Taihe Law Firm’s Series of Critical Analyses of Mr. Mou Kemin’s 2021 Painting Exhibition “Harmony Between Heaven and Earth” (Part I)

Taihe Law Firm’s 2021 painting exhibition, “Harmony Between Heaven and Earth” by Mr. Mou Kemin, grandly opened.

Exhibiting Artist

Mou Keming

Exhibition Duration

Spring and Summer 2021

Exhibition Venue

No. 70, Qingjiangnan Road, Gulou District, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province

9th Floor, Hehai Science and Technology Building

Taihe Law Firm

Organizer

Jiangsu Provincial Association for Sino-Foreign Social and Cultural Exchanges, Jiangsu Taihe Law Firm

Handling

Nanjing Zhengyatang Art Co., Ltd.

Co-organized

Art Hundred Schools Magazine

Danqing World Magazine

Art News

China Jiangsu Net

Yihua Network, Today's Headlines

Baidu Number App

TikTok, Kuaishou

Article by Jin Xiaoming

“Taihe Gallery,” hosted by Jiangsu Taihe Law Firm and Zhengyatang, has been open for four or five years already, and recently it held its spring art exhibition. I’ve dug up a passage of my reflections from when I attended the gallery’s opening ceremony a few years ago:

At the gracious invitation of Director Ma Qun, I attended the opening ceremony of Zhengyatang’s “Inauguration” and the grand exhibition “The Spirit of Zhengya: Casual Reflections,” as well as a calligraphy gathering. There, I had the pleasure of admiring numerous masterpieces in brush and ink, and would like to share a few thoughts:

I. Zhengya marks a promising beginning and serves as a unique commemoration of the thirty-year journey of Taihe Boutique’s entrepreneurial legacy; it is a vivid manifestation of how legal pioneers and artistic talents jointly cultivate a cultural milieu. To uphold the values of Zhengyi and to pursue excellence in refined elegance—this is the shared vocation of those who expound the Dharma and those who wield pigments and brushes.

II. As Mr. Lu Xun once observed, the functions of the fine arts extend beyond “supporting morality” and “bolstering the economy”; they also serve to “manifest (and promote) culture.” Socially responsible legal service institutions not only assume the duty of disseminating and upholding the advanced ideals of a modern rule-of-law state and society, as well as the values cherished by the legal profession and the legal services sector, and of cultivating their own firm‑brand cultures, but they also act as patrons and catalysts of the arts, contributing to the development of high‑brow cultural endeavors and participating in the building of socialist spiritual civilization. In this sense, they play a distinctive role as models and leaders.

Third, the integration of an art gallery into the public spaces of a law firm represents a pioneering innovation in the history of art exhibition. Beyond broadening humanistic interactions and exchanges between lawyers and artists, its “face-to-face” engagement with clients and the wider community enables the gallery to transcend the conventional dichotomy of presenting art either in grand, formal settings or in more populist venues. It thus charts a path that is both grounded in everyday life and attuned to high culture, embracing both elite and popular cultural sensibilities—a truly “refined yet accessible” approach—upon which great hopes are placed.

About the Painter

Mou Keming is the former deputy director of the Art Research Institute of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Culture, president of the Jiangsu Association for Sino‑Foreign Cultural and Social Exchanges, a member of the expert panel of the National Arts Science Expert Database under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, deputy director of the Office of the Leading Group for the Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Celebrities Database, a member of the pool of senior‑level art‑title reviewers in Jiangsu Province, editor‑in‑chief of the editorial board of the journal “Danqing World,” a member of the China Artists Association, and a national first‑class artist.

With over forty years of dedicated practice and research in traditional Chinese painting, he has held two solo exhibitions and had his works featured in numerous national, provincial, and municipal shows, earning multiple awards. He is the author of several acclaimed volumes, including “Collection of Landscape Paintings by Mou Kemin,” “Magnificent Rivers and Mountains: Landscape Paintings by Mou Kemin,” and “Harmony Between Heaven and Earth: A Collection of Chinese Landscape Paintings by Mou Kemin.” In addition, he has published more than twenty scholarly essays and critical articles. His work has received extensive coverage on CCTV’s Calligraphy and Painting Channel, as well as on Jiangsu TV, Nanjing TV, Jiangsu Longhu Net, and in leading publications such as the Art News, China Calligraphy and Painting News, Ink China, Calligraphy and Painting Art, and Danqing World. Over two hundred of his paintings are now part of private collections, institutional holdings, and public collections across society.

Some say, “The greater the inner tolerance of a landscape painter, the more grandeur his works can convey.” Mou Kemin’s landscape paintings embody a humanistic spirit and the philosophical unity of heaven and humanity. Through his masterful use of brush and ink, he seamlessly integrates the natural landscapes of both northern and southern China, imbuing his work with a distinct contemporary ethos and artistic character that illuminates the profound spiritual essence of nature.

He said that landscape painting is both an act of contemplating nature and a reflection on life. What matters most is that mountains embody a character that serves humanity without seeking anything in return, while water, with its gentle resilience, exudes a spirit rich in vitality and grace. It is precisely these qualities of landscapes that he has come to appreciate, coupled with his commitment to cultivating personal refinement, which together have shaped the literati‑inspired, free‑hand style of his landscapes and their distinctive aesthetic synthesis.

Past Exhibitions: [Thaihe Art Exhibition] Preview: “Melodies of Harmony” – An Exhibition of Fine Calligraphy and Painting from Thaihe
[Thaihe Gallery] Journey into Dunhuang—Thaihe “Weathered Rich Colors” Art Exhibition (Preview)
[Thaihe Art Exhibition] Spring Mountains on the Verge of Rain — The “Mottled Rich Colors” Art Exhibition of Thaihe (Preview)
[Thaihe Updates] The Thaihe Spring Art Exhibition Opens with Great Fanfare
[Thaihe Gallery] Thaihe Law Firm’s 2019 Spring Art Exhibition (Preview)
[Thaihe Art Exhibition] The Thaihe 2019 Spring Art Exhibition Grandly Opens
[Thaihe Updates] Chen Guohuan, Vice Chairman of the Jiangsu Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles, visits the Thaihe New Year Painting Exhibition. Thaihe Gallery | Thaihe Autumn 2019 Painting Exhibition (Preview) Thaihe Updates | The Grand Opening of the 2019 Thaihe Autumn Painting Exhibition
Taihe Gallery | Zen Realm — Taihe Autumn 2020 Art Exhibition (Preview)
Taihe Updates | The 2020 Taihe Autumn Art Exhibition Grandly Opens Taihe Updates | Taihe (Taizhou) Law Firm Successfully Hosts the 2020 Autumn Art Exhibition Taihe Gallery | Harmony Between Heaven and Earth — Mou Kemin’s 2021 Spring Art Exhibition (Preview Edition)
Taihe Gallery | Supreme Harmony Between Heaven and Earth — Mou Kemin’s Spring 2021 Exhibition
Taihe Gallery | “Landscape Painter, Unity of Heaven and Humanity” — Taihe Law Firm’s 2021 exhibition, “Supreme Harmony of Heaven and Earth” by Mr. Mou Kemin, grandly opened.