Ji Dachun: Image, Time And Boundary
Born in 1968 in Nantong, Jiangsu province and based between Berlin and Beijing, Ji Dachun鈥檚 artistic kinship creates ties between traditional Chinese painting, pre-Modern European iconology, and post-1989 art. Next to a series of small-scale works that recast paintings of the late 15th century from Hieronymus Bosch to Dieric Bouts and Raphael, Nagel Draxler presents a series of large abstract canvases that infuse pictorial space with a pre-Copernican night-vision. As the eye wanders across the expansive, indigo-lit landscapes, it alights on fluorescent millipedes and spectral mutants delicately etched into the blue-blackened pigment. Surfaces of intricate layering simulate geological strata or meteorological planes, like a flattened earth marked with chalk veins, topographic flows, and miniscule life forms. With honed conceptual wit and exquisite rendering, these paintings, like imagistic puzzles, activate the Nachleben of centuries of art history to create transhistorical 鈥渇ables of contemporary spiritual life鈥� (Pi Li).
In his new series of small mystical paintings, Ji Dachun explores the tradition of medieval 鈥渁ttention paintings鈥�, iconic religious pictures that were produced to be hung in the home and used for prayer and meditation. He takes cues from this allegorical stage with its cast of tempted saints, hungry devils, and tumbling tricksters sinking into hell under the weight of their sins. Scenes from works by Dieric Bouts and Hieronymus Bosch pinch our memory and kindle our emotions yet Ji Dachun shakes off any sentimentality or fashionable neo-historicism. Take 鈥淏ug Season鈥� (2024), the portrait of a man with a wandering eye wearing blue robes against a moss-green wall. Selecting the upper part of Raphael鈥檚 portrait of Tommaso Inghirami from 1509, he switches the colour codes of the original and with utmost precision in his brushstroke, scatters six barely perceptible insects onto the man鈥檚 face. 鈥淚 enjoy selecting elements from these mature works and taking them to the extreme, emphasizing their shortcomings and accentuating their vantages鈥�, he explains in a recent interview. 鈥淚 also incorporate my habits, flaws, paranoia, and misinterpretations to shape the final outcome.鈥�
Like a poacher across time and genre, he creates a sense of d茅j脿-vu, teasing out ambiguious borderlines between original and reiteration. For 鈥淭he Temptation of St Anthony鈥� (2024) 鈥� a painting by Bosch copied repeatedly over the centuries - he extracts a scene from one of the panels and shifts it onto a luminous green backdrop suggestive of an alternative atmosphere and time. With 鈥淢arlboro Rules鈥� (2024), he recasts the right hand of Christ from Leonardo da Vinci鈥檚 Salvator Mundi (1499-1510). This iconic painting of the Italian High Renaissance portrays Jesus making the sign of the cross with his right hand while holding an orb in his left. In Ji Dachun鈥檚 ironic rendition, the right hand, now separated from the body of Christ, holds a lit cigarette between its fingers. With this painterly twist, the artist displaces the timezone of the original into contemporary culture, pointing to current debates on authenticity and ownership of art. For no sooner had da Vinci鈥檚 work been acquired at auction by Mohammad bin Salman for Abu Dhabi for 450 Million USD in 2017 than its genuine provenance was thrown into question.
Recommended for you
Born in 1968 in Nantong, Jiangsu province and based between Berlin and Beijing, Ji Dachun鈥檚 artistic kinship creates ties between traditional Chinese painting, pre-Modern European iconology, and post-1989 art. Next to a series of small-scale works that recast paintings of the late 15th century from Hieronymus Bosch to Dieric Bouts and Raphael, Nagel Draxler presents a series of large abstract canvases that infuse pictorial space with a pre-Copernican night-vision. As the eye wanders across the expansive, indigo-lit landscapes, it alights on fluorescent millipedes and spectral mutants delicately etched into the blue-blackened pigment. Surfaces of intricate layering simulate geological strata or meteorological planes, like a flattened earth marked with chalk veins, topographic flows, and miniscule life forms. With honed conceptual wit and exquisite rendering, these paintings, like imagistic puzzles, activate the Nachleben of centuries of art history to create transhistorical 鈥渇ables of contemporary spiritual life鈥� (Pi Li).
In his new series of small mystical paintings, Ji Dachun explores the tradition of medieval 鈥渁ttention paintings鈥�, iconic religious pictures that were produced to be hung in the home and used for prayer and meditation. He takes cues from this allegorical stage with its cast of tempted saints, hungry devils, and tumbling tricksters sinking into hell under the weight of their sins. Scenes from works by Dieric Bouts and Hieronymus Bosch pinch our memory and kindle our emotions yet Ji Dachun shakes off any sentimentality or fashionable neo-historicism. Take 鈥淏ug Season鈥� (2024), the portrait of a man with a wandering eye wearing blue robes against a moss-green wall. Selecting the upper part of Raphael鈥檚 portrait of Tommaso Inghirami from 1509, he switches the colour codes of the original and with utmost precision in his brushstroke, scatters six barely perceptible insects onto the man鈥檚 face. 鈥淚 enjoy selecting elements from these mature works and taking them to the extreme, emphasizing their shortcomings and accentuating their vantages鈥�, he explains in a recent interview. 鈥淚 also incorporate my habits, flaws, paranoia, and misinterpretations to shape the final outcome.鈥�
Like a poacher across time and genre, he creates a sense of d茅j脿-vu, teasing out ambiguious borderlines between original and reiteration. For 鈥淭he Temptation of St Anthony鈥� (2024) 鈥� a painting by Bosch copied repeatedly over the centuries - he extracts a scene from one of the panels and shifts it onto a luminous green backdrop suggestive of an alternative atmosphere and time. With 鈥淢arlboro Rules鈥� (2024), he recasts the right hand of Christ from Leonardo da Vinci鈥檚 Salvator Mundi (1499-1510). This iconic painting of the Italian High Renaissance portrays Jesus making the sign of the cross with his right hand while holding an orb in his left. In Ji Dachun鈥檚 ironic rendition, the right hand, now separated from the body of Christ, holds a lit cigarette between its fingers. With this painterly twist, the artist displaces the timezone of the original into contemporary culture, pointing to current debates on authenticity and ownership of art. For no sooner had da Vinci鈥檚 work been acquired at auction by Mohammad bin Salman for Abu Dhabi for 450 Million USD in 2017 than its genuine provenance was thrown into question.
Artists on show
Contact details
What's on nearby
