Artist creates colours of yore

MY wife, Anais Zhang, a Zhuhai artist with a master’s degree from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, had the opening of her oil painting exhibition, La Belle Époque, at the French Cultural Centre in Macao (Alliance Francaise) on the first of March. Sixty art lovers from both Macao and Zhuhai attended the event.

In a way, the exhibition comes from a travel, but this time, not so much in space … rather a voyage to the past.

Three years ago, during a hot summer vacation, Anais discovered a huge box in my mother’s attic. It was dusty having been there a long while and forgotten by my own family. Inside, Anais found printed on glass several hundred pictures that had been taken by my great-grandfather, Paul Verdun. To view these you need a special machine called a verascope which creates a 3D effect -- an amazing technology if you consider that the verascope is from the late 19th century.

My great-grandfather was one of the first European amateur photographers. He traveled extensively throughout Europe during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to satisfy his hobby of photographing picturesque scenes and famous monuments, just like people do today with digital cameras.

Anais also has traveled a lot, and her previous work intensively reflects her experiences.

André Breton, a famous French poet, used to say: “Je cherche l’or du temps” (I am looking for the gold of time). Anais’s challenge in her art series has been to look for the colour of time. Indeed, the paintings included in “La Belle Époque” are inspired by the old black-and-white photos, and the artist has had to recreate colours of the past.

I say recreate, but should simply state create. Because, of course, we are not talking about the real colours of the past here. The colours you see on these paintings reflect Anais’s impressions and feelings towards the photos and what they represent.

By creating these colours, Anais is revealing the past -- revealing in the photographic meaning of the term.

Anais has uncovered my great-grandfather’s hidden treasure; the photos, like someone whose skin is regaining colour after having been ill or passed out, are coming back to life.

The exhibition is on until March 22 at the Alliance Francaise (澳門法國文化協會, 澳門山水園斜巷四號F地下 tel: +853 2896 5342).

by JJ Verdun