Some of Li Xinjian's oil paintings featuring his son in the exhibition Beauty without Beards at The KWM Art Centre. (Photo by Li Jing/China Daily)
Li Xinjian's oil painting featuring his son in the exhibition Beauty without Beards at The KWM Art Centre. (Photo by Li Jing/China Daily)
A joint exhibition is attempting to prove the aesthetic power of the young male form when they are positioned in the foreground as an image or symbol.
Beauty without Beards, unveiled on Jan 18 at The KWM Art Center of WFC center CBD in Beijing, puts together artist Li Xinjian's 15 large oil paintings and photographer Ren Hang's 33 images.
The exhibition's title is based on the ancient Greek tradition that the most beautiful living form in existence was the young male before he began to grow facial hair, best illustrated by the 5th century BC Greek sculptor Polykeitos' oryphorus and The Spear-Carrier.
However, as the exhibition preface says, in the Chinese contemporary environment, "we are visually overwhelmed with the images of female bodies and find it hard to regard the male body as an aesthetic object".
"The exhibition aims to reconnect the two and create a new perspective."
The two artists are from different generations, work in different mediums and see the world from different perspectives, but their works both feature adolescent boys and young adult men.
Chinese-French artist Li was born in 1954 and graduated from State Fine Art Academy of Paris in 1994. He painted his son in all the works on show.
"He is a projection of myself and my favorite subject matter," Li said at the opening ceremony.
On the canvas, the boy is always half naked, strong and fragile, light and tough. The brushes on the canvas are natural and relaxed, and the boy is placed in some surreal situations, either diving with sharks in a deep sea, or sitting on the edge of a sky, overlooking the 9/11 moment.
The 1987-born Ren captures the youthful subjects through his lens. They are either Ren's friends or volunteers he found through the internet. The bodies in his works are naked and alive, with piercing eyes.
The exhibition is on until March 2.
