「Look at the Picture and Talk about the Painting」Sanyu: Explaining Eastern Philosophy through Art

When “The Five Naked Women” was sold for a staggering 270 million yuan, Yi Shufan said: “I don’t want people to learn about Sanyu through the high auction price. Instead, I hope people can see the cultural spirit that integrates Chinese and Western elements behind the canvas, rather than just being impressed by the sheer amount of money.”

The exhibition “Because ofSanyu” interprets this spiritual inheritance in a unique way. As the curator, Yao Qian, with over thirty years of collection experience and a deep “reading”Sanyu, started the exhibition from an old photo of Sanyu and the lost four-panel screen painting “Lotus Picture”, making the exhibition both emotionally touching and narratively profound. In the exhibition, more than thirty original works by Sanyu, including oil paintings, watercolors, sketches and prints, showcase how he integrated the traditional Chinese brushwork spirit with Western modern artistic language. His lines are concise yet powerful, and the colors are bold yet restrained to a peaceful state. Whether it’s nude women, flowers or animals, they all exude a strong element of traditional Chinese painting’s freehand style.

What is even more touching is that more than ten photographs of Sanyu taken by the renowned photographer Robert Frank are being exhibited for the first time on the Chinese mainland. These photographs capture the fleeting moments and the light and shadow, reflecting his solitary yet brilliant period.

“Because of Sanyu” is not merely a retrospective of an artist; it is also a cultural dialogue spanning a century. Contemporary artists such as Zeng Fanzhi and Wang Yuping, as well as master of Suzhou embroidery Zhang Lei and master of lacquerware Fan Jianjun, all responded to Sanyu’s artistic spirit in their own ways. This cross-media and cross-era resonance is the best tribute to Sanyu.

Sanyu spent his entire life pursuing the purity of art, and never compromised even in the most difficult times. Just as his works demonstrate, the true value of art lies not in its market price, but in the spiritual power and cultural connotations it can convey. The exhibition not only conveys the beauty of art, but also represents the inheritance and continuation of a cultural spirit.

The tea for today is all gone. Next time, I’ll brew a fresh pot and enjoy art with you again.