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Lvxiao 2009 No.2 (2009) by WEN Ling
76 x 55 cm
Acrylic & marker on canvas

The Paintings of Flesh- Wen Ling’s Paintings
Huang Liaoyuan

Wen Ling is the craziest kind in all the crazy artists, but you can never tell from his appearance. He is handsome, refined, and a man of integrity.
Wen Ling’s craziness only exists in his paintings and photography, and his practice of painting and photography. Hereby I will only talk about paintings. Wen Ling’s paintings certainly have something to do with cartoons, but I feel more like his paintings have some inner relationships with germen art.

Wen Ling uses big and rough lines for his paintings. Lines are the main expression for his art. Those refined thick or thin lines can simply describe human beings and animals, different but even better than graffiti. Those lines are euphemistic and generous. They are like stretchy rubbers which have contained the passion and confusion of youth. Those lines also have face expressions, they are either like crying, singing, or they are like a young boy playing a guitar, as Wen Ling himself. Those lines are Wen Ling’s inner fireworks, they are burning in silence. I am obsessed with Wen Ling’s lines, because they can tell me his feeling and emotions.

Wen Ling’s paintings are colorful; one color implicates one condition, one possibility, and one attitude. Some colors are excessively decorated; they are colors deep from his heart, looking very unnatural. All of Wen Ling’s colors are bright, seeming that he wants to express the bright side of his life, or his cruel youth. All Wen Ling’s creations of art have something to do with youth; Wen Ling would paint them, no matter how many colors his youth has. Colors are Wen Ling’s surface of lake; no matter windy, rainy, cloudy, or sunny, can always inspire Wen Ling’s spring pond.
Wen ling’s paintings are extraverted and introverted. Extraverted descriptions are lovely and innocent, like relations of a family. Introverted descriptions are depressing and painful, which seem like there are so much he wants to express. Those mother-like giants can show Wen Ling’s maternal obsession and slight exclusion to females, perhaps more likely are the aspirations to older females. Wen Ling said he has always been fantasizing females deep in his heart, especially those females who are older than himself. Although those desires are all involved and mixed with sex, they are also innocent, a concept of family, moreover, they all have boundaries. You may easily see through his heart by the appearance of Wen Ling’s paintings. This introversion of Wen Ling is not subtle, and even sharp, can even hurt people; therefore, you don’t have to go particularly deeper to feel it by yourself. 

Wen Ling’s paintings have souls, and that is another reason I think his paintings have relations with Germen art. While Wen Ling is painting, he is also testing, challenging, and purifying his soul. He repeatedly portrayed the image of his dreams, and those images have been haunting him, and he can’t get rid of them. Therefore, he tried his best using up all his energy to paint. He has spent a lot of time on this image, but he still finds that deep in his soul, there are things endless emerge, which can never be completely expressed. Wen Ling said he can’t stop painting this image, though his soul could not have been tortured more. However, constantly painting could ease his pain, even make him feel happier. That may not be consideration of history, but it is indeed tortures to his own souls, which we can easily feel by looking at his works. The exploration of inner world is what Chinese contemporary art is lacking now; our art at this moment seems to be better at generalization and simple description of macro-world.
Obviously what we can see from Wen ling’s paintings are flesh, weird emotions and twisted desires. Wen Ling’s works are naked, oriental, and weak, the flesh is like a river, curly, stretchy, and full of lives. Wen Ling’s flesh is also spiritual, those non-spiritual flesh and fleshy spirit are born from one origin, non-spiritual, non-healthy, and non-motivated, but genuine, intimate, and warm. Defining Wen Ling’s paintings as Flesh Paintings should certainly be one compliment to his art.

It is truly my honor to introduce the special Wen Ling, and Wen Ling’s special art to everyone.

 

 


 

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