Young Chinese artist draws inspiration from ancient culture

A young Chinese artist became an overnight sensation when she presented a stunning contemporary adaptation of an ancient painting on a popular television show last weekend.

Photo by Ye Luying

The hit variety show National Treasure, which aired on China Central Television, introduced the ancient Chinese painting “Nymph of the Luo River” by Gu Kaizhi of the East Jin Dynasty (317-420) at the same time as Ye Luying's modern version in her picture book.

Her own cartoon-style “Nymph of the Luo River” amazed the audience along with the exhibited Song copy of Gu’s painting recommended by the Liaoning Provincial Museum. Many say that she perfectly combines the traditional art with modern features and has brought high-end art closer to ordinary people.

A picture from Ye Luying's picture book "Nymph of the Luo River." /Photo by Ye Luying

Gu’s painting was an inspired illustration of an essay written by Cao Zhi, a poet of China’s Three Kingdoms period (220-280), in which he depicted his imagined romantic encounter and separation with the Nymph of the Luo River. 

A talented calligrapher and painter, Gu Kaizhi is also known for his theories in Chinese painting that laid foundations for its new development, especially his emphasis on the eyes of the figures.

“The eyes were the spirit and the decisive factor in figure paintings,” Gu wrote down in his theoretical works.

Ye Luying (L) and Chen Xiao, Chinese actor, appear at the variety show "National Treasure". /Photo via Ye Luying

Ye Luying, 25, is one of the generation dubbed the “post-90s,” a reference to those who were born in the 1990s. After graduating from the Chinese Academy of Art and studying abroad, she now works as a teacher at the academy. 

While overseas she came to the conclusion that the country’s 5,000-year cultural heritage is rooted in her spirit. 

“I was so impressed by the Norse mythology that I couldn’t help wondering 'do we have such stories in China, and what are the aesthetic symbols of the Chinese',” said Ye.

The Song copy of Gu Kaizhi's painting "Nymph of the Luo River." /Photo via Liaoning Provincial Museum‍

She started to immerse herself in libraries after returning to her hometown in Hangzhou city, Zhejiang Province, until she came across with the Nymph of the Luo River again after graduation.

She said she was inspired not only by Gu Kaizhi’s painting, but also his theories of comparing lines in painting to silk. Cao Zhi’s depiction of the nymph in his essay has also provided her with numerous ideas.

From then on, Ye has dug deeper into the ancient Chinese literature and culture and was amazed by what she found out.

A picture from Ye Luying's picture book "Nymph of the Luo River." /Photo by Ye Luying

“The Chinese culture, with its long history and profound contents, is like a huge treasure to me. It has nourished my works and would continue to do so in my entire career life,” Ye said at the variety show. “I want to share the Oriental beauty with everyone.”

She spent half a year painting her picture book, which was based on the ancestors’ works but invigorated with her wild imagination.

The Song copy of Gu’s painting was 6.4 meters in length, and Ye’s manuscript is about 11 meters in general. She completed a large part of her painting on the computer.

A picture from Ye Luying's picture book "Nymph of the Luo River". /Photo by Ye Luying

“The computer has its advantage. For example, the colors would be more saturated, refreshing and are capable of presenting more layers of changes,” said Ye. “It’s an era of rapid development, with the technology leaping forward. 

“New elements should be infused into the classic artistic works.”  

Her picture book has become a rising star in the field of fine art, and has grabbed a handful of domestic awards. It was also exhibited at the Frankfurt Book Fair. 

A Ye Luying painting. /Photo by Ye Luying

Dong Baohou, painter and researcher of the Liaoning Provincial Museum, speaks highly of Ye’s painting. 

“The ‘Nymph of the Luo River’ is an important piece of work in the Chinese history of art, but it is still far away from the public. Ye has inherited the classical beauty from the ancient painting, and expressed it in a modern way, which is great,” said Dong. 

Ye’s picture book is scheduled to be published in April.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Thieves blew open the door of an art gallery in the southern Netherlands and stole two works from a famous series of screen prints by American pop artist Andy Warhol and left two more badly damaged in the street as they fled the scene of the botched heist, the gallery owner said Friday.

Mark Peet Visser said the thieves attempted to steal all four works from a 1985 Warhol series called “Reigning Queens,” which features portraits of the then-queens of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark and Swaziland, a small landlocked kingdom in southern Africa which is now called Eswatini.

In a telephone interview, Visser said the heist early Friday at MPV Gallery in the town of Oisterwijk was captured on security cameras, and called it “amateurish.”

“The bomb attack was so violent that my entire building was destroyed” and nearby stores were also damaged, he said. "So they did that part of it well, too well actually. And then they ran to the car with the artworks and it turns out that they won't fit in the car. ... At that moment the works are ripped out of the frames and you also know that they are damaged beyond repair, because it is impossible to get them out undamaged.”

Visser declined to put a value on the four signed and numbered works, which he had planned to offer for sale as a set at an art fair in Amsterdam later this month.

The thieves got away with portraits of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Margrethe II of Denmark. The prints of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Ntombi Tfwala, who is now known as the queen mother of Eswatini, were left on the street as the thieves fled, Visser said.

Police appealed for witnesses as forensic experts examined the badly damaged gallery on Friday.

People look at screen print depicting Queen Elizabeth II, one in a series of sixteen prints of four queens titled Reigning Queens, 1985, by Andy Warhol at museum Paleis Het Loo in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, similar to a Warhol work stolen from a gallery in Oisterwijk, Netherlands, early Friday, Nov. 1, 2024.(AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Screen prints depicting Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, part of a series of sixteen prints of four queens titled Reigning Queens, 1985, by Andy Warhol at museum Paleis Het Loo in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, similar to a Warhol work stolen from a gallery in Oisterwijk, Netherlands, early Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

A man takes an image of a screen print depicting Queen Elizabeth II, one in a series of sixteen prints of four queens titled Reigning Queens, 1985, by Andy Warhol at museum Paleis Het Loo in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, similar to a Warhol work stolen from a gallery in Oisterwijk, Netherlands, early Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)