Untitled

Untitled (2004) by Lin Chunyan

Oil on canvas, 2004, 2m x 3m

Collector: Madeleine O'Dea

I first met Lin Chunyan at a party in Beijing in early 1986. I had just arrived in China as the correspondent for the Australian Financial Review, but I quickly found myself exploring outside political and business circles. Lin, I discovered, was part of a burgeoning avant-garde in the city.  Within days I was visiting his tiny courtyard home to see his work, and we soon became firm friends. Back then his work was quite dark: its palette suited the streetscapes of old Beijing, and the people he depicted seemed untethered and lost.

In the late 1980s Lin moved to Australia for a few years and this period, including a seminal sojourn in the Sydney waterside suburb of Bundeena, transformed his work. He became fascinated with the bush and the water, and his colour palette became bright and vibrant.

In 2004 I moved back to Beijing and immediately went to visit Lin in his studio, which was now in the “artist village” of Songzhuang. I was delighted to find that he was creating major canvases fusing visual elements from Beijing and Sydney into joyous, magical landscapes. I immediately fell in love with this piece, even though it was so vast that I wasn’t sure how I would ever transport it home. In the end, when the time came, Lin took the canvas off the frame for me and rolled it up like a rug. Some months later when he came to visit Sydney, he dropped around to re-stretch the canvas so it could finally be hung. It now takes up a whole wall in my house. I realise I won’t ever be able to move now, unless Lin is around to help me!

Madeleine O'Dea

(Madeleine O'Dea is an independent writer with a 30-year background in journalism and is the award winning author of The Phoenix Years: Art, Resistance, and the Making of Modern China.)

CLICK HERE to listen to Madeleine's commentary on Lin Chunyan and his work.