Xianwei Zhu "The Way of Mountains"
Description
A painter who commutes between East and West, who combines Far Eastern philosophy and ideas with those of the West, mixing and reinterpreting them. A modern Caspar David Friedrich, with roots in Ming painting, spiced with Martin Heidegger's view of the world. Too much of a good thing? Too much of a "mishmash" of different eras, spiritual attitudes, and styles? Not at all! The painter Xianwei Zhu knows how to reconcile all of this and find his own visual language, influenced by both East and West.
Born in Qingdao, China, in 1971 and raised in Zen Buddhism, Xianwei Zhu discovered his love and interest in the West while studying art at Shandong and Hangzhou Universities in China. This love led him to Stuttgart, where he completed further studies at the Academy of Fine Arts. Xianwei Zhu subsequently remained in Germany and immersed himself in Western poetry, painting, and philosophy—a stranger exploring his new home. Günter Baumann sums up Zhu's core idea as follows: "It's about home in a globalized reality." The painter becomes "a wanderer between worlds." Zhu combines the central theme of Ming painting – "nature and harmony" – with the "transcendent loneliness" of Caspar David Friedrich and, in the spirit of Heidegger, poses the question of existence and temporality to the viewer in his work.
The viewer's eye wanders incessantly across Zhu's paintings; his depicted landscape does not provide any clearly recognizable perspective, everything seems to shimmer, hazily blending into one another, a hint of mist settles over the image—and then suddenly, out of seemingly nowhere, a mountain peak emerges. The sky merges seamlessly into the mountain stream, the firmament is reflected on the water's surface, or is it? It is this blending of natural phenomena that conveys Zen philosophy – no boundaries can be discerned, above becomes below and vice versa. And there is something else that characterizes Zhu's landscape: the human being, who is always small and inconspicuous in the sublime landscape. A clear indication that humanity is only part of a greater whole.
Atmospheric images, whose interpretation and effect are individually interpreted, whose content is mostly nature. This runs like a thread through Xianwei Zhu's imagery and manifests the raison d'être and existence – but also the finiteness – of humanity. The painter sees himself as a wanderer, an explorer of this world, and the viewer of his works is sent on a new quest with every intense glance, one that always reveals something new.
"People ask about the Han Shan Way
Han Shan? No path leads you there
Here, the ice does not melt even late in summer
In the mist, the sun rises pale as the moon
And I, how did I succeed?
My mind is not the same as yours
If your mind were like mine
Then it would have led you here too"
(Han Shan, Cold Mountain 62, 7th century)
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