Qiu Jie

Qiu Jie (born 1961, Shanghai, China) is a Chinese artist working in Switzerland, France and China.

At an early age, Qiu Jie was left in the care of his grandparents in Shanghai because his parents had been relocated. He began drawing at the age of ten, and when he got into middle school was sitting in his friends studio drawing until midnight every night.

He has shown work internationally in exhibitions including Ce quil te plaît 2 at MAMCO in Geneva, Qui Jie at La BF15 in Lyon and the 2006 Shanghai Biennale.

Having trained in both Chinese high-realism and European multi-media schools and worked professionally as a decorator and designer, Qiu Jie’s drawings are informed from a wide range of aesthetic influence. ‘Qiu Jie’ itself is an adopted pseudonym: meaning ‘foreigner’ or ‘outsider’, conjuring images of a mysterious stranger negotiating the terrains of imagination. This sense of myth-making, exotica, and expedition is reflected through Qie’s work.

Qiu's Portrait of Mao is a humorous play on words: "mao" means "cat" in Chinese. In traditional Chinese painting, an image of a cat holds special significance. Often coupled with a butterfly (to create "mao-die" or "long life"), it can be used to bestow a blessing. Rendered with the pastoral detail and calligraphy inscription of Song Dynasty masterworks, Qiu's drawing takes equal inspiration from eastern philosophies of beauty and wisdom and the kitsch populism of western artists such as Cassius Coolidge (of Dogs Playing Poker fame). Meticulously drafted in lead on paper, Qiu's sentimental homage offers a surrealist vision that's alchemically toxic, and seductively coy.

Only those close to him would know the difficulties he has been through. I can’t help sighing and thinking, “How stubborn you are, Qiu Jie!”

Compared to conceptual artists, Qiu Jie’s work is more sentimental. Fifteen years ago, with his vanguard artistic sense, he introduced works that focused on China’s Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, China’s economic reform, and the conflicts between Chinese and western cultures. Although he was overseas, we should still categorize him as an early political pop artist in China. With deeper understanding for artistic phenomena, Qiu Jie’s style has adapted significantly. In the past ten years, he has developed a unique talent for lead pencil painting. His lead pencil paintings have shown people a fresh form of artistic expressions and earned great acclaim in the art world.

Qiu Jie excelled in canvas painting, creating some great works in that genre. But ultimately he chose to make a change; he decided to put down the tools that he was familiar with and switch to lead pencils and paper. It goes without saying that it is difficult to stand out in the modern art world with such rudimentary tools. I remember that Michael Jordan once said that with his jumping ability he could be a professional pole vaulter. However, he could be the absolute best in basketball. Qiu Jie has chosen lead pencil painting, which is usually viewed as less prestigious than canvas painting. But in fact, it’s like fighting a rabbit with the force of a tiger. It is actually heavy but seems light so it creates another level of painting. Although Qiu Jie’s decision is different from Jordan’s, their thoughts are quite similar.

There is a saying: People prefer reading articles with inflection than those that are dull. Qiu Jie has made tremendous effort to perfect the structure of his works, to the point where has so absorbed that he neglected to eat and sleep.

Qiu Jie applies a cavalier perspective to traditional Chinese painting, strictly rendering all types of content vividly. This is different from the traditional western perspective in which the close subject is clear and the distant subject is out of focus. Every detail in Qiu Jie’s work is concise and clear. Even a facial expression of a person, as small as a match, is clear. Yet the whole painting itself seems quite harmonious, interactive or even aggressive. This is to say, his years of hard work on sketch structure have unified disparate opposing forces and thus his work possesses remarkable strength. This strength is also the reflection of the pressures in everyday life.

The strength of canvas is the hues so the painters need to pay much attention to black, white and grey to depict it accurately. In Qiu Jie’s paintings, there are many excellent details that almost could exist as separate works unto themselves. But to have a whole picture, he has to make some sacrifices and make them part of the grey-toned background. As a result the backgrounds of his paintings are exceptionally well rendered, featuring multiple layers with different levels of meaning. Furthermore, Qiu Jie harmonizes the subjects of his drawings with a strict application of light. We see not only the delicate grey layers of the paintings but also the precise remaining white parts where the artist makes his greatest effort.

In 1985 at the age of 24 he presented his first solo art exhibition at the Palace of Culture Xu Hui of Shanghai. In 1989 Qiu Jie went to Geneva to pursue a degree in multi-media at the School of Fine Arts. He began to work on large-scale drawings and oil paintings that required between six months to two years to complete. He graduated in 1994 having developed his personal style of expression – a blend of ancient Chinese art and contemporary imagery. Qiu Jie’s drawings, which are executed in large scale are a hybrid of exotica and mysticism and include a complex blend of influences that range from the emphatic imagery of the Cultural Revolution to western modernism. Qui Jie’s works are represented in important collections including the Saatchi Gallery London, The Geneva Contemporary Art Foundation, The Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai and the Amsterdam Museum of Fine Arts.