By AMY
QIN
BEIJING — Outside China, he is best known as the man behind Mr. Chow — the
high-end Chinese restaurants and longtime watering holes for artists and
celebrities in London, New York, Beverly Hills, Miami Beach and Malibu.
In his native China, however, Michael Chow is better known to many as the
son of the venerated Zhou Xinfang — a grand master of Beijing opera and founder
of the Qi performance style who was tortured during the Cultural Revolution in
the 1960s. He died in 1975 after years of house arrest.
Now Mr. Zhou, who was politically exonerated after his death, is revered by
the official cultural establishment. And as China celebrates what would have
been his 120th birthday, his son has put together a more personal tribute here,
in the form of the exhibition “Voice for My Father.”
It is the first exhibition in mainland China by Mr. Chow, who was sent to
England in 1952 at the age of 12, leaving behind a pampered life of servants
and chauffeured cars in Shanghai. In England, he attended boarding school and
later trained as an artist at Central St. Martins in London. After struggling
to succeed as an artist, he turned to an endeavor that had a much more
receptive clientele in London: Chinese cuisine. About three years ago, Mr.
Chow, now 75, returned to making art after a 50-year hiatus, painting under his
Chinese name, Zhou Yinghua.
In addition to Mr. Chow’s own paintings, the show features portraits of him
from his wide-ranging personal collection, including works by Andy Warhol,
Keith Haring and Jean-Michel
Basquiat. Also on display is a selection of archival images of
Mr. Zhou, who wrote more than 200 operas and performed about 600 characters
during an illustrious 60-year career.
“For me personally, this exhibition is very much so filling a void,” Mr.
Chow said in an interview at the exhibition’s opening reception. “A long time
ago, when I was 12, I arrived in England. I lost everything. I literally lost
everything. I never saw my father again, and I never communicated with him again.
I didn’t even know about his tragic death during the Cultural Revolution.”
Just minutes before, the exhibition space had been filled with the warbling
voice of Mr. Chow as he put on an impromptu Beijing opera performance, with the
help of the prominent performers Sun Ping and Ye Jinsen.
Onlookers gathered to take in the performance by Mr. Chow, who had ditched
his signature, a perfectly tailored Hermès suit, in favor of paint-splattered
jeans and a black shirt. China Chow — the artist’s daughter with his second
wife, Tina Chow — nudged her way to the front of the crowd to capture the
moment with her camera phone.
Michael Chow, the restaurateur,
with a sculpture of himself by Urs Fischer at the opening of “Voice for My
Father” in Beijing. CreditZhenyu Mao/Ullens Center for Contemporary Art
Also in attendance were other family members, including the artist’s wife,
Eva, as well as friends including Simon de Pury, the Swiss art auctioneer and
collector, and Jeffrey Deitch, the New York-based art dealer and former
director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, whom Mr. Chow
credited with helping him decide to return to the canvas.
Mr. Deitch said he began encouraging Mr. Chow to return to the studio
several years ago after seeing a small painting that the artist had made in the
1960s. It was leaning against a wall near the kitchen in Mr. Chow’s home in Los
Angeles.
“I knew that he came from an artistic background, but I didn’t know that he
was a very serious painter,” Mr. Deitch said. “There is this energy and drive
of a young artist, but also this
Mr. Chow's "Beyond White
Poles"CreditCourtesy of Michael Chow and Ullens Center for Contemporary
Art
Created with a combination of techniques, including thrown paint and
collaging, the works are an exercise in what Mr. Chow calls “controlled
accident.”
Only on closer inspection do the details emerge: egg yolks preserved in
resin; a piece of gold worth $14,000; antique nails; sheets of gold and silver
foil; a pair of the artist’s shorts; and even a $100 bill in a plastic bag
encased in dried paint. (Cash is a feature in all of his paintings “because I
love money,” Mr. Chow said.)
The collaging technique was a natural choice, Mr. Chow said. “In collaging,
you can put things together that shouldn’t be together, and that’s my life,” he
said.
Mr. Chow's paintings. CreditEric
Powell/Ullens Center for Contemporary Art
As an art patron and avid collector, Mr. Chow commissioned numerous
portraits of himself from his friends for his personal collection and for his
restaurants. But it is also clear that Mr. Chow, as an artist, drew insights
over decades of conversations and experiences — an influence that some say is
apparent in his recent work.
“Younger artists work in a very conscientious way, in that they try to make
works that pre-position themselves in some sort of art-historical narrative,”
said Philip Tinari, director of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in
Beijing. “For him, it comes from a more real place. He absorbed a lot of
influences, and he spent so much time around them.”
“I think now to come to this later phase in life and have this new outlet —
for him, it’s totally liberating,” Mr. Tinari added.
On the morning after the opening reception, Mr. Chow, standing before his
paintings in the same paint-splattered pants, admitted he was tired. He had
been in China for about two weeks, including a week in Shanghai to attend
celebrations organized by the local government in honor of his father.
But the feeling of being able to bring these paintings back to China during
what he called the “third act — or rather midthird act” of his life, Mr. Chow
said, was incomparable.
“I want to call it closure,” he said. “I have come home, to my parents, to
China.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/arts/design/michael-chows-art-show-in-beijing-honors-his-father.html?_r=0
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