"In the Land of Dragons, Mountains, Clouds and Waterfalls... Landscape According to Liao Ci Fu" - exhibition at The State Ethnographical Museum in Warsaw.

Liao Ci Fu, the author of all of the works presented within the exhibition, is an exquisite representative of the Shan Shui style of painting and his works has been presented for the first time in Europe.

Shan Shui means literally: Mountain - Water and it reveals the most popular topics touched on by the painters of this style. In mentality of the Chinese, mountains have always been perceived as holy places where immortal souls have their homes. Philosophical interests and mystic connotations with naturalism may have been one of the reasons of the development of landscape painting in China.

Shan Shui paintings are presentations not of what the painter sees in the nature but rather reflections of what he thinks about it.

The rules of the Shan Shui landscape painting are subject to extremely rigorous, almost mystical requirements of balance of composition and form. The composition has to be in line with the Theory of Five Elements representing various parts of the world of nature, each of them having their specific colour set. The elements of positive interaction should be used together, e.g. Earth and Fire should be painted by the landscapist in the shades of yellow and red, while the elements of negative interaction such as Fire and Water should never be used together. Mountains, Rivers, Waterfalls, are painted mostly with the use of ink and (more seldom) with the use of conventional paints.

Shan Shui style became an inspiration for other works of art as well and found its reflection in poetry, animation, film and in the art of gardening and landscape design.

The works by Master Liao Ci Fu have been presented in Shanghai in Taiwan's pavilion during Expo 2010.
The exhibition at The State Ethnographical Museum in Warsaw has been prepared with the collaboration of the Representative of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Warsaw, Poland.