Wk 11 — Artist OTW — Student Choice
Artist: Zou Chunya
Media: Contemporary Chinese Painter and Sculptor
Website: N/A
Instagram: N/A
- About The Artist
Zhou Chunya is a chinese painter and sculptor born in 1955. He studied at the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts educating students on the significance of creating art that could later be utilized as propaganda during the cultural revolution. Zhou is best known for his series depicting a green german shepherd in various positions that portrayed the love he had for his actual pet dog who passed away shortly before he was able to begin his Green Dog series. He took a year to mourn his german shepherd and did not paint for that entire period of time. He re-entered the art world with another of his well known pieces of peach blossoms. His technique is a combination of western modernism and chinese calligraphy. Chunya considers himself to be a colorist among all other categories. Chunya was introduced to neo-expressionism on a trip to Germany in 1987, a style that appears in a majority of his pieces. Zhou Chunya currently lives in Chengdu, China.
2.Formal Analysis
Zhou is a well known painter and sculptor. His most popular pieces include sculptures and paintings of his beloved german shepherd as well as paintings of peach blossoms. The medium Zhou Chunya utilizes is oil paintings, sculptures, and sketches. There is a lot of texture and detail in his sketches. In his paintings there are consistent patterns and often very bright vivid colors to bring the piece to life. There are more jagged lines than straight, and often depict emotion. I believe Chunya favored the color green in his green dog series as every sculpture depicts a green german shepherd just in different positions, he only utilized primary colors. The peach blossom is very vivid and seems to represent his cultural background. His sketches are often monochrome and include small straight lines that create a jagged texture to increase detail.. Zhou’s sculptures are big enough to view every detail but small enough that the entire series can be presented in one place.
3.Content Analysis
Zhou Chunyans pieces are very compelling and express a very deep connection of emotion. The piece that compelled me the most has to be Zhou’s Green Dog series due to his heartfelt motivation behind it. I lost a dog earlier this year as well and know the pain that comes with the loss of a best friend and he was able to create a sculpture that shows the love he had for his companion. He was able to capture the best moments of his german shepherd and create a compelling piece that most pet owners can relate to. It is like a window into the past, the dog in several positions gives the audience to experience the moment the dog was captured in whether it was happy, excited, or anxious which is what makes the series so compelling. Another one of his pieces I initially thought resembled Chunyan’s ethnic background but taking a closer look and really taking in the piece and when it was created its seems to symbolize the idea of rebirth perhaps after losing his four-legged best friend this piece is what brought him back into the at world after mourning for a year. This can symbolize that one grows from experience and that life goes on.
3.My experience
My experience throughout researching Zhou Chunya was very heartfelt and inspiring. I genuinely enjoyed learning about the different mediums one can use to create art. I learned that even a heartbreak can be transformed into art to motivate others that something beautiful can always come out of a hardship. This resonates with my academics because I am currently taking Art 110 and his work inspires me to try out different techniques and not be afraid to be personal or express my emotions when it comes to art. Art is meant to be inspiring and compelling. Sometimes emotion is what makes the artpiece so meaningful to the audience because it may also evoke the same emotion in them when they view your piece making it easier to understand your ideas.
Works Cited
http://www.artnet.com/artists/zhou-chunya/
