庞茂琨 Pang Maokun China, b. 1963

Pang Maokun was born in Chongqing in 1963. He studied in Affiliated Senior High School of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute from 1978 to 1981, studied in Oil Painting Department of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute from 1981 to 1988; Pang received his master's degree in 1988. Currently, Pang is the Deputy Chairman of China Artists Association, the President of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Deputy chairman of Chongqing Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Chairman of the Chongqing Artists Association, President of Chongqing Painting Academy, Director of the China Artists Association Oil Painting Council, Ph.D. supervisor. His works have participated in many important art exhibitions at home and abroad, such as the National Art Museum of China, the National Museum of China, the Grand Palais (Paris, France), the Museum Kulturbahnhof (Kassel, Germany), the Museum of the St. Petersburg Art Association (St. Paterburg, Russia), and the Palazzo Medici Riccardi (Florence, Italy) etc., and have been collected by a number of art institutions and private collections at home and abroad, such as the National Art Museum of China, the Shanghai Art Museum, the China Museum of History, the Shenzhen Museum of Art, the Hopewell Museum of Fine Arts, the Minsheng Art Museum, the Long Museum of Fine Arts, the Shan Art Museum, and others, Minsheng Art Museum, LONG MUSEUM, SHAN ART MUSEUM etc..

         

For years Pang has been exploring the possibility of classical oil painting language under current circumstances, combining his personal art creation with the social reality. His classical paintings appear distant and different from the daily life as he sets his gaze towards reality. It indicates the maturity of his personal style, which also reveals the value and meaning of oil paintings in contemporary art. His works are exhibited and collected in and out of China. His representative works include Apples are Ripe, The Rainbow is Silently Above, A Golden Summer, Blur Series, Virtual Time Series, Coincidence Series, Shining Brightly Series, Viewing the Floating World Series, Foldaway Portraits Series and etc.

 

In the mid to late 1980s, Pang Maokun has devoted himself to the research and exploration of classical oil painting language. In his nearly 40 years of creation, he was also one of the representative artists who maintained the most complete aesthetic temperament originating from classical language. In fact, when we talk about "classicism", it essentially has a broad extension, not only including language and creative methods, but also involving visual reproduction and viewing mechanisms. Language is the most important entrance to Pang Maokun's painting world. Along the channel of language, images, narratives, and landscapes come to the audience one after another, becoming a natural outcome. Although starting from language, language is not the end of painting. For Pang Maokun, the true goal is to integrate contemporary visual, viewing, and cultural experiences into classical discourse, so that they blend together seamlessly.