Om Jiang Shuo

Ordspråket “All historia är modern historia” är verkligen en lärjunges begåvade åsikt. Jiang Shuo har arbetat på en serie av skulpturer baserat på “Röda Gardet”-temat. Språket och utryckssättet av dessa skulpturer härstammar från hennes erfarenhet av kulturrevolutionen i Kina, likväl som hennes observationer av den växande rationaliseringen av det moderna tänkesättet. Det visar artistens perspektiv på det förflutna, med en smak av nutiden.

De lustiga nästan serietecknade Röda gardet-skulpturerna påminner mera om moderna idéer om skönhet som omfamnar en stil av popkultur. Temat är högtidligt fast presentationen är jämförelsevis lugn och underhållande; provocerar ett skratt av humor, samtidigt som det framhäver en komplex och oförklarlig känsla av oro.

Man kan samtidigt notera att Jiang Shuos “Röda garde”-serie använder sig av olika element och idéer från modern populärkultur. Golf, bilar, Coca-Cola, McDonald`s och guldmynt blir symboler för västerlandets allmänna skyltar av attraktioner som ersätter Mao’s lilla röda. Hennes erfarenhet från kulturrevolutionen har blivit hennes kreativitet för “Röda Gardet”-serien samtidigt som hennes skulpturer reflekterar en mogenhet och sofistikation för att inte förglömma hennes väg vald av en helt ny generation i Kina.

Utbildning

Utexaminerad från konstgymnasium affilierat till Sichuans konsthögskola, 1983–1987

Kandidatexamen i oljemålning, Sichuans konsthögskola, Chongqing, 1987–1991

Utställningar

2009

Through the eyes of a child
– The Museum of China Cultural Arts

Impressions - Deng Wushu
– Zhou Gallery, 798 Art Distract, Beijing

Through the eyes of a child
– Byron C. Cohen Gallery for Contemporary Art, Kansas City, USA

Grupputställningar

2008

The Wind
– The Contemporary Gallery Exhibition, Beijing

The Joint within the Beltway
– The Contemporary Fine Arts Gallery Exhibition, Beijing

Miami-Bissell Expo
– The International Gallery Show, Miami, USA

Chinese Contemporary Fine Arts Exhibition
– Melvin Art Museum, Miami, USA

2009

Elites Oil Painting Competition Across The Taiwan Strait
– Taichung Museum, Taizhong, Taiwan

The Fifth Element
– 2010 Contemporary Art Exhibition, 798 Art District, Beijing

2010

Art Beijing 2010. Classical Art Exhibition
– Taihe Art Space, Beijing

East - West, the First Chinese Art Exhibition
– San Diego, Kalifornien

Shanghai contemporary art fair
– Shanghai

The International Gallery Show
– Miami-Bissell Expo, Miami, USA

Fantasy & Happiness
– Linda Gallery

2011

ArtExpo
– New York, USA

Av Hao Qing

Student Life

My student life started at the time when the “New Trend in 1985” was coming to its end. This “New Trend in 1985” is the first large-scale high tide in China of learning and imitating Western modern art. Before 1985, although there frequently appeared different art groups following Western modern art, the 1985 Trend is still the first one of its type to spread a nationwide and far-reaching influence. However, the enthusiasm thus incurred ended up with a quick ebb, for which there might be political reasons, but it was more for the reason that this movement-type trend was in itself a little bit too superficial and volatile in theory and cognition. The exit of the 1985 Trend, in fact, reflects people’s realization that the study of the Western arts should not be a superficial imitation of current fashion, but rather an in-depth recognition and understanding of the West in a comprehensive way. Tracing back to the origin, if you cannot understand the classical West, you are not likely to understand the modern West in the real sense. Therefore, after the 1985 Trend of crazily following the Western modern arts, the so-called “Classical Trend” was the rage in China, which took the manner of tracing to the very source in the studies on Western arts after the 15th century. This is roughly the study background for my university life. It also made me immerse myself in studying Western classical arts during my whole university life, from Holbein to Ingres, from Caravaggio to Rembrandt. That thirst for science of Western art is something hard to see in Chinese art. In fact, this learning period of studying the Western classical arts lays a solid foundation for my later art work.

Continued Further Study at China Central Academy Of Fine Arts (CAFA)

In 1991, I returned to the university campus at China Central Academy Of Fine Arts (CAFA) for continued studies after two years of teaching at another college. A contemporary master of Chinese painting once talked about the inheritance and creation of Chinese painting as this: “to enter into it with the best skill and to fight out with the greatest courage”. In fact, this is the common understanding shared by Chinese traditional artists for the inheritance and creation of art. In another word, when studying the traditional art, you need to probe into it as deep as you can. Only through this can you produce more valuable artwork and more meaningful innovative ideas. Meanwhile, the deeper you study traditions, the more limits you will have, and the greater courage you need to acquire for innovation.

I basically followed this principle in my student life at CAFA. I continued to study and make researches on the Western classical arts, yet my focus shifted from the neo-classical Ingres to the impressionist Monet. For all this, I, at that time, already clearly realized that they were not the destination of my art life, but only a stage for me to learn the good traditions from ancestors. I assumed that my art style should be one integrating the Eastern and the Western art traditions, an innovative creation bearing contemporary features.

It is at this time that I found there was a big mistake in my study, that is, I focused only on learning the Western arts and almost completely neglected studying traditions of Chinese painting.

The Starting as a Professional Painter

In 1992, I quit my job as a university teacher and became a professional painter in Beijing. In fact, most of the top masters of Chinese painting achieved their success at a rather late stage, and many of them formed their own style when they were as old as 60 or 70, and some even produced their most matured artworks as late as 70 or 80 years old. This is very rare in the West, although it is quite common in China. In China, master-level top artists usually spend too long on studying traditional arts. And this conservative tradition left upon me a deep impact when I was young. I thought that it was more important to study traditions than to develop one’s own style at the youth age. Although I made several attempts to set up my own style at that time, it was more like a planning for my future art life rather than a trying effort.

Same as a professional painter, at the time when other painters like Mr. Fang Lijun were chasing after the Western art with huge enthusiasm in the Painter’s Village in the Old Summer Palace, I, even though in the same city of Beijing, was almost completely lost in the studies and researches on Chinese ancient arts.

At that time, I cooperated with a Taiwan art gallery, selling them some figurative paintings in classical style to earn me a simple life. Meanwhile, I made a lot of efforts to study Chinese traditional painting theories and other knowledge of human culture. Besides, from that time, I picked up my student-time interest on calligraphy. I spent at least one hour per day exercising calligraphy, focusing on Jingshiyu Taishan Jingangjing, which I kept exercising for 10 years. During that period, I also copied such books as Home Temple (Jiamiao), Inscription of Zheng Wengong, Si Shan Mo Ai Inscription, and Shu Pu. Calligraphy perfectly reflects the spirit and aesthetic beauty of Chinese painting both in theoretical and pragmatic perspectives. Only with a deep understanding of Chinese calligraphy can you really understand the implication and spirit of Chinese painting. I do hope that my paintings could inherit and convey such spirit.

Paintings on Lotus

In 1994, I started my paintings on the Lotus Series. I chose the lotus theme for the reason that lotus is an oriental and typical Chinese ancient theme with long history, and it is closely related to my childhood and very familiar to me. Besides, there is another reason in the technical sense, i.e., it can easily put in my understanding of calligraphy. When copying from Taishan Jingangjing, I had another interest on Zhu Da, known as Badashanren, whose calligraphy and paintings on lotus left upon me a deep impression.

I tried combining the traditional Chinese abstract painting with the Western expressionism. Yet, I failed. During the period from 1994 when I started lotus theme painting to 2004 when I opened my first personal exhibition on lotus theme, I should say that it was due to the sketching since 2000 that I got the real grasp of my art direction.

Between 2000 and 2004, I kept practicing sketching at the lakeside of lotus pond in each October, a season of fallen and withered lotus leaves. In these five months, I finished over 100 pieces of painting. It is out of these that I found out my expression for lotus. My painting is not the Monet-style for scenery. In Chinese traditional painting, there is no such a concept of sketching. However, since the Tang Dynasty, there has been the idea of “nature teaches”, that is, we should learn from the nature. This attitude does not emphasize painters’ on-site copy of the nature, but stresses on grasping the implication of nature in stead. In other word, the key point here is not to get the exact shape, but to grasp the right implication and taste. By sticking to this sketching principle, I find out the right sense and feeling of the lotus that I care about.

Other Choices

When focusing on the lotus theme, I also tried painting on wisteria, which I quit later on as I did not have enough time. However, I continue to try some other themes, which though not finished, are still within my efforts. That is the painting of scenery, or to put it more exactly, painting of mountains and waters.

Mountain-and-water painting is different from the Western scenery painting. It is the most important art theme in Chinese painting. Chinese painting takes mountain-and-water painting as its core theme, and embodies in it the values and ideas of Daoism, which plays a particular role of balancing people’s inner world in the Chinese society that focuses on Confucianism. This is the living principle of traditional Chinese men-of-letters, “The body lives in the city as a Confucian, yet the soul flies to the mountain and forest as a Daoist.

I hope that I could inherit this mountain-and-water culture in my painting, and inherit the Chinese-style sketching concept and nature-teaching idea. I have been working hard to accumulate all this experience for many years. And I want to make my contribution to innovating Chinese mountain-and-water painting from the following two perspectives.

In terms of the format, we could absorb and apply more Western ideas on color. I have been studying on the color language of Monet, Matisse, and Rothko. This is well disclosed in my paintings made in Xinjiang in 2002, and much more matured in those made in the South of Gansu Province in 2005.

In terms of the spirit，I always hope that there could be some change. The Taoist concept seeks after treasured artwork, and especially there appears a mood of peace, quietness, desolation and loneliness in the mountain-and-water painting since the Yuan Dynasty. I hope there could be something more mascular and vigorous. Of course, all these are attacked by the contemporariness of paintings.

Paintings on the Urban Theme

China’s painting education at university basically focuses on portrait, and this made me also concentrate myself on portrait painting for quite a long time. My favorite western painters, like Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Poussin, David and Ingres, are all portrait painters. However, I haven’t attempted portrait painting because of I am a little bit confused about how to grasp the spirit of the contemporary people.

Due to the long-term impact of the socialist realism of the former USSR, almost all the official portrait paintings before 1990 are quasi-heroes. They look optimistic, noble and promising, yet they usually lack the authenticity of real life and independent personality deep inside. Later, in the 1990s, there started an anti-official trend in the portrait painting that objects to the quasi-hero style and is presented in either the bored figures (like Liu Xiaodong’s) or the floppy-style ones (like Fang Lijun’s).

No matter quasi-hero or floppy-style, these figures are not my desired ones for spirit presentation. But I have no better way to solve it. Hence, I faced the dilemma that on the one hand I want to do portrait painting, yet on the other hand, I do not know how to express it.

In 2006 when I grew matured in lotus painting, I thought I must work on portrait painting. After the initial attempts on several pieces of classical portrait painting, I began to seek for breaking the inner peace and calmness of my characters and shift the focus on the desire for material wealth and the tragedy of urban citizens.

Since the Han Dynasty of 2000 years ago, Chinese men-of letters have been making use of all art forms to express human beings’ conflicting feelings towards city. On the one hand, they cannot give up desire for material wealth in the city, and on the other hand, they yearn for the peace in soul outside the hubbub of the city. Particularly for the young people, even though as famous as Tao Yuanming and Deng Banqiao, it is very difficult to quench the thirst for city attractions. Yet, behind the glory of the prosperous city, there is always a smell of isolated loneliness and helplessness. This is the tragedy of both the urban citizens and the human beings.

I am trying my best to lay out in my painting the temptation and thirst for material wealth in the city. That feeling of isolated loneliness is always there over the whole painting, sadly beautiful and helpless, reflecting the tragic nature of urban citizens.

As previously mentioned, my portrait painting on urban citizen, lotus and un-finished mountain-and-water painting serial are actually something as an organic whole. They follow the living principle of Chinese traditional men-of-letters. For the portrait painting, they present Confucians living in the city while for the lotus and mountain-and-water painting, they stand for the desire of living in the mountain and forest as a Taoist. Confucians prefer a positive and enterprising attitude. But behind this spirit of encouraging and active efforts, it cannot be denied that the driving force lies in the hunting for material enjoyment. The prosperity of the city is built on the thirst for material wealth and personal enjoyment. However, as for the individual person, as there is never an end for desire, no matter the desire prevails or not, the tragedy is already there. In addition, it is worth noticing that we must recognize the positive effect of desire, as it is the driving force of civilization and also the root of life.

One of the characteristics of Chinese culture is that it seeks for harmony. This refers to choose the both sides of contradiction simultaneously, and then try to harmonize them. In the opinion of Chinese people, the Materialistic Confucians and the Platonic Taoist do co-exist. Taoist thinking keeps balance of Confucian ideology. My painting on lotus is always based on Taoist thinking. And I will continue this serial, as it may balance my portrait painting on urban theme for ever.

Hao Qing