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Guardians of the Steppe

Works by Monkhor Erdenebayar

Vernissage: 14 January 2010,   6:30pm - 8:30pm
Exhibition Continues: 15 January 2010 - 5 February 2010

Branch Gallery, 27 Hollywood Road, Central, Hong Kong

RENOWNED MONGOLIAN PAINTER, MONKHOR ERDENEBAYAR, TO BE SHOWCASED IN HONG KONG FOR THE FIRST TIME.

Schoeni Art Gallery is delighted to present oil paintings by Monkhor Erdenebayar, in collaboration with Teo & Namfah Gallery. Monkhor Erdenebayar (who goes by the name of “BAYAR”), aged 41, is well-known throughout Asia and is a treasure of cultural knowledge about Mongolia. He was born in 1968 in Baruun-Urt, Mongolia, and received formal art education at the Fine Arts College and Fine Art Institute of Ulaanbaatar. BAYAR has held highly successful solo exhibitions in Bangkok, Singapore, Phnom Penh and Mumbai. He was also selected to represent Mongolia at Beijing’s Biennale in June, 2008 and Taiwan’s Fusing Biennale in September, 2008.

BAYAR’s signature is his horses which populate his semi-abstract oil paintings. His oeuvre not only mirrors the history, culture and tradition of Mongolia, but at the same time also holds true to the artist’s own sentiment. The immense power, elegance and patience of the horse are characteristics that are brought to light through BAYAR’s formal, cubist-geometric and lyrical paintings, with each line, colour, light and texture within the composition meticulously crafted. Although the represented horses are static, nevertheless they possess a remarkable presence that guides us into a contemplative meditation about the long standing inter-relationship between the animal, man, freedom and nature.

“The horse is central to the cultural and spiritual world of Mongolians and one of their most important art motifs, even from the earliest rock art. For Monkhor Erdenebayar the horse has long been the main subject of his painting. And through this he not only expresses his love for the animal but also uses it as a metaphor for Mongolian national identity and as a way of exploring his own childhood memories. Myths and legends that embrace the horse are myriad. Throughout time and among innumerable folk cultures the horse – the stallion and the mare – has been a potent metaphor for power and freedom, life and death, sacrifice and darkness, magic and fertility, and for its ties to the heavens and earth. While many cultures have long since lost their connection to the horse, Mongolians still hold it close to their heart. One has only to witness the essential place that the horse takes at traditional Mongolian festivals across the vast steppe to see just how it speaks to the nomadic soul and history of the nation…Monkhor Erdenebayar understands this very well indeed and uses this knowledge in his recent work to address questions of personal and national identity…Monkhor Erdenebayar’s horses do not prance, or gallop or canter. They are still secretive creatures of strength, patience, and independence. They see much and keep their secrets. Erdenebayar’s secrets are now open. It is as if he is saying ‘look, Mongolians, we are free.’ But, at the same time, he is warning that while the boxes open to freedom, encroaching city culture may well once more constrain and trap people, crushing their hard-won freedoms before they are fully realized.”  - Ian Findlay Brown, Asian Art News, November/December 2009