Master of the big picture

Even in retirement, Pan Gongkai continues to be a painter, an architect, a writer and a theorist. And he is now preparing for a solo show in Hong Kong. Deng Zhangyu reports.

Pan Gongkai, 70, the son of modern ink painting master Pan Tianshou (1897-1971) is a busy man these days.

The only person that has been president of China's top two art colleges - the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing (2001-14) and the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou (1996-2001), is probably working harder now than when he was younger.

Even in his retirement, he continues to be a painter, an architect, a writer and a theorist.

Pan is now preparing for his solo show to be held in Hong Kong on Nov 25.

It will feature 30 works mainly produced in the last three years, including a 6-meter long multimedia installation Melt.

The installation was first exhibited at the Venice Biennial in 2011, and depicts snowflakes composed of Roman letters falling and melting on water lily painted using Chinese ink.

The bulk of ink paintings to be displayed focus on the lotus, and are presented in freehand brushwork style, typical of Pan.

The ink painter is adept at producing large-size scrolls, with some of them reaching up to 9 meters.

"I usually paint at one go without any corrections. But it is a challenge for me to control the pace when painting a big picture," says Pan.

Explaining his preference for large-scale paintings, Pan says that while on one hand it relates to his way of macro thinking - which can also be seen in his books on art and his design of buildings - on the other hand, it goes with the change in exhibition spaces.

"When art museums are bigger, works to be shown in these spacious rooms must be big enough to achieve a good visual effect," says Pan at his new studio in Beijing, a complex he designed on his own.

The painting room has a high ceiling and is very long.

Pan's studio is more like an art center, with a museum-like exhibition hall, a spacious garden filled with different kinds of trees and a building which looks like a traditional Chinese garden.

Yang Jie, Pan's student and a teacher at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, says Pan is versatile and energetic despite his age.

Pan, Yang says, is now working on the designs of three projects: an art museum, a theater and a campus, all located in Pan's hometown of Ninghai, in Zhejiang province.

The 70-year-old is expected to finish the designs of the three projects on his own before the Spring Festival (in February).