong Lianyang Land Development Company and set in Shanghai forever. This has been the biggest overseas transaction in Shanghai Art Fair.
SAF 2002: Another sculpture, called Cesar”s Thumb, was collected at the price of 2,600,000 RMB by Shanghai Zendai Group.
SAF 2003: One of Zhang Daqian”s paintings was sold at 5,500,000 RMB, which became the highlight of the fair.
SAF 2007: Saulterre’s “Series of Angel” was collected by Jing’an Sculpture Park at a high price…
Peter Denger, the famous curator of Basel Art Fair which is called Olympic in art, once gave Shanghai Art Fair a high rating “It”s a great international art fair with bright future”.

“Vases with Bird-and-Flower Painting” by Wang Bu (1898–1968)

Artist

Wang Bu was a 20th Century Chinese artist that specialized in working with Ceramics. He was officially trained in the blue and white art, working under an expert tutor for several years. Wang Bu’s first significant work came when popular ceramic artist, Wu Aisheng, hired him to design porcelain items in the style so popular during the Ming and Qing periods. He would continue working with porcelain and ceramics for the rest of his life, preferring to decorate them in the blue and white coloring his father and mentor had loved.

Wang Bu made two great contributions to the art field. First, He created the innovative method of using Chinese brush drawing to add the blue and white colors onto his ceramics and porcelain works ~ a technique that many other artists would soon pick up. Second, he invented a “coloring pigment” by using the Chinese ink painting technique. This pigment helped the colors used on ceramics to stay bright and colorful, as opposed to dulling and spotting as it dried.

He briefly abandoned the blue and white style during the tumultuous period of WWII an the Anti-Japanese War. However, he would later return to his roots, and eventually earned the title “King of Blue and White. In the sixty years that he worked, he designed millions of works, many of which are still famous today.

Influences

His father, Xiuquing, who was an expert in blue and white painting.
Xu Yousheng, his teacheer and another expert artist that worked with blue and white painting.
Ming and Qing Dynasty ceramic artists.

Stylistic Characteristics

Blue and White Coloring ~ particularly over-glazed with colors underneath or paste on paste.
Ceramics and Porcelain canvases.
Use of Chinese brush drawing or ink painting.
Bright, smooth coloring.
He seems to have like flowers, animals, and natural subjects.
His signature in his later years was often “the old man Taoqing.”