Hong Zhu An
Chinese-born Hong Zhu An (b. 1955) is one of the finest artists in Singapore today. Trained under famous art scholar Wang Zidou at the Shanghai Art and Craft Institute, the artist is proficient in both Chinese and Western Art. Painting in acrylic and ink, his works exude a serenity and energy that calms the mind and offers insightful abstract interpretation alongside enchanting visuals. Constantly growing in both skill and prestige, he has exhibited his works in South East Asia, the USA and Australia and has received numerous accolades throughout his career, including the UOB Painting of the Year ‘Grand Award’. His works have been collected by major institutions such as the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Princeton University Museum in New York, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and the Singapore Art Museum.
Hong Zhu An's paintings glow with the layered pigments that are placed stroke by stroke upon rice paper, the under-layers burning their way to the surface of the blocks of the colors. Each layer consists of thousands of calligraphic strokes, creating an expanse of color and depth.
Hong Zhu An has a deep love of the line or stroke and his understanding of its importance as a fundamental of Chinese artistic expression does not contradict his search for new avenues in Chinese art. Wielding his brush fearlessly even as he charts new artistic territory, Hong Zhu An allies eye and hand in brave new ways to connect with the age old Chinese sensibility, the ability to converse with nature and make it scintillate on intellectual, philosophical and spiritual levels that are uniquely his. His works are resplendent because they reveal the beauty of the world, life, and man. From oracle bone inscriptions, to calligraphy, to the glaze blue arabesques of Ming porcelain, the line is more aesthetically and philosophically fundamental to Chinese culture, so necessary that painters spend a lifetime mastering it.
The grand scale Hong Zhu An uses can also be read as a visual prompt designed to recall the great narrative tradition of Chinese painting, the comparison serving to underscore his formal and conceptual distance from China and the classical art historical trajectory. Similarly, by invoking nature as inspiration for these new paintings, but categorically denying their identity as landscape images and iconographic allusion to any particular symbols, Hong is pointedly marking his break with tradition. His works are thus not only resplendent with zen, but also innovative and pulse with artistic depth.