Old art form takes on new faces

A remote mountain with lifeless winter trees standing still or a silky waterfall hanging in front of it. An ancient hermit walking along a crooked path or pondering under the roof of a thatched pavilion.

A couple of birds resting on curved branches of a plum tree or flying between bamboos swaying in the wind.

For millenniums, these have been the kinds of scenes that make up traditional Chinese paintings and most common impression people have - Westerners in particular - about the Chinese art form which has often been accused of being monotonous and lacking in vitality.

A most radical slogan put forward 15 years ago by art critic and painter Li Xiaoshan, then a graduate student at the Nanjing Art Institute, sounded even like Nietzsche's sensational statement "The God is dead!"

"Chinese painting has come to a dead end!" Li wrote in his well-known article "Chinese Painting in My View," which was published in the Jiangsu Art Monthly in July 1985.

The fact is, even now, the Muses are not dead and Chinese painting remains to be an active art form, although plagued with new problems amid constant changes.

Li's slogan was seen as a starting point for the '85 New Art Wave, which is well known for its "anti-tradition" tendency.

His comment resulted in heated debates on the fate of Chinese painting in a modern age and, in a way, prompted a great variety of artistic experiments in the hope of reviving the declining Chinese art.

Today, a much more mature Li might as well have realized that his statement then was nothing more than sentimental and temporary. He recently accepted the position as the curator of an ongoing exhibition of art he labels as "new Chinese painting."

The Grand Exhibition of New Chinese Painting, which includes more than 200 Chinese paintings by 93 artists active in the past two decades, opened on May 19 and will run through May 28 at the Liu Haisu Art Gallery in Shanghai. Its next stop will be the Jiangsu Art Museum in Nanjing.

Noticeably, national exhibitions of Chinese painting were also held earlier this year in cities like Chengdu and Beijing.

The exhibits are deemed as a thorough retrospective of the rapid transformation of Chinese painting over the past 20 years, when artists' creative appeal has been invigorated with the country's reform and opening up.

Artists in the Shanghai exhibit, for example, range from veterans such as Wu Guanzhong, Liu Guosong, and Zhou Shaohua to cutting-edge painters like Gu Wenda, Liu Zijian, and Zhu Xinjian.

On the eve of the show, Li made a new statement that seems to contradict his past opinion on traditional Chinese painting, but his words are truthful.

"I don't think it's necessary to modify my comment (15 years ago), which was a criticism of the conventional rules and concepts that shackled the creativity of artists at that time," Li was quoted by the Hangzhou-based China Art Weekly as saying.

"Compared with the situation in the 1980s, the individuality of artists can be seen extensively in Chinese painting today. Chinese painting, in general, is on the rise and turning from monotony and insularity to pluralism and diversity," Li continued.

Li's answer seemed diplomatic and slippery when he was asked what "new Chinese painting" means upon the opening of the exhibit, which includes three controversial categories of works: traditional ink paintings, experimental ink paintings and mixed media paintings.

"The word 'new' here is only used in the chronological sense. It refers to the period from 1979 to the present," Li explained.

Nevertheless, viewers may regard most of the paintings as "new" to certain extent - though not necessarily the "greatest" - concerning their artistic language and conceptual power.

The works are in fact fruits of the persistent endeavours of Chinese artists and scholars in an artistic movement spanning the 20th century to reform and invigorate traditional Chinese painting. The art genre came to a historic low during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) when the orthodox landscape style of "Four Wangs" (Wang Hui, Wang Jian, Wang Yuanqi and Wang Shimin) dominated the Chinese art scene. The imitation of previous masters' works as a fundamental way of learning art was in the vogue.

This reformative movement came to its highlight in the past 20 years, when "explorations in the art form have been most in-depth and extensive," as Beijing art critic Lang Shaojun put it.

"On the one hand, Chinese painting today has entered an increasingly plural and diverse period; on the other hand, its own definition has become more and more unclear, causing disputes on how to evaluate (the new trends)," Lang said.

According to Lang, traditional types of Chinese painting are still practised by a limited number of artists. But, he noted, the dominant types of Chinese painting today are those combining Western influence with Chinese traditions and the highly experimental works that may use traditional tools and methods but are actually in sharp contrast with traditional Chinese painting in both appearance and nature.

Western elements such as realistic techniques and bold coloration began to be used in Chinese paintings in the early 20th century owing to the enthusiastic advocacy of Chinese scholars and artists such as Xu Beihong, Lin Fengmian and Gao Qifeng, who were largely inspired by Western thoughts during their studies abroad.

Soon after the founding of New China in 1949, a second round of discussions prevailed in the country on the social function and artistic language of Chinese painting in a socialist context. Modern life and working class (rather than ancient literati and aristocrats as it used to) have grown to be important subjects Chinese painters tried to present in their works, although many were characterized by ideological impact of the time and lacking in individuality.

Most noticeably, during this period, semi-abstract paintings by artists such as Shi Lu appeared, pushing people to consider new possibilities in the development of Chinese paintings, according to Pi Daojian, an art critic and professor at the South China Normal University in Guangzhou.

"Unfortunately, the valuable discussions were suspended during the unprecedented 'cultural revolution' (1966-76)," said Pi.

Following the third round of heated debates over the fate of Chinese painting, which was initiated by Li Xiaoshan in the 1980s, artists have conducted very bold experiments in every aspect of Chinese painting.

The media of Chinese painting, for example, has expanded from ink and colour on xuan paper to mixed media such as acrylic and even tea on various kinds of paper.Techniques such as rubbing and collage have also been applied in Chinese painting. Abstract and semi-abstract styles are increasingly welcomed by appreciators of Chinese painting.

Moreover, some perceptive artists are exploring ways to depict the life in modern cities amid China's rapid urbanization, rather than being limited to the virtually pastoral settings of a rural society as their ancestors did for thousands of years.

In spite of the experiments, some experts, however, criticize these kinds of ontemporary Chinese paintings, claiming that the works have deviated from the precious tradition and cater to Western tastes.

Shen Hu, a researcher at the Liu Haisu Art Gallery, seemed to be quite dissatisfied with the "new Chinese painting" show at his gallery.

"Chinese painting is good at depicting the peaceful atmosphere and state of mind. But most works in this exhibit are too 'noisy' and some appear to have no difference from Western oil paintings," Shen said. "Chinese ink painting has almost become a plaything that everybody can touch in the name of so-called anti-tradition," he complained.

Shen's opinion is partly echoed by Lang Shaojun. "As a matter of fact, traditional Chinese painting is a classical art that can hardly be endlessly transformed. Neither does it mean that any innovation is beneficial in the long run.

"Above all, it is improper to interpret traditional Chinese art totally according to the conception of Western modern art," said Lang.

He, however, suggests that it is more wise and open to evaluate different types of Chinese painting with different standards in accordance with their specific haracteristics.

Li Xiaoshan argues that the impact of Western modern art is unavoidable in an age of globalization when Chinese ink painters are exposed to increasing connections with the outside world.

Some experts insist that the study of traditional skills and the absorption of new oncepts are actually not contradictory because a painting combining the two aspects is generally welcome by the public.

Date: 05/26/2000
Author: YANG YINGSHI in Beijing and ZHANG QIAN in Shanghai, China Daily staff
Copyright? by China Daily

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