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By the middle and late l990s, the
individua1ized re-creation of the artistic language became
the crux for the artistic creation to evolve from the traditional
manners and excessive artistic forms and patterns into a
new and sound round of development. The voice of reform
has never been silent in the field of the Chinese painting
since the middle of l980s. As for the artistic practices
and theoretical criticism, the debate and divergent views
between the ink-and-brush centralists and their opponents
have a1so been the same problems how the Chinese painting
faces up to the changes of the objective reality to possess
a unique spiritual quality in its language style. It should
be noted that the debate and explorations of Chinese painting
have been focused upon the landscape painting and figure
painting, especial1y the latter which has broken away from
its realistic style based upon sketching with the efforts
of some young and middle--aged painters and entered into
a level being directly confronted with the cultural and
social criticism in the social realities. The connotations
of cultural and social conceptions have played an important
and decisive role in an individual application of ink and
brush.
In a sharp contrast, the flower-and-bird
painting appeared more self satisfied and sluggish. However,
the emergence and exhibiting of a great number of works
of Shangguan Chaoying has injected great vitality into the
painting and other schools of Chinese painting. The themes
and forms of Chinese painting that Shangguan Chaoying has
touched upon are comprehensive because he has more than
20 years of experiences of artistic practices and it is
especially more attractive that he has made profound researches
and conceptual thinking of daxieyi (daxieyi means a more
unrest faint freehand brushwork of traditional Chinese Painting)
and "ultra-daxieyi" in his flower-and-bird painting.
The aesthetic value of a painting originates from a painter's
application of inks and colors to create an aesthetic imagery
beyond a specific object on a two-dimension surface. The
creation of an imagery relies not only on the self cultivation
of a painter, his comprehension's of the cultural and social
traditions and repeated appraisals of the object, but also
on each viewer's understanding and interpretations of images
in paintings. Whatever happens, from the physical objects
in objective existence to the visual imagery in painting
and the imagery in the minds of creators and acceptors,
the course of artistic creation continues in accordance
with the idea that the works of visual art is a mirror of
the objects of reality. The ways of creation in such a linear--like
way of artistic thinking have constituted spheres of artistic
expressions and artistic styles of numerous aesthetic objects
in the development and transformation of Chinese painting.
They are just like the kinks connecting in the rope of veins
which have been extending from the origin of Chinese painting
til1 now .This is the history of the development of the
schools in Chinese painting. Facing up to the techniques
of expressions, the artistic styles which have been accumulated
for quite some time and the conceptions of value and the
cultural traditions behind them, can we continue to do what
artists have done along such a linear way in a pursuance
of a completely new artistic style and forms in place of
the imagery of reality to create an aesthetic image? In
other words, does the aesthetic value of painting simply
rely on the relationship of correspondence between the art
and the reality, or an individualized style and pattern
to create any aesthetic imagery in place of the objects
of the reality?
The emergence and existence of
any ways of thinking and cognition depend upon the development
and transformation of the objective reality of society.
Under the tendency of globalization, the high level of saturation
brought about by the primitive accumulation and knowledge
will certainly enter into a new stage of sharing knowledge
with the development of the information network of computers.
Therefore, the aft, as a branch of the ancestry tree of
human knowledge, has broken away both from its mechanical
correspondences of themes, styles and forms and from the
mirroring modes of seeking the origina1 art artistic language
for a reflection of the reality (Such a reality is no longer
unitary, static and isolated. Great changes have taken place
within it.) and then entered an age of sharing, free re-grouping
and re-creating of the artistic and knowledge property within
the Western and Eastern spheres. Shangguang Chaoying has
brought out specific values of his conception of "ultra-daxieyi"
against the cultural background of our time. The first and
the most striking impression of his painting is its oversize.
Many of his paintings are of magnitude and generally have
3 square meters and above. As a result, he has enlarged
the size of the flower-and-bird and fish--and--insect paintings,
originally hung over the tables for leisure and pleasure
of Chinese scholars, to such an extent that the visual shock
that the viewers have received is beyond our imaginations.
Standing in front of his works, viewers have no longer had
such a sense of ease and distance as they usually have when
visiting a gallery. They have merged themselves into the
images in his paintings and shuttled back and forth in a
spiritual and color space created by the artist. The great
freedom of spirit and comp1etely new feeling originating
from their appreciation's of these oversized paintings relies
on Chaoying's efforts of individualized re-grouping and
re-creation of the art artistic language and vocabulary
of the traditional flower-and-bird painting. As we know,
the principles, styles and techniques of Chinese flower-and-bird
painting have already been established over long time. Therefore,
in the mind of Shuangguan Chaoying, they are both rich heritages
for reference and an insurmountable barrier It also seems
that he has been subject to influences from the painting
schools of modern and contemporary eras in style, but the
viewers have more impressions of his daring and free grouping
and founding of the art artistic styles and skills of his
predecessors based on the mutual principle of freedom beyond
space, time and experience. As for the compositions of his
paintings, he has a free hand and maneuvers among various
images. Some interleaved, some lonely and isolated, all
of the images follow his free brush. The laws of changes
of nature all around the year in his paintings are completely
subject to his aesthetic requirements. The harmony and complementation
of the brightness and difference of colors have profited
much from the dark background and the blocks and outlines
of main images among which are adored with various dots
of azurite, mineral green, artistic purple, apricot ye1low
or original] colors in sharp contrast. In his masterpiece
of "Lotus Pond in Four Seasons", different sights
of lotus in four seasons have been integrated perfectly
into an organic whole as composed by God in Heaven. In sma1l
paintings, we may say that images are described in certain
skills and styles. However, in view of the painter's pursuance
of aesthetic images beyond his experiences and his efforts
of grouping, disintegrating and composing, it is reasonable
to prove that his ability to control the whole process from
disintegration to composition is the very result of his
profound thinking about the possible orientation of the
traditional Chinese painting at present and his artistic
cultivation through years. In his own words, it is "to
describe heart with heart and to apply colors at free will".
On one hand, he has acquired a profound comprehension of
such artistic rules as "creating images responding
to the object, inheriting the traditions as models and applying
different colors to different objects"; on the other
hand, he has based himself upon the needs of the social
and cultural development in contemporary realities to learn
from the traditions and go beyond the traditions by merging
the Chinese and Western artistic conceptions into an organic
whole. It is the freedom of consciousness in process. As
a result, it is not so dift1cult to understand the contributions
that he has made to the development of daxieyi in the flower-and-bird
painting.
What is more, Shangguan Chaoying
has gone a step further to prove his attitude towards free
grafting and grouping of all of the established all artistic
rules and styles with his special hemp paper added to the
list of the materials of Chinese ink and wash. In a number
of his ink and wash on hemp paper, the lines have been absorbed,
digested and resolved on the coarse surface of the hemp
paper. The permeability of the color block and Chinese ink
and the fainting effect of colors have been reduced. However,
the individualized aesthetic images stand vividly on the
paper one after another and deeply impress the viewers.
Generally speaking, Shangguan Chaoying
has a profound understanding of the current status of the
development of our contemporary culture and realized the
transition of method of cognition and way of thinking in
artistic creations. He has been practicing his personalized
way of artistic creations and individualized way of forming
his all artistic language. It is quite certain that he has
already become a person of social recognition in the field
of contemporary Chinese painting for his ability and free
and easy attitude towards the art.
Song Zhong, late April,1997
(the famous art critic)
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THE IMAGERY COMPOSITIONS IN THE PAINTINGS OF SHANGGUAN CHAOYING