Preface
Wang Xinyou
As a representative of abstract artists in China, Liang Quan’s art achievements and accomplishments gained a lot of recognition from all walks of life. Ever since he returned from living aboard in the 1980s, he has been very active in the development of abstract art in China. From the earliest installations, mixed media paintings to the earliest abstract art education of China, he has made a generous contribution to Chinese contemporary art. With the current rise of reform in the modern art world, and after returning to simplicity, the art value of Liang Quan’s works will be more distinct when people regard abstractness as an honest way of art.
Liang Quan’s art achievement is closely linked with his character. After being his friend for many years, he has given me a deep impression that he is a true gentleman and holds himself aloof from the world. Regardless of the art movement being in full swing or at slow decline, he led a private life in Shenzhen, where it is also well-known to be a "cultural desert". He completes his daily work in a study, situated near a lake and surrounded by mountains. Gray colored areas and tea leaves are true reflections of his inner self manifested in his art life.
After nearly two years of preparation, Professor Liang Quan's solo exhibition finally opened at PIFO New Art Gallery. As a junior in the art community, it is my honor to hold his exhibition at PIFO New Art Gallery. I would like to take this opportunity to convey my respect for Mr. Liang Quan.
April 15, 2011
Artist's Statement
Liang Quan
The philosophy of Zen Buddhism has been weakly reflected in modern fine art. Enthusiasm and indifference are all illusionary. When things disappear into non-existence, this is a status of Zen. I have been calling myself a disciple of Zen but I did not prove it in my works until recent years. When I look back at the works of mine over the past ten years, I find old memories so flimsy that they seem unreal. Those colorful structures and youthful passion look as if they are not mine. I have moved on to another stage of my life, giving up the careful “fullness” in painting. Instead, “emptiness” (sunata) is the core of my pursuit. It is a peaceful change in my life and I am calm to it. I even do not have any special feeling about it. To present “emptiness” in paintings seems to be easy but also difficult at the same time. “Emptiness” means something else other than that in the literati paintings, in which “emptiness” is used to express “fullness.” However, what should be done if one simply wants to express “emptiness” itself? It is definitely not without a stroke. But if one paints, where should one put a stroke? As a stroke is done, “emptiness” will be absolutely gone at once. There should not be any difference between drawing a stroke or not. Otherwise, the whole meaning will become an illusion.
I had been worried about the resolution of “emptiness” for a pretty long period of time. Time flew as I was cudgeling my brain and gradually changing my style. I started thinking deeply about Buddhism. This condition persisted until one day when I took a walk along a river bank. I saw a wilderness where grasses were growing disorderly. I stared at them for a while and found that they looked like something as well as nothing. Suddenly, some ideas came to my mind. Although these are flickering ideas, I was sure about the general picture as a whole. I did not need to bother about the details. The bank was adorned with green. Willows and new grasses were dancing in the breeze. These grasses were swaying gently. They looked so fresh, so fragile, and so trivial. Being trivial, the grasses were charming. At least, they were growing for themselves. I looked at a slim Semen Plantaginis in the mass. I could not see its blades and spikes clearly from a distance. I stared at it for a half minute and then moved to other plants. Just then, I could no longer identify that Semen Plataginis in the mass. The world is delicate and real but everything seems so trivial.
As a matter of fact, the world does not have to be meaningful. However, it is definitely delicate and real. . .
The actual effects are counteracted by the delicate and fine details. As a result, the whole picture is empty. This may be a possible method to realize “emptiness.” “Fullness” is always expressed by “emptiness” in the literati paintings. Using the same logic in a reverse manner, “emptiness” can be expressed by “fullness” if proper way is employed. The little grasses are standing naturally in the wilderness. They do not have to be the models or rules for other grasses. Their existence in the crowded space does not bear any great significance. This is the original sense of the world: The trivial parts exist independently and there are not so many rules.
To realize “emptiness” with lots of details, those calm, irregular, and silent lines should not be too eye-catching. Then they will make themselves natural in the painting, expressing the peace of Zen.
On one hand, under a certain circumstance, fortuitous details are connected by a certain mechanism. This connection is generally considered as abstract. However, when the relationships between the lines are handled in a sophisticated way, they will become real substance that maintains balance. If a holistic mastery of these irregular and silent lines is achieved, these lines will form relationships in spatial structure. These relationships are the key to the maintenance of balance in painting. These relationships could be dynamic. When those finite and irregular details are put together, it is easy to leave imagination to people. In fact, this is an illusion of memory. Impression of infinity is produced by the simple repetition.
On the other hand, however, this approach to “emptiness” is not explicit. It would be better that it gives the impression that the artist has not done anything. There are rules for processing a piece of art. Nevertheless, as I explained earlier, there are not so many rules in the world. People will not follow the thoughts of the artist. The stronger the artist emphasizes the ideas and themes of his art works, the greater he manifests spiritual despotism. As a matter of fact, responses to art works spring spontaneously from individuals. Artists can only introduce their thoughts to their audience. They can never impose their thoughts on their audience.
Thirdly, the modern industrial society of superfluous and mass production will need a supplementary that is simple and minimal in the pursuit of spirituality. Shan Neng, a Buddhist master in South Song Dynasty said, “People are afraid of the heat of summer but I enjoy long summer days. As the breeze comes from the south, it cools down the temperature in the room.” When most people are chasing after the fad of being outstanding and gorgeous, it is a responsible attitude towards the world, the history and oneself to insist on a simple style: To stay with silence, anonymity, and tranquility; and to remind oneself frequently not to worry about the chaotic world and fame.
In short, the expression of “emptiness” is achieved by the “lack of rules” of the art work and the “lack of doing” of the artist. Here, I come to a satisfactory cycle of my soul searching. In front of this endless and mysterious world, I do not struggle. I only submit myself to it.
These trivial lines seem meaningless when separated. However, once they are put together without rules, the painting is completed. The “richness” and “emptiness” come to an agreement. Triviality is not different from splendor. To achieve “emptiness” has profoundly changed my attitude towards life. Personally, I consider it more important than the exploration of fine art. Actually both of them are just the two sides of the same coin. In these days, I have learnt to take a walk outdoors everyday as the elderly in the park on river bank. I do some physical exercises to my waist and legs that are not yet rigid but sure to be so in the near future. Sometimes, I sit under trees quietly, thinking about nothing. I am calm because I have already given up deep thoughts and I am just sitting there. My mind is sometimes empty and sometimes full of endless ideas. These ideas come and go like wind, having nothing to do with one another. They are only broken pieces of memory from the past. The appearance and disappearance of these disordered broken memories produce an image of disordered and chaotic numbers. In one second, I may think of one day long long ago. Nothing happened on that day and the memory concerned disappears soon before the arrival of the memory of another day. It is worthy to mention that the memories of these two days are not successive. It is not the matter of “tomorrow” or “yesterday.” I do not know the order of these two days and how long is the time between them. I cannot find out the relation between them. As for the second day, nothing happened as well.
My art works is moving on in this endless chaos but I feel good about it. I am waiting, thinking, thinking, and waiting. I am anxious and I cannot think of any question. Perhaps all questions are resolved already, or perhaps there is no question at all. I am pleased in this irregular, delicate, and real world. I content myself with tranquility and the lack of ambitious plan: I do nothing.
Abstractļ¼¨Minimalismļ¼¨Poetics
Huang Du
Liang Quan is one of the most outstanding abstract artists in China. He formed his own personal style in the process of creation and could be considered the most important artist of contemporary abstract paintings in China today. His name has appeared widely in History of Chinese Contemporary Art and Documentary Exhibitions of Chinese Contemporary Art. Meanwhile, his ink paintings are widely known for being abstract, its minimalism, poetic language and style.
Tracing back to Liang Quan’s painting, we can identify that his earlier style was influenced during the 15 years he was living in Shenzhen, after returning to China from aboard. Colored collage and the usage of abstract figures are the style of Liang Quan’s paintings. His paintings gave us a new impression when China had just reformed and began opening up. Colored areas and irregular papers generate various effects on the painting, which then reappear and the pictures integrated by its original intention and modern brilliance, and a metaphor of a wild and vast view. An earlier work, which was collected by the artist himself, used a poetic calligraphy similar to Su Dongpo’s poem “drinking at the lake in sunny and later rainy weather.” It contained paint on a colored base to give us a feeling of vicissitudes. The most brilliant point of this work is a wine jar painted by the artist. At the colored base of the wine jar, a vague image of an animal is painted to renew the plane painting, which enriches the content of form greatly. This process is so bold and advanced in the current art field of China. In addition, this work was regarded as the first “installation” in the history of Chinese contemporary art by critics. In 1984, China Art Weekly chose this work as the cover of its initial issue. Therefore, the success of his work is self-evident.
After 10 years of teaching at Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (currently called China Academy of Art), Liang Quan left Hangzhou where he lived for many years, and chose Shenzhen to be his new base. The reason why he chose to live there may be in effort to pursue tranquility in his creations. He resided in a turret by a reservoir, located northwest of the mountains in Shenzhen. There was a blue pool in the mountain and his room was surrounded by vast and endless mountains. He did a lot of reading and contemplating and painted his works in this beautiful environment.
Living in Shenzhen is the second phase of Liang Quan’s art creation. He began to explore a new painting language. He discovered a variety of tea, traditional Chinese medicine and coffee which can leave traces on paper and later studying their relationship by observing their color and dying traces on rice paper. In repeated experiments, he finally found a painting method using a non-colorant to paint, such as his earlier work “Tea and Coffee” and some other works painted by traditional Chinese medicine.
He pays detailed attention to the cultural background of these materials, so he chose the idea of a non-colorant to paint. He regards tea as a symbol to represent Chinese culture. Even more, Liang Quan is a tea connoisseur in behavior. His unique understanding of tea combines sado with art. In his opinion, tea and art are interrelated. Liang Quan’s combination of sado with art reflects some pure spiritual status of Zen.
To pair with the tea point series, the collage with gray strips series is a continuance of his plentiful color style. Based on similar techniques, he uses single and subtle ink instead of the previous colorful color, uses cutting strips with different widths instead of previous handmade paper. Hues with more than one color could not be found in any paintings in works during this period. Minimalism and refinement was the main-stream language in the period of rationality. His works are highly appraised by art fields, domestic and abroad.
Liang Quan has already used a simple poem to parallelize his art style:
Clear,
Lofty,
Pure,
Marginal,
Meditated,
Peaceful,
Humble,
Moral,
Concentrated,
Simple,
Accumulated,
Affordable,
Feeble,
Restructured,
Varied,
Ordered,
Honest.”(Recorded on March 10th, 2003)
Liang Quan regains his interest in traditional Chinese culture when he became a middle-aged man. First, he began to study tea and then the study of traditional Chinese medical science to Zen. During this period, he integrated the living state, physical state and mental state together to form a set. All of them are fully reflective in his works.
Liang Quan’s works have appeared in the most important exhibitions and catalogues in China, hence we can see that the contemporary art field paid much attention to his works. Liang Quan’s solo exhibition held at PIFO New Art Gallery can be regarded as the most important exhibition within the recent ten years. The reason why Liang Quan chose PIFO New Art Gallery as his partner is because PIFO makes tremendous efforts in promoting and developing abstract art in China, which also indicates that they have similar appreciations for painting aesthetics.
The simple and unadorned art experience of Liang Quan represents an ideal of times and an independent innovation, which is so precious.
April 17, 2011
