Aesthetics of painting has a preset perspective, and once this perspective is moved by people on purpose -- just like the movement of classical painting to modern painting, the previous aesthetic discourse will become partially invalid, especially in the contemporary era when the symbolic concepts are colliding with people’s visual habits. Some will claim that easel painting has died and art has ended, just like the peaking of a spiritual journey. Whether or not this assumption will stand the test of time, what we see and feel today is that painting art - including oil painting, which is not subject to the existence of cycles popular in the West, has long become part of our lives and a primary medium or means for expressing our emotions - no matter where it comes from. Shenzhen Dafen International Oil Painting Biennale provides the kind of platform that provides opportunities for Chinese artists to display their creativity and manifest the close connection between artists from all over the world, thus forming an artistic trend that is not to influenced by the final conclusion.

Shenzhen Dafen International Oil Painting Biennale, the third session in so far, is the international painting biennale having attracted the largest number of participating countries from the widest scope. Through the successful organizing of these three sessions, Dafen International has realized the transformation of Dafen pattern and the secondary integration with the international trend, based on which a platform for equal dialogue with artists from other countries has been formed. During these three sessions, Dafen Art Museum has received a total of 79 masterpieces donated by participating artists from all over the world, which is a great affirmation and support for Dafen International Oil Painting Biennale.

Based on the sorting of the donated works displayed in each of the previous two sessions and after detailed classification, Dafen Art Museum now has a collection of works created by artists from 27 countries/regions in Asia, Europe, the Americas, North Africa and Oceania. Adhering to the principle of collection revitalization, Dafen Art Museum organizes collection exhibitions aperiodically. For this year, under the theme of “Colorful Paintings and the World”, Dafen Art Museum is re-exhibiting 56 donated works from the previous two sessions, from which we will find that the artists are mostly young, professional and energetic, with simple painting style and strong desire to express. For example, some works call for the memories of disappeared historical civilizations , some works express concerns about the damage of eco-environment caused by global industrialization, and some works try to explore the mutual existence between cultures and appeal against ‘exclusive one or the other’, ‘black or white’. Most of the artists in their creation prefer to pick up the normal features to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary, and implant metaphors or narratives in the images - using different angles to depict a multi-lingual group of people that have the same mind. All these characteristics contribute to a truly inclusive and balanced large-scale painting exhibition in diversified forms and themes, a colorful world of openness and integration, home and symbiosis.

Looking at the broader horizon of the world, we will find that “it’s not a single flower but a garden that give the spectacular view in the spring”. The richness, complexity and variability of art itself are the embodiment of human’s spiritual creation. Shenzhen Dafen International Oil Painting Biennale is not only a global grand art event, but also a new historical starting point for young artists from all over the world to join hands in the pursuit of beauty.

Bao Lin

Professor & doctoral supervisor, Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University