We are delighted to present the third solo exhibition by Hamburg-based Chinese artist Kailiang Yang. In his new show the young artist introduces a broad take on landscape painting as a genre – a new perspective that sets the current works apart from his older pieces. He meshes the traditions of Chinese garden architecture with those of European trompe l’oeil in the works exhibited, taking this as the foundation to redefine the relationship between his images and viewers.

Art historian Norman Bryson describes the difference between the two longest painting traditions, China’s and Europe’s, as a difference in the intellectual roots. Whereas European painting developed perspectives that lead the viewer into the painting, whilst assigning the viewer a perspectival position outside the picture frame, Chinese painting spread out open perspectives before audiences, in which colour and line moved freely in relation to each other. Here the brushwork – in contrast to European painting – allows us to catch a glimpse of the genesis of the work, with the process of painting per se remaining visible. In adopting this approach, the tradition of Chinese painting did not in any way concentrate on subjective originality, but focussed instead on perfecting the epochal style, the imprimatur of a genre. Conversely European painting increasingly foregrounded the imprimatur of the artist as subject, a direct encounter between the painter and the viewer.