Rao Fu. Combustion

Christoph Tannert & Roan Ching-Yueh, Rao Fu. Combustion, Paris, Editions Lord Byron, 2021

1st edition
Edition of 250 numbered copies
The first 30 copies are accompanied by an original work by the artist
Hard cover, 23 x 28 cm, 132 pages
Bilingual edition: French, English
Translated into French by Claude Laurent (Christoph Tannert) YU Hsiao-hwei (Roan Ching-Yueh)
Translated into English by John Garrett (Christoph Tannert) Queena Chu (Roan Ching-Yueh)
ISBN: 978-2-491901-13-4

Rao Fu. Combustion is the catalog published for the exhibition “Rao Fu. Combustion ”at Galerie Vazieux in Paris (FR) from October 7 to November 20, 2021.

Rao Fu left China at the age of 23 to settle in Germany where he began studying painting and graphic design at the Dresden School of Fine Arts. In German museums, he discovers old painting from which he borrows multiple references, visible in his works. Fiacres, horses, period costumes, are all allusions to a past world that he transposes into another temporality. Although less noticeable at first glance, the contribution of traditional Chinese painting is underlying in his works, both technically and philosophically. Rao Fu attaches great importance to the landscape, which he likes to represent in all its strength and vastness. Through the use of double or triple perspective, he magnifies its grandeur and opens up several visual fields in a single painting, providing the viewer with a striking immersive effect. The ghostly and almost transparent figures that inhabit his landscapes blend into an environment that becomes the mirror of their emotions, just like those of the painter. For Rao Fu, these landscapes reflect his inner world, but they must remain free of interpretation. In its narrative and mysterious universe, eras as well as Eastern and Western cultures coexist and intermingle naturally. He seeks to convey the essence and expression of man, to create a universal art that transcends cultural diversity.

Christoph Tannert is a German art critic and curator. Born in Leipzig in 1955, he lives and works in Berlin. He studied art history and archeology at the Humboldt University in Berlin from which he graduated with a Magister Artium in 1981. His area of ​​expertise includes painting, photography and video art. . He co-founded the Brandenburgischer Kunstverein Potsdam in 1994, of which he became vice-president from 2003. In the same year, he was appointed to the board of directors of the Berlin Photography Festival. Since 2000, he has been running the Künstlerhaus Bethanien, an international cultural center and artists' residence with workshops and exhibition halls. Since 1981, he has participated in curating and writing catalogs for a large number of exhibitions on the visual arts in general.