Hong Zhu An

Biography

Hong Zhu An (b.1955) was trained under the famous art scholar Wang Zidou at the Shanghai Art and Craft Institute.

Hong Zhu An has a deep love of the line 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 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 under glaze-blue arabesques of Ming porcelain, the line is more aesthetically and philosophically fundamental to Chinese culture than to any other and so crucial to classical Chinese culture 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, in evoking nature as inspiration for these new paintings, but in categorically denying their identity as landscape images as well as their iconographic allusion to any particular symbols, Hong is pointedly marking his break with tradition.

Special Awards

Hong Zhu An is the recipient of major awards in Singapore including the UOB painting of the Year Grand Award and his works are collected by major museums and organizations around the world including The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, The Tel Aviv Museum of Art, The Singapore Art Museum, The National Art Gallery Philippines, The Spencer Museum of Art, The Princeton University Art Museum. Corporate collectors include Deutsche Bank and Deutsche Asset Management Singapore, Goldman Sachs, Singapore, McKinsey & Company, Singapore, Wheelock Properties(Singapore)Ltd, Singapore.

Exhibitions