Vincent van Gogh’s Two white butterflies, oil on canvas, 55 × 45.5cm,1889, collected in the van Gogh Museum in the Netherlands
When it comes to butterflies, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? After the MBTI personality test exploded, the “little butterfly” lingering next to the INFP image became its nickname, which coincided with the personality’s pursuit of freedom and inner richness. For more than a hundred years, butterflies in the pen and hands of modern and contemporary artists, with different styles and media, are also full of free vitality and exude eternal beauty. Why do “butterflies” have a special appeal to artists?
#01
# Butterfly wings
In the last days of Van Gogh’s life, nature was the source of his inspiration. In 1888, he came to the southern French city of Arles (Arles), spent the happiest and most productive period of his life, the familiar “Sunflower” series was born here.
In his letter to his sister, Van Gogh mentioned that the best way to obtain peace is to “look at a blade of grass, a fir branch, and an ear of wheat”. In addition to flowers and trees, he is also interested in the haunting and fluttering butterflies, and has created many butterfly-themed paintings. To the artist, the metamorphosis of the butterfly from the larva represents freedom, life and hope. Especially the butterfly flying in the grass, small but meaningful, or can be seen as his own incarnation.
Vincent van Gogh’s Grass and Butterflies, oil on canvas, 1889
The wonder of pupating into a butterfly continues to attract modern and contemporary artists who pursue innovation and creativity. The butterfly written by the surrealist representative Salvador Dali (Salvador Dali) is full of fantasy and whimsy, which reminds people of the absurdity of “man turning into a beetle” in Kafka’s “Metamorphosis. The innovative sculptor Alexander Calder (Alexander Calder) made the butterfly move from two-dimensional to three-dimensional, from concrete to abstract, smart, simple and full of fun. In the field of contemporary art, the one who is most fond of butterflies is Damien Hirst. The life of butterflies is short and gorgeous, and this metaphor of death fascinates him. Thousands of butterfly specimens, like a kaleidoscope, constitute a dazzling picture.
Figure 1: Salvador Dali’s Untitled (Landscape with Butterflies), 1956
Figure 2: Alexander Calder, Sandy’s Butterfly, stainless steel, iron, 1964, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Figure 3: Part of Damien Hirst’s “Butterfly” theme painting
If Western artists pay more attention to the transformation of butterflies, in Chinese culture, butterflies are endowed with a bit of romance-the confusion of “Zhuang Shengxiao’s dream of butterflies. Under the brush of Song Huizong, the “octogenarian map” composed of cat and butterfly means longevity and happiness, which is full of interest. It seems that the ancients were very good at “homophonic stem”.
Song Huizong’s “octogenarian picture scroll” (partial), ink paper, 37.1 × 205.9cm, song dynasty, collected by the forbidden city in Taipei, China
Artists of different periods and cultures express their fantastic ideas about the insect “butterfly” through painting or sculpture with their own creative style. They represent freedom, hope, and a symbol of love. In the field of jewelry design, there is an artist who also has a special liking for butterfly elements……
#02
# Pair of Shadow into Butterfly
What would you do if you could only create one piece at the end? At the beginning of the brand, faced with the dilemma of not being able to balance ideals with the market, jewelry artist Cindy Chao, with a desperate determination, completed the first annual butterfly work in 2008-“Ruby Side Flying Butterfly Brooch”.
This is undoubtedly a declaration of the artist’s insistence on breakthroughs in creativity and craftsmanship, and it has also attracted the attention of many domestic and foreign collectors. For CINDY CHAO art jewelry, the series is a brand facade and important.
Cindy Chao, Jewelry Artist
In 2020, the first annual butterfly was included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, France; the second annual butterfly work “Royal Butterfly Brooch” completed in 2009 was collected by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in the United States the following year. It became the first jewelry work created by a Chinese in the museum’s collection in 170 years. These brilliant achievements also represent a high recognition of his forward-looking creative style and craftsmanship.
As the artist said, “It takes great persistence and courage to achieve a work. The human body will fade with time, but art can be passed down from ancient times. So we use our works to prove that we once existed.”
CINDY CHAO ART JEWELRY
2023 Black Label Masterpiece Master Series
Butterfly of the Year-Amour Butterfly Li Ying Butterfly’s Craft Chart
Today, the butterfly master works of the year 2023 come as promised. After 5 years and 15000 working hours, Cindy Chao and the team of European master craftsmen have created a “Amour Butterfly and Liying Butterfly” born of love “. This work is the artist’s feeling after witnessing the love and inheritance of two generations of collectors. The deep friendship between the Tibetan couple for 20 years has been transformed into a tightly overlapping and inseparable double butterfly shape in the “Li Ying Butterfly”, which is breathtaking.
How is a “Butterfly of the Year” work born and how many times does it have to be honed? Through the following keywords, let’s walk into the world of Cindy Chao’s butterfly shadow together.
**3D stereo wax carving * *
Different from the general jewelry using graphic design, Cindy Chao always insists on 3D wax carving and requires 100% consistency with the finished product, which means dozens of hundreds of modifications.
**Titanium * *
“Use the hardest metal to create the softest lines.” The artist combines the forging process of a variety of titanium metals to accurately restore the flexible and flapping posture of the butterfly. At the same time, the multi-level mosaic of the double butterfly shape, so that people can see the vein length, depth, virtual multiple changes in different angles.
**Mosaic * *
The tenon and tenon structure in traditional Chinese architecture is cleverly used by Cindy Chao in jewelry creation, so that different materials can be accurately integrated and complement each other, which also reflects her creative aesthetics of collecting things.
**Diamonds, horns and emeralds * *
Here comes the highlight-a specially tailored 8.31 karat horse-eye-shaped diamond transformed into a butterfly body and embedded in a specially polished horn. This is the first time the artist has used this material, and the selection process alone took more than a year. At the same time, the two Colombian emeralds in pairs, 29.18 karat and 27.52 karat, are consistent in weight, size, origin, color and quality, echoing the inspiration of the work born of love.
Being good at breakthroughs and pursuing perfection is Cindy Chao’s consistent attitude. This is why only 10 annual butterflies have been published in the 19 years since the brand was established, and two of them have been collected by the world’s top museums. In addition, at the auction, the annual butterfly also performed brilliantly: in 2012, the brand’s first work made of titanium-“rebirth butterfly brooch” was unveiled at Christie’s auction in Geneva and sold at a price five times higher than the reserve price. In 2014, Cindy Chao and international actress Sarah Jessica Parker’s “Ballet Butterfly Brooch”, which was created after two years, sold for US $1.21 million, which was twice the estimated value, which is enough to prove its collection and investment value.
In order to give everyone the opportunity to appreciate the light and shadow changes of “Liying Butterfly” and understand its complete process from zero to 1., Cindy Chao decided to hold a big exhibition for this “Butterfly of the Year.
CINDY CHAO ART JEWELRY
2023 Black Label Masterpiece Master Series
Butterfly of the Year-Amour Butterfly Li Ying Butterfly’s Craft Chart
#03
# One Butterfly Show
“It records every uncompromising moment of my artistic exploration, as well as every growth and transformation in my life journey, and is the truest projection of my inner world. It can be said that the annual butterfly is the condensation of my life journey.” Such significance is probably the original intention of Cindy Chao’s decision to hold an exhibition for a work. For her, the exhibition itself is a creation.
For the space design of this exhibition, Cindy Chao once again joined hands with Tom Postma, a well-known Dutch architectural space designer and sculptor, to make the coarse industrial wind exhibition hall on the second floor of Shanghai Dragon Art Museum a feast of light and shadow.
Left: Architectural space designer and sculptor Tom Postma
Right: Cindy Chao, jewelry artist
There are two main highlights in the exhibition space: one is to adapt measures to local conditions, adopt the setting method of “sky light and shadow”, and introduce natural light to make it complement the light of Li Ying butterfly. The second is the world’s longest floating path showcase tailored for the exhibition, which is exclusively developed by top teams from Belgium, Singapore, the Netherlands, and Germany.
The most intimate thing is that because the reflectivity of the showcase glass is only 1%, under the bright background, people can appreciate the details of the work in all directions and without dead corners, which will fill the audience’s experience. Not only that, no display frame is used in the cabinet, and butterflies dance with music like magic, fully demonstrating the creative essence of the brand’s “architectural sense, sculptural nature and vitality.
In addition, a giant device composed of more than 1000 hand-made butterflies makes people feel like being in the jungle and returning to spring. The tree-shaped device is stacked with more than 10 colors and uses more than 100,000 cocoons to lead the audience to a natural journey.
Between light and shadow into a butterfly–
CINDY CHAO Art Jewelry 2023 Butterfly Master Exhibition Site
Holding an exhibition for a work is enough to see the leopard, which shows Cindy Chao’s attitude of constantly subverting himself and challenging the unknown. This is also what she has always adhered to when she was born in an artistic family and nurtured by family studies. The butterfly, with fragile wings and short life, has become a work of art with eternal aesthetics in its hands, which also makes her jump out of the dilemma between ideal and business. Today, the annual butterfly is scheduled until 2028.
Between light and shadow into a butterfly–
CINDY CHAO Art Jewelry 2023 Butterfly Master Exhibition Site
The creation of art jewelry relies on hard, cold diamonds and metals. Once the artist’s sincere emotion and aesthetic creativity are added, he has the ability to change his mind and arouse resonance. Cindy Chao’s jewelry creation is just such, which is called by art critics to usher in the “new art era” (Nouveau Art Nouveau). Relying on “the thinking of an architect and the craftsmanship of a sculptor”, she has inspired nature and attached herself to things, injected the smart freedom and vitality of butterflies into the brand spirit, and constantly led the creation of contemporary jewelry aesthetics into a new world.
Exhibition: Between Light and Shadow, Shadow becomes Butterfly–
CINDY CHAO Art Jewelry Exhibition of the Year of the Butterfly Master Works
Time: 2023.9.9-10.6
Venue: Dragon Art Museum (West Bank Museum)
(Source: Harper’s Bazaar Art)
