My Father Xu Beihong: Music Inspired by His Art by Xu Fangfang

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Xu Beihong (1895-1953), Chinese artist and art educator, is widely known as the father of modern Chinese painting. His animal paintings often subtly express deeper meanings through his use of analogy, which achieves the richest expression found in traditional Chinese painting.

Jiang Wenye (1910-1983)，Chinese composer and music educator, was among the earliest to write Chinese music for Western orchestra and piano. Xu Fangfang will introduce her new book, Xu Beihong’s Color-And-Ink Paintings－Piano Concerto by Jiang Wenye Discovered After Half a Century, describing how Jiang Wenye’s hand-written score of the piano concerto portraying Xu Beihong’s color-and-ink paintings was lost and brought to life after its recovery half a century later.

As the first composer to bring Xu Beihong’s paintings to the piano and orchestral stage, Jiang Wenye’s work adds richness to the use of analogy in Xu Beihong’s two ink brush rooster paintings. The publication of Xu Beihong’s Color-And-Ink Paintings, including selected color prints of Xu Beihong’s masterpieces and the full score and two-piano score of the third movement, demonstrated the two masters’ historic integration of Chinese and Western art. The concerto’s world premiere on October 22, 2022, in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, showed the successful artistic integration of Jiang Wenye’s music with Xu Beihong’s paintings to the entire world.  Beihong China Arts – Website.

Xu Fangfang will perform two Chinese piano pieces related to the book, present high-quality images of Xu Beihong’s artwork and conduct book signing after her talk.

• English Talk 2:00-3:50 pm
• Chinese Talk 3:50-5:30 pm

Registration is not required, but an RSVP is appreciated.

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