Petals of a metaphor
Updated: 2014-10-21 07:17
By Xu Fan(China Daily)
|
|||||||||||
Three halls on the museum's second floor display the paper and oil paintings of sunflowers, while 18 colored sunflower-shaped glaze lamps glitter on the ground outside the rooms.
Xu reveals that about 80 percent of the works are being displayed for the first time in Beijing, adding that the show commemorates the 11 years of his sunflower painting. The remaining paintings and installations have been exhibited in a few cities, including Hangzhou, Shanghai, Germany's Koblenz and Washington.
His decadelong fascination with sunflowers started from an unexpected glance at an abandoned sunflower garden on a plain near the Sea of Marmara, during a 2003 tour of Turkey.
"The sunflowers there looked like they were made of cooper and iron, and stood lonely in the ruins. They reminded me of our fates," Xu recalls.
The artist reveals that his fondness of sunflowers even pushes him to protect the plant at his college.
"My students used to raise an artificially cultivated species of sunflower, named 'pig slave', on the grounds of our campus. It could only grow to as high as 40 centimeters. The wild sunflowers grow to an average height of 2 meters," Xu says.
"It betrayed the true nature of sunflowers. I forbade them to grow such a species on campus. The plants deserve respect and should grow in their own way."
Related Stories
Money, oil and art 2014-10-11 17:05
Fine art works come to Beijing 2014-10-11 11:41
Golden Eagle TV Art Festival opens in Changsha 2014-10-11 10:06
Zhu Manhua Papercuts Art Gallery in Shandong 2014-10-10 17:06
Today's Top News
Tourists set to travel light overseas
Police hunt for elephant killer
Less shopping, better behavior for Chinese tourists abroad
Bear bites off boy's arm at China zoo
Glance of Central London after autumn rains
Rope-jumpers pictured leaping into crater
Chinese, Italian companies sign $10b
Tony Blair home address discovered in terror suspect's car
Hot Topics
Lunar probe , China growth forecasts, Emission rules get tougher, China seen through 'colored lens', International board,
Editor's Picks
Sea change |
'Old newcomers' |
General aviation hub reaches for the sky |
Endangered species threatens livelihoods |
Chinese mavericks set to amaze racing world |
Helping them breathing |