Source: shanghaidaily.com - December 25, 2011

Many Western painters incorporate Oriental elements into their works and some are also familiar with Eastern culture, but few have devoted years to gradually mastering the classical "Three Perfections" - poetry, ink-wash painting and calligraphy.

One of the very few (and very probably the only in Shanghai) is French, Shanghai-based scholar Benoit Vermander (Chinese name Bendu) who teaches philosophy at Fudan University.

An exhibition of Vermander's ink and oil paintings - figurative, abstract and landscape - and a selection of his poetry (in French) and photography is underway in Dpark (Duarte Foreign-related Economic, Innovative & Culture Park) in Yangpu District.

This is not the first time Vermander has exhibited outside the walls of cultural institutions. "I have always been interested in exhibiting in alternative places for they do not have an immediate vocation to hold artworks," he says.

Vermander, who was born in 1960, has an unusual background, to say the least. He has written poetry since he was seven, first in French and later in Chinese.

Since 1990 he studied calligraphy, at first on his own. The discovering of calligraphy as a "new language" sparked his passion for Chinese modern painting later on.

In 1992 he settled down in Taiwan for the first time and then moved to Sichuan Province, where he met his master and friend Li Jinyuan. The two have jointly held exhibitions around the world and still collaborate closely. He has also studied the ethnic minorities of southwest China.

Since then he settled permanently in China, steeping himself in its culture.

Although Vermander gradually mastered the traditional Chinese "Three Perfections" - poetry, calligraphy and painting - calligraphy appears to play an especially important role in his creation. He clearly remembers his first encounter with calligraphy in 1987 while he was in Sichuan.

"I came across a piece of calligraphy with the words feng, lin, huo, shan (wind, forest, fire, mountain). Since I did not speak Chinese at that time, the translator told me it was a maxim extracted from Sun Zi ("The Art of War") and I was immediately struck by the quality of its movement and how it can be so expressive while using few traits. Perhaps ink blots attracted most of my attention. I thought an art that allows such blots could not be bad," he says.

Movement, audacious strokes and ink wash represent Vermander's recurrent idioms. For instance, his series "The Face to be Born" (2004-2007) clearly emphasizes the diverse quality of traits and nuances of ink colors, which is reminiscent of Chinese pictorial tradition. However, Vermander says, "When I paint, I never ask myself whether it is Chinese or French, on the contrary I unconsciously avoid any cultural reference."