Li Shuang (artist)
Li Shuang (李爽, born 1957 in Beijing), is a contemporary Chinese artist.
Li Shuang's works testify to her painful personal and artistic journey. She grew up in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution within a family of intellectuals. Her early childhood artistic development was influenced by her grandfather, a dealer in Chinese antiques, books, and art.
During the Chinese political reformation and opening up in the late ninetieth, “Li Shuang” was a household name in the art industry in France and other European countries. On a superficial level, the romantic story between Li and her husband might account for the reopening of art in isolated China due to Cultural Revolution. More specifically, Western media described “Li Shuang Incident” as the precursor and advocator of the emerging Chinese modern behavior art.
Art[edit]
Li Shuang believes Chinese art is a spiritual movement of the heart - Chinese paintings come from the heart, while Western paintings concentrate on the scene.[3]
In the 70's Li Shuang's art work mainly focused on village view painting, including street, mountain and houses, using ink pan and pastel. In the 80's and 90's, Li's art shifted her idea to a very wild range, such as portrait, furniture, animal, plant and so on. Each painting would have a center color and other accessory colors which was able to convey the different mood and thoughts of the artist.
As the French critic Michel Nuridsany wrote: "While the Chinese art world is going through a phase of unrestrained modernity, Li Shuang’s oeuvre is striking for its lack both of contemporary references and of all sense of febrile haste and by its intensity. This is because her art developed separately from the Chinese context, which encouraged a style of painting which reached its apogee in 1999-2000 – a style which in no way reflected her own experiences. Her strongest advantage has been her silence. Her aura. But first and foremost, her admirable sense of light"[4]
Exhibitions[edit]
Li Shuang began showing her work in China as early as 1979 at the Stars exhibit at the Huafangzhai Gallery in Beijing. Her paintings have appeared in various exhibitions worldwide, including San Francisco, New York, Paris, Amsterdam, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing.[5]
1984 J&J Donguy Gallery, Paris, France
1985 James Mayor Gallery, Paris, France
1986 Pontius Gallery, Mountain View, CA. Ingrid's Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1987 Clarisses's Gallery, Charolles, France
1989 Art & Communication Gallery, Paris, France
1990 Municipal Museum, Vervins, France
1991 Saint Aignan, Ex_prevote, France
1995 Bellefroid Gallery, Paris, France
2000 Leda Fletcher Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
2002 Leda Fletcher Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
2003 De Arte Gallery, Nantes, France
2004 Galerie du Monde, Hong Kong. Cathy Gallery, Paris, France. Galerie du Triangle, Lyon, France.
2005 Galerie du Triangle, Lyon, France. DeArte Gallery, Nantes, France
2006 Linda Museum, Beijing, China. Galerie du Triangle, Lyon, France
2007 Galerie du Triangle, Lyon, France. Linda Gallery, Singapore. Cathy Gallery, Paris, France
2008 “Return of Light” Willem Kerseboom Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2009 Li Shuang's collages Galerie du Triangle, Lyon, France
2010 “The Butterfly Dream” Dialogue Space, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
Auctions[edit]
[6]
1996 China Guardian, Beijing, October 1996, 22,000 CNY, oil and college on canvas
2002 Cornette De Saint Cyr, Paris Drouot, February 27, 2002, 3,500 €, oil on canvas
2003 China Guardian, Beijing, November 25, 2003, 41,800 CNY, oil on canvas
2005 Sotheby's, Hong Kong, October 24, 2005, 276,000 HKS, oil on canvas
2006 China Guardian, Beijing, November 22, 2006, 285,000 CNY, oil on canvas
2007 Bukowski's, Stockholm, April 27, 2007, 16,900 €, oil on canvas
2007 Artcurial, 20th Century Chinese Art, Paris, June 5, 2007, 1080 €
2007 Artcurial, Paris, June 5, 2007, 16,100 €, oil on canvas
2007 Sotheby's, New York, March 25, 2007, US$17,000, oil on canvas
2008 Zhongcheng, Taiwan, June 8, 2008, US$31,700, oil on canvas
2008 Sotheby's, New York, March 17, 2008, US$12,500, oil and paper
2009 Xileng, Hangzhou, China, January 3, 2009, 168,000 CNY, oil and canvas
2009 Ravenel, Taiwan, June 7, 2009, US$19,800, oil and canvas
2010 China Guardian, May 15, 2010, 134.400 CNY, oil on canvas