Chinese Art at the Nordic Watercolor Museum

Seventy kilometers north of Gothenburg lies the Nordic Watercolor Museum (Akvarellmuseet). The location on the waterfront of Skärhamn, a small town on the island of Tjörn, is quite picturesque and worth a visit in itself. The museum has its own collection, but what primarily draws the public are the various temporary exhibitions.

Between late fall 2014 and the end of January 2015 an exhibition of contemporary Chinese Ink painting took place. It is difficult for a Western layman to judge how representative the exhibited works were, but it must have been a good cross section. There were even several audio visual art works, based on paintings. While some works were daringly experimental, others revealed a dialogue with traditional styles and subjects. A true highlite was a huge work produced with help of a controlled chain reaction of minor gunpowder explosions spreading the pigment. A film showed the entire spectacular procedure.

The museum is a great place for a an excursion from Gothenburg. The bookstore is smallish, yet you find interesting stuff that can keep you occupied for quite some time. The Café/Restaurant holds a good standard, but always irritates me by closing long before the museum does...

The Nordic Watercolor Museum

Here are some of my own impressions from the exhibition:

The"GunPowder"-painting

GunPowder"-painting, detail

March 7^th, 2015

Some time had passed since the Chinese Ink Art Exhibition moved on. I still had not done my blog entry. Then my interest came to life again through another exhibition.
At our local artist's collective ”Konstepidemin” artists can rent studios and some can even live on the premises. Guest artists from other countries are regularly accomodatet. Su Mei from China was one of them. Not only did she exhibit her works painted in Sweden, she also offered free lessons in Chinese painting on weekends during the opening hours. High class art and a friendly, open minded artist!

In recent years I always leave watercolor and ink painting exhibitions with something like a bad conscience. After thirty years of periodically painting myself, I seem to have lost this activity so dear to me. Pushed over by photography, which certainly is a strong means of expression as well. Yet it cannot really replace the peculiar quality of painting, the stillness, the contemplation, the sudden decisions, the flow of colors, the daring strokes. Something I will reflect on some more...