Essay – Forms of Forms: Contemporary Chinese Oil Painting Invitational Exhibition

“FORMS OF FORMS: CONTEMPORARY CHINESE OIL PAINTING INVITATIONAL EXHIBITION”

Preface

Jia Fangzhou

The contemporary milieu of Chinese oil painting is rich and varied. The plethora of ideas and a great diversity of styles and schools result in a development trend that goes in a multitude of directions. In this exhibition we are unable to present the entire scheme of contemporary Chinese oil painting. Instead, we have chosen a narrative from a certain academic angle, and will develop our narrative by picking up just one of the threads in the story of contemporary Chinese oil painting.

Contemporary Chinese oil painting traces its roots to the end of 1970’s, with the national “reform and open” policy propelling contemporary Chinese art into an era of unprecedented growth. During this time the oil painters emerged as the fore-runners. Indeed, almost every wave of new thought that arises in contemporary Chinese art has its point of origin in the realm of oil painting. Almost half of contemporary Chinese art history is about oil art. In the development of contemporary Chinese art, oil painting had always been the “head wave” and the oil artists had always been the main driving force of change. Even during the time of “New Wave Art”, when paintings were not the focus, the oil artists proved to be active and crucial elements.

The dominance of oil painting thus points to a consciousness, an awareness among oil artists, that oil painting is strongly related to contemporary Chinese art, including all the issues and obstacles that it faces. Thus, every trend in oil painting is a forecast of what is to come in contemporary Chinese art. It started at the end of the seventies with “Scar Art” and “Rustic Art” and went on to the “Aesthetic Movement” that leaned towards the poetic and the lyrical. Then there was “The 85 Movement”, “Searching for Roots” and “Purifying the Language”. The development of contemporary Chinese oil painting can be encapsulated in the trends of Classical Realism, Cynical Realism and Political Pop; and in its development from the expressions of imagery to its exploration of abstractionism.

In terms of foundation, oil painting was imported from the West only a century ago, thus barely holding its light when compared to the long, deep roots of Chinese ink painting. However, it is by virtue of its youth that it exudes such vitality, sensitivity, and drive. In many important international exhibitions, framed works have been largely displaced by large-scale installation art; but in China, oil painting has just stepped into its peak period. In the twenty-over years since the end of the seventies, every step of its development had become crucial links in the development of contemporary Chinese art.

In general, the structure of contemporary Chinese oil painting is made up of three components: 1. Classicalism and Realism; 2. Representational and Pop and 3. imagery and abstractionism. An overview of this structure reveals how Chinese oil painting continually evolves through a dialogue with reality that involves the reflection and pondering not only of current concerns but also the issues faced by Chinese oil painting.

If attentiveness and concern for the current reality is the basis for exploring current topics, then the consummation of self-definition is a crucial step in the self-disciplined growth of Chinese oil painting.

Gathered in this field is an important force of Chinese oil painting, and right in the core of this force is a group of middle-aged artists who boasts strong academic achievements on their resumes. They are unrelenting in propelling Chinese oil painting towards Sinification. Armed with unflinching academic convictions, they sought to distance themselves from the mainstream art promoted and sanctioned by the government. At the same time, they resist being swept under by the overwhelming wave of commercialism in art.

This exhibition “Forms of forms” picks up on the thread of “imagery – abstraction” as our academic focus. For many years, representational styles and realism were the mainstay of Chinese oil painting. Strongly guided by ideological policies before the eighties, the government had demanded that art shoulder the responsibility of propaganda. Revolutional realism was highly promoted. There was no way for abstract art to realistically or objectively reflect life, and so from its tender beginnings had always assumed the stance of being antagonistic to officially sanctioned art. This results in abstract art standing apart as being culturally adversarial. However, abstract art had evolved to be a new form of artistic expression. It had also attained maturity gradually in the nineties, producing a crop of excellent abstract artists.

We have established “Forms of forms” as the theme for this exhibition. Our objective is to relate how contemporary Chinese oil painting had evolved from the representational to the various types of “imagery – abstraction” and the transformation and changes between the various forms of expressions.  Traditional Chinese painting theories abound with many observations on and about forms. This includes: “the form that exists outside of the form”; “a conception that arises beyond the form” and “the supreme form has no form”. “The form that exists outside of the form” means that a painting has departed from the “likeliness” that is representational; it has attained a form that cannot be grasped by the visual sense, and in fact that is a type of “abstraction”. Based on this idea of “form outside the form”, we extrapolate the idea of “form within the form”. That idea refers to those “forms” that border on being abstract and departs from formal representation, yet does not overstep the boundary to become abstract. That is what we call “idea-form” or “imagery”.

Many works of contemporary Chinese oil painting fall into this lingering zone that oscillates between the representational and the abstract. These paintings display the unique characteristic of contemporary Chinese oil painting- from their dwelling on representation, to the “idea-form” that is intimate with abstraction; from abstractionism that draws on symbolic representation to pure abstract works. The repertoire presented by the artists that we have invited is emblematic of these various points along this thread that we are exploring.

Thirteen artists were invited to participate in this exhibition. In terms of age, there are representative artists that were born in the 40’s up to the 70’s. In terms of artistic accomplishment, amongst them we find influential pioneers, accomplished middle-aged artists as well as young artists who are beginning to make their mark. The heterogeneity in representation is a deliberate choice. In this way, we hope to be able to more completely showcase this artistic vein of “idea-form” to the Southeast Asian art world and art collectors. The individual styles and artistic tendencies of each artist can be more apparent by compare and contrast, and we can also discern the overall quality of contemporary Chinese oil painting as it develops on this particular axis from “idea-form” to abstraction.

For works that have morphed from being representational to a rendition that is more an imagery, we can look to the paintings of Jing Shijian, Xu Xiaoyan, Zhang Liping, Yu Ming and Zhao Wenhua. In principle their art has not abandoned the figurative description of its subject matter, yet it is not an objective depiction. They have incorporated elements of subjectivity into their creations. For instance, the “Travelers Three” series by Jing Shijian is realistic and yet not of reality. It is a sequence in time that narrates the literati sentiments of landscape, and concurrently waxes poetic of the misty landscapes. Xu Xiaoyan’s “Blooming” series expresses the imagery of Life a-blooming that is experienced through her observation of the splaying leaves of a wilting Chinese cabbage. Through the attention in realizing her image, Xu portrays her marvel and exaltation of life cycles in Nature.

Zhang Liping’s expressionistic use of colors reveals poignantly to us his passion for Life, and not just a zealousness for the natural landscape. On the other hand, Yu Ming attempts to portray a landscape “of depth”. And so in his landscapes he makes assiduous efforts to present a “peace and quiet” that is far and distant from the city chaos, but this is a sense of “peace and quiet” with an energy force field that is unsettling.

In his “City Image” series, Zhao Wenhua juxtaposes representational and non-representational images to express his concern for how modern city life is being lived out. The artist created nearly forty works on this one theme, examining a topic of current significance today: China’s urbanization and its impact. This is an issue that has global relevance, and this series elicited high compliments from the chairman of the Florence Biennial (Biennale Internazionale Dell’arte Contemporanea).

Shang Yang’s art is overall hard to classify. But we can say that fundamentally his works since the nineties are rooted in the “idea-form”. From the late eighties after he completed the “Yellow Earth Sentiments” series, his art ventured into the abstract realm for a short time. Examples of works produced during this brief phase can be seen in the series “States”. However, his vast and complex thoughts did not allow him to remain in a state that is so clearly delineated. From “Big scenery” to “Project Dong Qichang” his art has aimed to achieve two things: first to reach deep into the pulse of traditional culture; and second, to search for novel concepts and new expressions that can more intimately communicate his ideas.

The works of Liu Hui and Ning Dandan/ Ning Binbin are no longer tethered to the idea-form, yet they are also not pure abstract expressions. They exist in a state that suspends between abstraction and imagery. But pinning down the state is not important, what is essential is the experiences of life that the art is built upon. It is “the most primal and heartfelt impressions that we attained when we exposed our purest, most innocent hearts to our world” (Ning Dandan/ Ning Binbin); it is “discovering a sense of the earth” in one’s “field and garden” (Liu Hui). As they have created their works based upon the foundation of life and life experiences, we can easily sense the “sounds and rhythms” of Nature (Ning Dandan/ Ning Binbin) and feel the “sun, earth, wind, water and the sky” (Liu Hui) through these near-abstract paintings.

Li Lei’s paintings can be categorized as pure abstract art. But upon examination of his inspirations, we find similarities between Li and the above three artists. We may not sense the imagery of nature in his works, but we can experience the vibration of Nature. This is because his works, like Ning’s and Liu’s, originate from “how one feels about the Universe”; it stems from how one “senses and melds with the rhythm of the Universe.” (Li Lei)

The works of the remaining four artists in this exhibition- Wang Huaiqing, Su Xiaobo, Zhou Changjiang, and Li Xiangming- all fall into the category of pure abstract art. And they all orient themselves to seek out the characteristics of abstract art that has been Sinified. They all endeavor to anchor their works in the meaning of art itself. In their early artistic phases, these four artists have all engaged in producing representational art, and after they evolved into their abstract phase they all seek to root their individual art by drawing upon traditional cultural resources, thus welding a profound internal relationship between their art and traditional culture.

Since the nineties, traditional wood-architectural construction and wood-construction furniture had not only provided insights and inspiration for Wang Huaiqing, they had also become the master vocabulary that his art is built and constructed upon. In the years that followed, Wang in his paintings experimented with de-constructing or constructing with these elements that bear genetic markers of traditional Chinese culture. In the age-old structure of pillars and beams that cross and support horizontally and vertically, Wang perceived an ancient cultural spirit of his people. This sentiment is further verified by evidence in his artwork, where he attempts to reach beyond the two-dimensional space. In thriving for an art flavor that is purely Chinese, Wang had even abandoned the advantage of color choices offered by oil painting, choosing instead to focus on black, a concise color reminiscent of Chinese ink.

The paintings of Su Xiaobo and Wang Huaiqing bear similar characteristics of rationality and nonchalance. But judging from the use of symbols and imagery, Su proves to be more puristic in his pursuit of the two-dimensional. I have said before that he is one rare Chinese artist who is truly able to penetrate western abstract art from a linguistic level, and in his thorough grasp of western art, still manages to hold pulse of the Chinese spirit. When I look at his paintings, so western in appearance, I do not perceive cultural messages from the West; instead I see an expression brought to fruition through Chinese sensitivity. Su portrays a profound sense of history and cultural sensibility through his pure artistic language and in his use of raw laquer, a traditional material used by Chinese artisans. In his paintings that describe nothing in specific we are able to fathom the memory of a people; the vicissitudes experienced by a nation; the pursuit of history and the nostalgia for an ancient culture.

Among his peers, Zhou Changjiang was one of the earliest artists to venture into abstract art. His abstract art series “Complementary” has already won a silver prize at a national exhibition in the United States back in the late eighties. In the past twenty years he has continued to extend his exploration of this theme, endeavoring to “make marriage” of this western style with “local culture”. He earnestly sought to “reflect upon my cultural background after studying modern western painting” and “amidst the transfiguration of traditional aesthetical values” Zhou deeply desires to create his “own image of modern art.” (Zhou Changjiang)

Since the eighties, the art of Li Xiangming had naturally evolved and transitioned from representational realism to the renditions of imagery to abstractionism. But to him, what counts is not the change in methodology, but the evolving of an internal sense of aesthetics. This, says he, is also a sublimation of the quality of art. Li’s works have become increasingly simple and concise; more and more they emphasize upon the special “language” of the materials themselves. Three factors come together to channel his art in the direction of Sinification and localization: cultural symbols from traditional sources; local dialects and linguistic expressions and his personal experiences of survival.