Arts | Drawing exhibition highlights Macau, Lisbon similarities

Charles Chauderlot

The opening ceremony of an exhibition showcasing the drawings and lithographic prints of French-Spanish artist Charles Chauderlot was held last week at Creative Macau.
The exhibition showcases the vision of Charles Chauderlot in which he combines elements of Chinese and Western art techniques through a series of scenes depicting architecture in Macau and Lisbon.
The architectural style between both cities is so similar that in some of Chauderlot’s drawings, were it not for discreet indicators such as low-­hanging overhead telephone wires or signs in Chinese characters, it might be impossible to tell which sketches were of which city.
Chauderlot visited Lisbon a few years ago and painted some architectural scenes as he does in Macau. Once he returned to Macau, where he has lived for the best part of the last 10 years, he noticed striking similarities between drawings of both cities. This realization prompted the artist to assemble a collection comprised of seven drawings from each city.
“My inspiration is to open people’s eyes to the similarities of the two cities,” he told the Times at the exhibition’s opening ceremony.
His works demonstrate a mix of Chinese and Western techniques. As explained to the Times, the brush strokes, the use of ink and the concept of the white or blank space in his drawings are all of Chinese origin. The precise representation of perspective and geometrically accurate shadows are typical of Western artistic styles.
The combination reminds him of “the special taste of the tobaccos of my pipe; [a] mixture of different tobaccos,” as the program available at the exhibition notes.
In many ways his fusion of East and West finds an appropriate home in Macau. “There are many examples of cross-cultural styles [here in Macau], and they are a legacy of the Portuguese,” he told the Times, explaining that the Portuguese settlers incorporated the local culture in their colonial architecture. Chauderlot points to examples of the Chinese inspiration in Macau architecture and Malay-­style wooden houses in Malacca, when the enclave was under Portuguese administration.
Chauderlot was born in Madrid in 1952 and started to paint at the age of 11 with the help of a Fine Art Academy teacher. He has held 10 solo exhibitions and participated in more than 50 national and international exhibitions, receiving numerous awards during the course of his career.
The artist moved to Beijing in 1997 where he started to paint with Chinese ink, and in 2002, he was granted a pass to paint hidden treasures in sections of the Forbidden City.
His exhibition will be on display until March 19. Admission is free. Part of the sales will be donated to the Society for the Protection of Animals (Anima). Daniel Beitler