Cang Yuan's Solo Exhibition Awakening of Consciousness

*PARIS, FRANCE / ACCESSWIRE / May 24, 2022 / *On May 12, 2022, Cang Yuan's solo exhibition Awakening of Consciousness co-hosted by the Palace of Industry in Paris and the Beaux-Arts de Paris was held at the Palace of Industry in Paris.

More than 300 guests attended the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony was presided over by Mr. Gilles-Henry Garraut(Right). Mr. Cang Yuan(Left) has given his words of thanks.

Mr. Gilles-Henry Garraut, Vice Chairman of the National Industry Encouragement Association of France, expressed that Mr.Cang Yuan is an Chinese original artist systematically trained by higher art education of France. In virtue of his unremitting effort, his art exploration and research at the level of consciousness have achieved outstanding results in recent years. Mr. Garraut said that he was very happy to hold this exhibition for Cang Yuan at the Palace of Industry in Paris.

The exhibition focused on abstract paintings of Cang Yuan created during the Covid epidemic period. The artist's completely new form and style of creation was thoroughly displayed. The exhibition was successfully held and it was closed on May 16, 2022. Since the solo exhibition of the artist's works held at the Maximianu Art Gallery in Place des Vosges in October 2019, this exhibition is another visual feast contributed by Mr. Cang Yuan in the city of Paris.

The theme Awakening of Consciousness grew out of interpretations of Cang Yuan himself about his own works in letters to friends.

What I want to express is my understanding of this era we are living in. It strikes me that despite the increasing number of our expression forms, our hearts are still hunted by agitation, impatience, and restless eagerness to live. What I intended is to capture those subtle moments. Inadvertently, I found that my understanding of consciousness seemed to be a lot closer to the truth. Under this circumstance, my work " No Elegance Inside, No Elegance Outside" was inspired and created.

Title: No Elegance Inside, No Elegance Outside

Series: Oil Painting Works System Classification: Oil Painting

Size: 114*162c Creation Year: 2021

Material: Acrylic on Canvas Author: Cang Yuan

From this piece of work, I slowly started to touch the essence of perception, as well as the essence of consciousness. The restoration of essence is a solution which shows what the world once was before returning to ourselves. Substantially, it is an equal treatment regarding the non-reflection life and the life with conscious introspection.

So these are the forms or the laws, which cannot be understood by objective thinking. Yet deeply in my heart, I see the nature, the death, the time, and the mode of behavior through my contemplation. These are all acceptable ways for historians and acceptable forms to the world. It might be one of the historical dimensions.

When the painting The Next Life was completed, I profoundly realized the saying that all consciousness comes from the consciousness of something. I would have liked to add more ideas into it, however I was afraid of losing its leitmotiv. Thus I had to trace back to the essence of life, and the essence of body.

As an artist who was born in the rural areas of Guanzhong, Shaanxi of China and has traveled all over the world, Cang Yuan's works broke through the ordinary paradigm of abstract art. He created series of brand new abstract works with unique personal style and integrated philosophical reflections. His creations originally expressed philosophy, space, consciousness and purely personal subjective spirit with thick and bright colors, which formed a distinct personality and unparalleled painting style.

Mrs Amelie Amoudo is member of the International Association of Art Critics, as a distinguished French art critic, she commented on Cang Yuan's works as "the artist lives in the world in a poetical and picturesque manner, and his insight of the surrounding reality is a springboard for philosophical and existential reflections. In each of his paintings, the shapes and colors indicate to us : vast dazzling feeling, cold silence, fear of loneliness, empty melancholy, miserable sadness, vigorous and beating freshness, the perception of joy and happiness, and particularly, the spiritual taste of eternity.

Mr. Francois Rene, distinguished French painter and dean of the School of Plastic Arts at University of Paris VIII, commented on Cang Yuan's paintings: the ultimate aim of painting is to express the meaning of the world, but this "meaning" is neither a macroscopic existence nor from the structure of noumenon. On the contrary, it is what is presented during the process of creation of the painter. All the vectors, visible and spiritual, was converging towards a meaning which has already sprouted in the painter's perception. Obviously, we can detect his pursuit of this ultimate aim of art in works of Cang Yuan.

When discussing Cang Yuan's works, Mr. COLLIGNON, Corresponding Academician of the France Academy, regarded that Cang Yuan continuously kept the sense of physical perception and the expression of physicality in his own art. He integrates music into his landscape, so that the boundaries between things are delicately broken and the differences are getting smaller and smaller, thus he produces a subtle visual effect of the opposite: in the pictures with remote seeming images of mountains, the color difference of "trees, stones," and the white background is so large, yet they perfectly intersect and merge with each other. However, the content depicted can not be clearly distinguished, which forms a special abstract form. In this way, Cang Yuan's expression of abstraction seems to be developing in the opposite direction (figuration), but it is therefore closer to the art itself.

*Awakening of Consciousness**, Cang Yuan's Solo Exhibition at the Palace of Industry in Paris*

The history of the Palace of Industry in Paris can be traced back to the initial period of the Bonamar Dynasty of France. At that time, in order to reorganize the state power after the European Industrial Revolution, to consolidate and promote technological innovation and social progress, and to develop civilization, French elite leaders in the political, economic, cultural and ideological circles established the National Development Promotion Association. It's also the home of world-renowned greats from Wagner to Dick Ellington to Miles Davis, home to Europe's first jazz club; concerts, lectures, exhibitions and major conferences Held here, the library here still preserves a very precious variety of historical documents and pictures. It plays a pivotal role in the research field of modern and contemporary cultural history. Many important meetings of French government departments and some commemorative activities of institutions are often held here.

Exhibition time: May 12, 2022 - May 16, 2022

Exhibition location: Palace of Industry, Place Saint-Germain, 6th arrondissement, Paris

*Cang Yuan*

Born in 1979，Cang Yuan is a Chinese painter living in France. Successively graduated from the School of Plastic Arts of Paris VIII University and École des Beaux-Arts of Paris, he obtained the National Higher Diploma in Plastic Arts and the Ph.D. in Philosophy and Aesthetics in France. Now he works at École des Beaux-Arts and his research fruits involve philosophy, aesthetics, art history and oil painting creation. Cang Yuan has fulfilled a long term and thorough research on the portraiture of the British painter Francis Bacon (28 October 1909 - 28 April 1992).

Cang Yuan is regarded as an artist who is capable of reconcile eastern and western cultures. His works successfully integrate the eastern aesthetic culture and the western artistic spirit. He created a painting space with changing colors and natural rhythms, a space representing western contemporary art concepts and techniques but integrating the implication of Chinese traditional culture and art. He is known as one of the representatives of western contemporary abstraction.

Cang Yuan was instantly and deeply attracted by the artistic charm of Paris, and he quickly integrated into it. At the same time, he also embraced the creative vitality displayed in contemporary art. However, he also quickly found that what he had learned in the past ten years had become a kind of burden which was the obstacle preventing himself from moving forward to the ultimate goal. Later, Cang Yuan realized as well that western contemporary art reached a juncture that needs to be broken through. Thereupon, after experiencing a period of painful self-denial, he Gradually increased realistic approach once denied by himself and familiar oriental aesthetic elements in his creation.

Later, inspired by the works of French painter Bernard Cathelin and that of American abstract painter Willem de Kooning, Cang Yuan entered into the world of abstraction. From the inspiration of the color of Cathelin, to the obsession of the concept emphasizing the aesthetic function of art and pure vision, Cang Yuan's perception of spatial dimension reached a higher level, which allows him to take his painting to another stage. The works accomplished during this period played a key role in determining his subsequent creations. Afterwards, focusing on exploration of bright and profound colors and creation of abstract spaces, Cang Yuan's paintings brought the audience into a magnificent and infinite world.

Poetry and music are ardently loved by Cang Yuan, both subsequently became indispensable elements of his works, forming an vital tension in his paintings and bringing profound meanings. With the artist's continuous exploration, those characteristics gradually went deeper into it, and finally merged into one and unique idiosyncrasy of the artist. The combination of music, painting and poetry allows the audience to appreciate the symphonic poetry-like colors as well as ethereal and wide artistic conception in Cangyuan's painting exhibition.

In his nearly 30 years of artistic creation, Cang Yuan's paintings are regarded by critics as another perfect embodiment of the richness and creativity of cultural exchanges between China and the West. By making full use of the expression techniques of western culture, Cang Yuan perfectly combines Chinese and Western cultures，thus the rich and profound Chinese aesthetic thoughts are vividly displayed.

*Major Academic Contributions*

In 2009, Cang Yuan began working on Bacon portraits and took extensive notes. In 2012, he wrote a book "A Comparative Study of Bacon's Portraits" (to be published). In this book, Cang Yuan established a breakthrough view of Bacon's works : he analyzed that Bacon works implicated darkness and contradictions, as well as death, decay and fear, along with strong stimulations. Bacon transfered the above-mentioned feelings in his heart to the works in an artistic way through painting, so as to achieve a kind of inner peace.

*Awards record*

September 2009, Young Artists Sketch Invitational Exhibition, hosted by the French Ministry of Culture, won the sponsorship of the National Visual Arts Center

April 2010 French Young Artists Invitational Exhibition, participated in the Paris Autumn Salon in October of the same year

November 2012 Signed with Rosengart Gallery, Switzerland October

2013 European Contemporary Art Academy Exhibition, Silver Award

2014 Miami International Art Fair, USA

2014 National Academy of Contemporary Art Competition, Artistic Achievement Award

September 2015, Cannes Contemporary Art Exhibition, France, Morgan City Award

September 2019， Xi'an 6th International Silk Road Art Festival， French Impression Contemporary Art Double Exhibition

October 2019, France Paris Maximianu Gallery, Cang Yuan's Solo Exhibition

January 1, 2020, the first episode of Cang Yuan's personal feature film The Glow of Colorful Clouds of Hometown was broadcast on TV program The Legend of China of CCTV's Discovery Tour Channel, the second episode A Life with Painting as Language was broadcasted January 8, 2020

October 2019, the Maximiano Gallery in Place des Vosges, Paris, France, Solo Exhibition of Cang Yuan's works

May 2020, Yan Yu Palace held Cang Yuan's Solo Exhibition The Twisted Truth at the French May Art Festival of Hong Kong

August 28, 2020 Hong Kong Tianqu Art Center held a large-scale Solo Exhibition of Cang Yuan's works "The Realm of Taste Phenomenon"

March 24, 2021, The Hong Kong Great Hall held "Three Artists Exhibition" , Cang Yuan, He Shaozhong, and Tao Licheng

May 21, 2021, Hong Kong Tianqu Art Center held the Exhibition "Reviewing the Old and Knowing the New" , Cang Yuan, Xu Chenyang, Tao Licheng and Xu Enqi's works

August 12, 2021 Hong Kong Arts Centre held "The Footsteps of Light - French Art Exhibition" for Cang Yuan, Pierre Cuaron, Remy Ayron, Marc Tangier, Natalie Miai, and Lin Minggang

*SOURCE: *Cang Yuan
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