By Yin Shuangxi
Wang Wensheng
started on the Chinese oil painting circle very early, and he became famous
very early too. In Hebei Province, for a time he had been the abecedarian of a
lot of the well-known young oil painters. As a university professor, he may
well be expected to stay on the steady academic path, working on realistic
painting and teaching at the same time. But obviously he is not satisfied with
this state of living. He resolutely chose to come to Beijing, and thus chose what
a professional painter does, which is more challenging than ever.
Since last
year, the turbulent marketing tide surges and the constant sound of auction
mallet have made many young painters so restless that a large number of
paintings have been instantly made, like works of Chinese symbol and political
pop art, Richter-typed black and white photograph paintings, cartoon paintings
that play cool. They become what is most popular on the market nowadays, no
less popular than the academic realistic paintings that were previously quite
salable.
Under such
conditions, it is very precious for an artist to be able to get down to seek
one’s own painting language and probe into the influences oil paintings have
upon the spiritual life and values of the contemporary people.
Obviously Wang
Wensheng’s works since 2005 are not produced out of the external pressure to
pursue fashion, but reasonably evolved on his original foundation of oil
painting. He has transformed the simple reproduction of the landscape and
figures in his early years into the study of canvas language, and further into
modern city life on the picture images. This process has some inherent and
logical connection with the language transition that happened for Impressionism
and Post-Impressionism to change realism in late nineteenth century.
In other words,
Wang Wensheng is now under a critical stage of language transformation. His
task lies in his dialectical filtering of original language modes, and the
exploration of the new art language will take reflection and perfection over a
long period of time.
Wang Wensheng’s
recent works on seashore depict seaside landscape and figures as the main
subjects. By breaking the boundary of the traditional figure and landscape
paintings, he shows strong composition by portraying figures within the space
of natural landscape. In addition, he emphasizes the vastness and profoundness
of space in which the distant horizon has become the balancing factor of
painting. Through the simple use of composition and color application, the
outline and contour of the figures are not defined clearly but gradually merge
with the landscape.
The figures,
with no clear identity, move or extend their limbs naturally and leisurely in
the sun. Such characteristics have a strong sense of epoch. The keynote color
adopts a relatively subdued bright grey color. The beautiful color blocks and
the brush strokes are done with prudence, showing the simplicity and the peace
of mind in the rigorous inherent abstract structure.
In Wang
Wensheng’s paintings, both the brush stroke and the surface color layer look
relaxing and natural, which reminds us of the sunshine and freedom of
Californian beach in the paintings of David Hockney. And this relaxed state of
mind is rare in contemporary society, especially the city elite. We can also
say that the works of Wang Wensheng has its edifying function present in
traditional Chinese landscape paintings. Though he depicts the atmosphere of
modern urban life, he is still able to retain the ease and peace in traditional
Chinese paintings.
In Wang
Wensheng’s seascape paintings, strong stereoscopic light sculpt is replaced by
plane color relations charged with emotions. He is able to manage a firm and
clear beams of light in loose and misty color brushwork. This overlaying of
color, one over the other, forms a color layer that light cannot penetrate.
This is unlike the tone unity achieved through many layers of transparent cover
color in classical paintings, but is similar to painters of Post-Impressionism
like Georges Seurat and Paul Cezanne, with more contrast between directness and
partial color richness.
At the same
time there is no unduly pursuit for brightness usually formed by canvas paint.
Instead he obtains an restrained calmness in the color effects of sub-light.
The depiction of seawater and waves is between truth and generalization, with
both rich oil painting color and the generalization of print tone, which is a
rare exploration of landscape painting in recent years.
Wang Wensheng’s
strength is not in depicting the unusual social events or literature plots.
Rather, he emphasizes the charm of painting language itself, and respects the
direct sentiment of a painting.
His works show
his interest and study of great masters such as Balthus, Post-Impressionism and
Picasso. He values the history of oil painting and comprehends the sentimental
change in painting language. This enables him to render his art with more
contexts of delicate taste and contemplation.
For a long
time, I have thought that it is far from mature to study and research the
course of Chinese oil painting language history. This course has been
negatively influenced in recent ten years by the overseas one-sided demand and
the driving force of Chinese market. To young students, it is a very stereotyped
subject to talk about the research into oil painting language and its visual
charm.
The more we
look at the situation of Chinese contemporary oil painting, the more we realize
the necessity of in-depth research of the oil painting tradition both in China
and in other countries. This is simply not the perfection of superficial
effects achieved by the realistic technique imitating reality, but is closely
connected with the history of oil painting language. It is true of modern art.
Lack of deep professional research, either in classical realistic painting or
in modern avant-garde experimentations, can only result in emptiness and
paleness in the paintings.
Thirteen years
ago, in a writing of mine about a young painter Ren Xiaolin, I mentioned
Camille Pissarro and his contemporaries. They have persistent pursuit and
steady study of art, with very strong aspirations to reform oil painting
language. They represent the painter's ideal of the 19th century painters.
In art history, some painters put forward questions
to the society at that time; others questioned art traditions. They are all
respectable painters. It seems now that Wang Wensheng should belong to the
latter. Deeply fascinated by the glamour of oil painting and its long and rich
history, he wishes to continue to learn, understand and contribute.
Compared with the European history of oil
painting development over a hundred year, Chinese oil painting is still at a
stage of growth. Secrets about art await Chinese oil painters to explore. As
Eugene Delacroix once said, “Looking at paintings is the festival of eyes”.
If this were the situation of the development
of Chinese oil painting - many young people turn to images and symbols and
flat-application of pop art, I really feel regrettable how much aesthetic feast
our eyes would therefore fail to enjoy.
What good does
it have if an artwork is not made for us to see and appreciate but simply to
think and guess, if a work of art is not made to touch our heart, but only to
target the market?
An era focusing
on duplicating images erodes and challenges visual traditions, during which
time the obligation of an artist is to resist the stereotype in art creation. I
hope that the artist is humble and simple to confront the world again, getting
close to things in sober labor. Only thus can we expect to penetrate into the
flamboyance of the secular world in order to understand the diversification of
visual experiences of the human world.
Wang Wensheng’s
works allow us to return to the visual, to direct experiences, which is a trip
returning home in physical space as well as in humanistic spirit. In the
integration of eyes and hands, heart and objects is shown the will of ingenuity
and the wonder of the visual.
December 1, 2006
Dr. Yin
Shuangxi is art critic and curator, and deputy chief-in-editor of Art Research Magazine.