With Seeking Inspiration in Snow, Chanting alone in the Ancient Forest, Seeking a Bosom Friend in the Ravine, Violin and Sailing under the Moon, Guo abandons himself to nature. Guo was born in 1982 in Tianjin. Although he has been studying the western painting technique, he has deep scholar feelings. Just like his name, he seems to come from the ancient like a refined scholar, and paints what he yearns for and thinks in the neverland, mountains, rivers and woods and looks for a quiet life; he also, with mild and indirect expressions of Chinese scholars, thinks and asks, in the fast developing and more and more confused society, whether we can hold a persistent and self-contained attitude and find the ideal without losing the direction just like the ancestors or not. In the hot summer, Asia Art Center (Beijing) will hold a solo exhibition for Guo and invite you to start the relaxed and happy journey of mountains and rivers.

After graduating from the Department of Oil Paintings of Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts in 2005, Guo continued to think about the “tradition and modernity” in the graduation creation, combining the western technique and Chinese mountains and rivers to create many interesting mountain and river oil paintings, just like the land of idyllic beauty which he yearns for but fails to find in the Peach- Blossom Spring by Tao Yuanming in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In Guo’s pieces, the vivid and bright pink is always the subject color. The pink mountains and forests and rippling green water form a strong visual impact. Such vivid pink becomes a symbol and characteristic of early-stage pieces by Guo. Figures with modern characteristics are always in pink mountains and green water: happy tourists, bathed naked women, Cupid of goddess of love with bows and arrows, ships and vessels with flags, soldiers moving forward and so on. The strong and direct contrast is an interesting and absurd scene, seems to describe the contrast between the yearning in the inner heat and the reality, and also to introspect on the living environment around.

In 2011, Guo left Beijing, where he lived for 2 years, and went back to Tianjin to continue his creation. Guo lives a realistic life like a hermit in the city. His creation attitude is steadier and surer compared with that before. Getting rid of the fickleness in the early stage, he found the “seclusion” in the spirit better than that before. He changes the former subject color of pink mountains and green water to the peaceful blue and green. With distinctive levels and remote artistic conception, it is more like wonderful scenery in the fairy tale. Modern elements in the painting are reduced and mountains and rivers as painted by Guo are purer and more meticulous, being attractive: blue hills and green rivers, murmuring spring water, ancient woods, withered branches, rugged mountains and stones decorating each other; and shadow of bamboo, wind and the bright moon highlighting each other. As what Guo Xi wrote in Linquan Gaozhi , a painter in the Northern Song Dynasty, “without truly lodging in the mountains and forests, we can wander in the scenery and be cultivated by the artistic conception of mountains and rivers with the help of good paintings.” Creation is just like cultivation. In Guo’s new works, there is less contrast a few years ago. He seems to blend the combination of the western technique and Chinese mountains and rivers with the soft strength, reducing the deliberation and adding some feelings. Referring to the mountain and river paintings in the Song Dynasty, Guo learned the technique and characteristic of fine drawing, rigorous painting, rendering with ink layer by layer, which is imposing and peaceful. Although he uses oil colors, he can express it naturally with techniques by using the oil painting brush. the gradually changing sky color in the remote mountains and clouds seem to be reflected and the lines of deadwood and vines are just like fine brushwork and drawing. “Cun pencils” draw the three-dimensional sense of valleys, paths, lake shores and rocks and the application of white space adds more artistic conception of mountains and rivers. At the same time, he applies the thickness of oil paintings and shows the vivid form that running water splashes -the combination of ancient and modern techniques is flexible, changeable, subtle and natural. Applying for the perspective principle of western paintings, Guo vividly draws the scenery without being limited. He makes use of clouds, fog, remote mountains and water surface, and shows the broad artistic realm that mountain and river paintings render through the multi-spot perspective as well as the mountain and river essentials that are the same as paintings in the Song Dynasty.

Expression of emotions is more and more obvious in Guo’s new pieces. In the paintings, the description of time and seasons is clearer and more specific. Morning bells and evening drums and spring and autumn bring changes to colors and make the emotions and atmosphere more appropriate. Thoughts of the artist are no longer impulsive or direct but become the feelings wandering in mountains, rivers and the space. Taking Sunset in Late Autumn as the example, there is a mountain in the distance and more landscapes are hidden in the mellow and beautiful autumn light. Guo creates the sense of setting sun shining in the painting only with light yellow, white and blue. It seems that the sika deer in the distance is also plated with the mild gold outline in the autumn light. Although there is gurgling and running water, it is still quiet. It seems that in the sunset in late autumn, the sound of running water can be heard, showing a quiet atmosphere. No matter the sika deer strolling in the autumn light and mountains, white horse standing on the canoe or the hermit in the woods who is like the artist, in the new works, Guo still carefully describes figures and things with the means of realistic description. Assimilating himself or making analogy to persons of virtue and hermits, they are looking for inspiration, bosom friends or way out with an exploring attitude in the quiet mountains and rivers of lands of idyllic beauty.

As one of the post-1980s generation, Guo is just thirty years old and has become very steady and quiet. The ancient people lodge in mountains and river and express what they think through materials. For Guo, the mountain and river painting works not only show his yearning for the state that ancient gentlemen and hermits are open-minded and are free from common customs and regulations, and yearning for the life in land of idyllic beauty in his inner heart, but also his introspection and doubt towards the deficiency of the spiritual belief in the modern society. The ancient and modern times, the traditions and modernity, the reality and dreams co-exist at the same time without a reason, which are sensitive thoughts to the real environment and become the incessant source of his originalities. He never stops thinking, recording or inquiring. He yearns for it and is also devoted to it.