"Year after year I paint tirelessly with only one goal - to present to people my own handwriting, and that is my secret. What makes a painting special is neither its title nor the image itself; it’s the enchanted personality, and the fascination of painting lies in the process of conceiving and recording your personal view. What I have been trying to present in my art works, if I have to put it in words, is 'preaching to myself - by myself'."
-Ye Yongqing 2012
As Shanghai welcomes the warm sunshine of Spring, Longmen Art Projects, located in Sinan Mansions, will launch a highly anticipated exhibition for the world-renowned artist Ye Yongqing. Sparrow God Funky Bird – Ye Yongqing 2012 will be the first solo exhibition of 2012 for both the artist and Longmen Art Projects. The show features over 20 recent works by the artist. Though parts of the exhibition comprises of Bird themed works of recent years such as: Fly, Solo Flight, Marshland, Melancholy, there will also be new works which are inspired by traditional Chinese landscapes and literati motifs with birds and flowers, such as: Homage to Zhao Ji: Winter Sweet and Mountain, A Pair of Birds, Draw a Bird, and a 400 x 150 cm landscape work, Homage to Wu Zhenlu: Wintery Plains. The show not only represents the closing of Ye Yongqing’s Draw a Bird series, which he has worked on for the past decade, but also sets the stage for the next stage in Ye Yongqing’s artistic career, as his expression evolves into a more astute and peculiar fashion.
Sparrow God Funky Bird – Ye Yongqing 2012 will be on exhibit from March 4 to May 31, 2012.
“Sparrow God Funky Bird” is slang from the Yunnan province. It is used to describe someone who is quite eccentric in his or her temperament, and treats ordinary things in an extraordinary, odd, and peculiar way. As the title for this exhibition, it is intended to illustrate the continual impact of Yunnan – the birthplace of the artist; and also it can describe Ye Yongqing’s unique spiritual perspective on life.
The famous art historian, contemporary art and cultural critic, and curator Gao Qianhui has said: Ye Yongqing’s bird portrait series is becoming a recognized symbol in Chinese contemporary painting circles. We can clearly see that he was enlightened by Western modernism and influenced by street graffiti, and finally he found his own way of expression. It may seem simple but it took him a long time getting there.
The liberty of expressionism, the deconstruction and collage of cubism, the pace of futurism, modern objects collage and doodle of Dadaism, conception and deconstruction of post-modernism all became Ye Yongqing’s Western “diet”. As such, the seed of Ye Yongqing’s birds is a variation of Chinese literati art, but what irrigates the seed is the spring of Western modernism. I don’t know how exactly Ye Yongqing found it, but I do know how intriguing it is.
Ye Yongqing spent most of the past 10 years painting flowers and birds. However, his focus lies not on painting birds, but rather on expressing his impressions on the ambiguity of what is Contemporary and what is Chinese. It is also an expression of his mind, and his charm. Creating that familiar spacial void of traditional Chinese ink and wash paintings, but in a modern minimalist style, through seemingly rational yet emotional brushstrokes. This method, which is purely intentional, uses the meticulous scribbling of traditional Chinese brushwork to render a simple line; creates a seemingly accidental image resembling doodles or casual sketches. Ye Yongqing has described his intentions and inspiration: “Year after year I paint tirelessly with only one goal - to present to people my own handwriting, and that is my secret. What makes a painting special is neither its title nor the image itself; it’s the enchanted personality, and the fascination of painting lies in the process of conceiving and recording your personal view. What I have been trying to present in my art works, if I have to put it in words, is ‘preaching to myself - by myself’”.
It is precisely this contradictory and eccentric artistic expression that places the artist as an avant-garde, mesmerizing the art world over the past few decades, and continuously generates debate and praise. Across the country, many of the top art critics have all delved into the subject and written countless dissertations to disseminate and explore the topic with their own ideas and perspectives. Sparrow God Funky Bird – Ye Yongqing 2012 promises to provide another platform for the masses to further exchange their impressions.
