On May 23, Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum launched the "2025 Spanish Art Season", presenting multiple Spanish art exhibitions. In addition to the Gaudi double exhibition, Bund 27 presented a special exhibition "George Lando - I Want to Paint Life", reviewing George Lando's more than 60 years of artistic career.
Jorge Lando, born in 1941, is a well-known modern Spanish painter and advocate of neo-expressionism. The exhibition presents works including "Butterfly Series", "Mother's Love Series", "Nature Series", "Birth of Color Series" and "Animal Series".
Jorge Rando was born in Malaga, Spain in 1941. He believes that "painting is a spiritual exploration, and spirituality exists in everything around us and in ourselves."
The reporter of The Paper learned that this exhibition "George Landau - I Want to Paint Life" is not only the artist's first solo exhibition in Shanghai, but also his largest exhibition in Asia so far. The exhibition displays 114 groups of works from the George Landau Museum collection and some private collections, showing his more than 60 years of artistic career through various creations such as oil painting, watercolor, and mixed media.
Neo-Expressionists mainly focus on self-expression, using gorgeous brushstrokes and distorted characters to express themes related to mythology, nationalist history, primitivism, etc. In the 1980s, Neo-Expressionist artists held several exhibitions in the UK and Germany, which caused a sensation and gave this new school a place in the art world. George Lando's works connect the profound philosophical concepts of the German school with the sensual tradition of Spanish art.
Exhibition View
In May 2015, in recognition of Jorge Lando's artistic achievements, the Malaga City Government built the first Expressionist Museum in Spain named after him, which has been displaying Lando's paintings, sculptures and installations for many years. There is also a permanent exhibition hall for Jorge Lando in the Ernst Barlach Museum in Razeburg, Germany, making him the first living Spanish painter to receive this honor. In 2016, he published a "Contemporary Art Manifesto", passionately calling for art to return to innocence, purity, humanism, and focus on human spirit and soul.
This exhibition presents a number of series of works including "Butterfly Series", "Maternal Love Series", "Nature Series", "Birth of Color Series", "Animal Series", "Vertical Horizon Series", etc. Among them, "Birth of Color" and "Vertical Horizon" series are abstract paintings, in which the artist deforms the painting objects and uses bright and eye-catching colors to make the works more expressive and visually impactful.
In the "Maternal Love Series", George Landau shows the audience that maternal love is an existential question. Maternal love is rooted in the joy of life and is a question and answer to the endless mysteries of human nature. The "Butterfly Series" is George Landau's latest creation, inspired by what he saw and felt during his stay in China, and contains his unique perception and understanding of Eastern culture. In Landau's pen, butterflies are dominated by black, allowing the viewer's eyes to be immersed in color, which is full of strong dynamics, allowing the viewer to feel the slight vibration of the butterfly's wings.
George Landau, Mother's Love Series
George Landau, Butterfly Series
In addition, he also has a great preference for flowers. "In painting, light is always the protagonist. It forces us to focus on details. It is part of the painting language just like color and line. Flowers have their own unique light between light and dark."
Natural Series
At the end of the exhibition hall, visitors can see the "Contemporary Art Manifesto" published by George Landau in 2016, in which he called for art to return to innocence, purity, humanism, and focus on human spirit and soul.
The exhibition will run until August 22nd.
