Darras’ Remarks on Shichao Zhou

Collection World: Nice to meet you! Mr. Darras. We are very honored that you accept our exclusive interview by the national digital channel Collection World broad-casted in Shandong Radio and TV Station. France is center of western art. Why are you here in China from far away to write a biography for a Chinese artist (Shichao Zhou)?

Darras: Actually,I met Shichao Zhou by accident. Thanks to our common friend---Mr. Guy Toubon, a famous France painter. Due to a very accidental opportunity, when Mr. Toubon was at my home, we saw Mr. Shichao Zhou’s works which shocked and impressed me deeply.

Collection World: Mr. Shichao Zhou was born in Qingdao, grew up in Jinan, got famous in Beijing and achieved success in Paris,even in Europe. You have spent more than ten days following the trail made by Shichao Zhou, how are you feeling?

Darras: Since I met Mr. Shichao Zhou in France, I have written a short assay introducing him and published it in France. After that I feel it far from being enough because I want to make further research on Mr.Zhou. So the idea of making a biography for him came to me. I was wondering to present his life experience by using annalistic style.

Collection: In China, the oil painting is an imported product: During the last one hundred years, China has developed some international painters,such as Wuji Zhao, Dequn Zhu,etc. They have created a new painting world with changing colors, strengthful strokes,full of rhythms and light-sensation by combining western modern painting forms, oil painting color techniques and artistic implication of Chinese traditional culture. What’s your opinion about the difference among Shichao Zhou, Wuji Zhao and Dequn Zhu?

Darras: I was deeply influenced by Professor Zhou’s works before, so I come to China and will follow his former trails and appreciate his works. At first, we visited his birthplace. I met his old friends and his teachers there. That’s also where his parents live. I seemed to have seen his childhood,his past. Then, I got an immediate feeling of his mood and environment as he was creating works in his childhood, which is very unforgettable to me. I was feeling reviewing his past and growing up with him.

At first, I think Professor Zhou’s style is unique, it’s of his own, he also created his new way. We cannot position him as the same with masters like Dequn Zhu and Wuji Zhao, because they are of entirely different styles.Professor has had his own idea since his childhood. From his works in the childhood, we can see he was expressing his thoughts, his own idea, especially many gouaches that he created in his youth. He intended to express his portrayal about the environment and colors by the gouaches. This is unique to use gouache to show the contents of oil paintings. And I think Professor Zhou’s works most reflect his childhood scenes and internal ideas, this is really uncomparable with the other two masters(Dequn Zhu and Wuji Zhao) because Professor Zhou was born in such environment as China, influenced by Chinese paintings. There are many Chinese ingredients in his paintings, so I think he truly creates his own way. It is said that he is influenced by the impressionism. Yes. I think he is partly influenced by that, but he is not constrained by impressionism, he is far beyond that.

Collection World: Shichao Zhou’s works are between image and abstract, for many people, his works involve many Chinese  traditional writing techniques and France impressionism, including the techniques of master Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Slade and Cezanne,etc. As a famous critic, what do you think of the relation among Shichao Zhou and the impressionism, the post-impressionism?

Darras: At first, I don’t agree that Professor Zhou entirely borrows styles of the impressionism and post-impressionism. We can say that he is influenced by it more or less, but he walks further. Of course, we can always find image and abstract when we are appreciating modernism, but it cannot be simply defined as impressionism and post-impressionism only because the image and abstract exists. I insist all the time that Professor Zhou’s works cannot be imposed to label as impressionism or post-impressionism. As Professor Zhou, he knows the trend of the current painting deeply, under this situation, he creates his own works rather than follow the trend. I would rather to define him as a colorism painter because we can find that he uses all kinds of colors skillfully in his works, this is the most exact definition that I can make.

Collection World: What do you think touches you most in Shichao Zhou’s oil paintings?

Darras: The largest touch in Professor Zhou’s works are: at first, the colors, when I see many his works relating to Marseilles, his usage of colors touches me largely. Second, what touches me is that his works are like story narrator narrating stories to me. In addition, his harmony and entity presented in his painting and his colors, forms, contents all touch me deeply.

Collection World: Many people say that Shichao Zhou is a colorist, what do you think about it?

Darras: Of course, it is true to say that Professor is a colorist and I agree with this. But I think he is more than a colorist, I feel that he has walked further. Because he is not merely constrained to the choice and usage of colors, moreover, he is showing something internal by color, for example, he uses color to show many eastern and western cultures and something blending the two cultures. He uses colors to show different civilizations, sceneries and customs, which are much beyond the colorism. Then, I think he is really further than a colorist, besides, he cannot simply be defined as ‘colorist’, but a colorist expert. Because he portrays the world and his inner world for us with colors.

Collection World: As a famous international critic, from your aesthetic perspective, can you evaluate Shichao Zhou on the whole?

Darras: About the evaluation of Professor Zhou, I think a generalization in short for his works is that they reflect his real life. At first, I have seen his works written in his childhood and his birthplace where he was born, grew up and lived, which gives me some understanding of his childhood. When I saw his works from his childhood, I feel that he is expressing his child life and his inner world. When I saw his works from his youth, especially those gouaches, I think his gouache is established on extraordinary basis. It doesn’t simply handle the process about poster-color and water. While he is showing that it’s a start for him to enter the painter ranks by his gouache. When I saw some of his diaries and sketchbooks after his graduation from university, I can feel his thoughts and emotion that he wanted to express in his works. Finally, I think no matter the works in which time, they are from his inner world and a description, an expression for his inner heart, life and desire.

At first, I am starting to write Professor Zhou’s biography, at the same time, I regard Professor Zhou as my most valuable friend. Thanks to this trip in China, he brings me important influence in two aspects. First, his life experience teaches me how to see things in life, especially how to see China, to see the environment and time that he lived before and now, his friends, colleagues and classmates. Besides, through this trip in China, I get a clear understanding of how to be an art critic. We should not merely constrain the art criticism in art field, but extend it to a more wide field to enrich our criticism styles. For example, we will define art criticism in sociology which involves various social studies, such as, philosophy, ethnology. Because only with this knowledge can we evaluate art works better. So I owe much thanks to this trip in China, to Professor Zhou. I’ve learned a lot. Thank you.