Wang Tian Liang’s Art – Expression of the Chinese aesthetic sensitivity and spirituality
Shin Hang Seop (Art Critic)
The boundary between genres has become blurred in contemporary art. Therefore, it is meaningless to find traditional aesthetics in contemporary art that permits infinite freedom of expression. It is because contemporary art is infinitely multiplying by developing various materials and unique ways of expressions. Nobody knows for sure when these trends will stop. However, one thing that is concerning in contemporary art is the neglect or indifference to traditional values. Although art creation is to pursue the unprecedented world, newness is not always everything. Despite the fact that rich aesthetic achievement and attitude found in traditional beauty are still ‘contemporary’, it is truly unfortunate to ignore them.
Wang Tian Liang declares new challenge to an abstract world considered dead at the end of 20th century. Challenge to the abstract world may be a backward move against the current trends from the viewpoint of new and diverse contemporary art. However, abstract art may be considered a new trending genre for the Chinese art after reform and opening. It is because China has had very little experience in abstract art for the last 50 years. Hence, although it might be trite in the global contemporary art trend, the experience in abstract art should not be overlooked by the Chinese art. Albeit a small number, individual artists who are curious about abstract art exist. Nevertheless, I have to say their achievements are not remarkable yet.
Under these circumstances, the presence of Wang Tian Liang is special. His work is abstract, but it is different from the Western automatism that depends on subconscious or unconscious. Abstract images that he presents are neither a product of coincidence, nor an improvised world elicited by instant emotional agitation at all. Indeed, I cannot say that the visually rich and diverse images are all drawn out by thoroughly controlled aesthetic sense. It is because subtle color harmony and free flowing lines are clearly oriented to a certain boundary beyond the control of aesthetic sense.
However, in subtle color and free flowing lines exists internal order that is not easily revealed outward. Particularly, a certain regularity and rhythm exist in free flowing lines. Therefore, they are led by a unified sense, which is different from overuse of free touches or disorderly freedom. The unified sense controls the overall balance and is aware of harmonic proportions. Thus, an assumption that lines looking free may be physically constituted is possible. This is not unrelated to the fact that he has wide knowledge and long experience in not only painting but also calligraphy. Techniques of calligraphy rigorously taught by the old rule are the continuation as well as the foundation of painting. In other words, it may be assumed that free flowing lines originate from techniques of calligraphy. The fact that his early works include paintings in the calligraphy style using Chinese characters supports this assumption.
Now then, it can be seen that his abstract world is different from that of Western artists, and moreover where it originates from. In a word, his works provide important clues to the development of Chinese abstract painting. It is none other than the rediscovery of traditional values. He might want to demonstrate the concept of abstract does not necessarily exist exclusively in the West. Chinese characters, themselves hieroglyphics, are abstract. Chinese characters that have compressed specific shapes may be the origin of abstract. In fact, there has been a Western artist who won fame with calligraphy that transformed Chinese typefaces.
- in his works, we can always find lines highly resembling the strokes in Chinese characters. Robust lines as in hieroglyphs are reminiscent of ornamental writing (Jeonseo or Yeseo style) of Chinese characters. Furthermore, soft, flexible and speedy lines are similar to cursive characters (Choseo style). Thus, this proves the fact that his works are not the improvised expressions simply induced by the upsurge of aesthetic sense. These lines are seeking overall harmony and unification sometimes alone and other times together with other longer or shorter lines. In addition, shapes as a traditional value, or diverse forms of images reminiscent of ancient arts such as reliefs or bricks, epigraphs, bronze items and lacquerwares are put together. This suggests that his works are not purely abstract. It is because his works allow deduction of the shape of the existences read by eyes. The fact that shapes or flow of lines in each of his works can acquire diverse expressions is attributed to the endless imaginative power based on traditional arts.
Just like this, traditional culture, or traditional arts are the fountain of inspiration that is never dried. Subtle and harmonic, diverse colors found in his works may also have been stimulated by the colors of traditional arts with traces of long time. Curiosity and interest in discolored and decayed profound images are reflected directly in his works. Particularly, he realized the mystery of high spiritual worlds that can only be expressed by ink wash painting through deep ink wash technique readily employing all the chromatic colors. Black lines in his works requires a totally different aesthetic approach from the calligraphy of the Western contemporary painting. His works confirm that ink wash is not simply achromatic, which is claimed by the West. Ink wash has an introverted nature. Although its visual image is simple, it harbors a metaphor of a static, or silent world where the spirit resides. In other words, it connotes spiritual values beyond the visual boundary.
His works show such introverted nature of ink wash. Black color found not only in his actual ink wash work on paper but also in lacquer art has a mysterious element that the Western coloring material cannot express or reach. He has concentrated on understanding the essence of the abstract world and thus connecting this with Chinese traditional values through works using ink wash and colors for long time. In doing so, his abstract works have reached unique individual forms, and the individual formal space such as the abstract of flexible images or organic images originate from these. Clearly, his abstract works are quite different visually and emotionally from those of the Western artists. It is obviously because the connection to the Chinese traditional arts is evident in his achievements.
His recent art works are moving to lacquer art employing ottchil as a material from ink wash and colors on paper. Lacquer art is also one of the Chinese traditional arts with thousands of years of history. Hence, he has noted the possibility of various expressions possessed by new material, ottchil. He had learned traditional crafts during university years, and thus ottchil was not unfamiliar to him. Most of all, the task to lift up ottchil recognized as a craft material to the domain of fine art might have been very interesting and exciting. He must have thought that promoting a Chinese traditional art form into contemporary painting was a new noble task given to himself.
In short, he wanted to show that ottchil, a semi-permanent material, was departing from the traditional handicraft and moving into the domain of full contemporary painting. His lacquer art shows that all the technical problems related to use of materials have been overcome. In addition, it highlights the endless possibility of contemporary art as if it is the confirmation that the whole story is still not even remotely told. Coloring materials used along with ottchil are just shining dazzlingly. This makes us realize the beauty of new colors that cannot be imitated by the Western materials. Three elements, the material, ottchil, the colors responding to it, and light, combine to create the mystery of heaven’s color.
His diverse and profound abstract world has developed a new territory of forms through lacquer art. The abstract sense of ink wash and color created on the large screen has been recreated into splendid art. His sense of forms having overcome technical difficulties is free flowing. Making the screen curved to give a sense of a three dimensional space is also a part of the effort to show the true value of lacquer art. Reminiscence of the original form of lacquer art that used to decorate three dimensional objects may be a result of an attempt to demonstrate the diversity of the ways of expressions.
The completeness in terms of craft cannot be ignored in lacquer art. By increasing the technical difficulties, accuracy and precision of expressions may be expected, and through this, lacquer art’s own fine artistic sophistication can be obtained. Subtle nuance hidden or concealed in his works comes out of black color like an abyss that nobody knows the end of. Furthermore, the aesthetic pleasure felt when brilliant colors hidden in the solid material like the crystals of minerals creates sparkle upon colliding with light convinces us that it is a different aesthetic value that contemporary abstract art has not been able to discover yet.
Artisanal efforts, creative sense and passion for creation put himself in a higher world through a new genre called lacquer art. It is to put a new artistic value on top of the aesthetic achievements of abstract painting. Indeed. He presents a new perspective on traditional beauty by inheriting the innate personal sense and artisanal tradition that flows through the blood of Chinese people, and igniting his creativity there. In addition, he offers an opportunity to rediscover the value of rich Oriental abstract aesthetics by pushing the lacquer art, which had been trapped in a limited world of traditional crafts, into the center of contemporary art.
Successive creation and creative succession - Wang Tian Liang's journey to lacquer art
차오쓰광 Chao Si Kwan
Wang Tian Liang graduated from Fujian College of Art majoring in crafts and painting in 1985. The so-called craft painting refers to paintings produced using craft materials. These paintings have decorative characteristics due to the constraints of craft materials and practical functions. Thus, in some areas, craft painting is sometimes called decorative painting. These paintings with decorative characteristics are very similar to the mural paintings that I have majored in, and the composition of the curricula is much the same. Students should systematically take courses such as drawing, plain sketch, ink wash painting, colored ink wash painting, calligraphy, oil painting, and sculpture, and learn knowledge of the arts of painted earthenware, Bronze Age, and the time of Chu and Han dynasties. Systematic training and extensive artistic influence through such curriculum not only provide students with relatively solid painting skills but also deep knowledge of art. Therefore, students can deal with the Oriental painting and the Western painting, color drawing, ink wash color painting, theory and practice. Wang Tian Liang is a versatile artist who grew up in such an environment. He studied both art and history, and was especially good at calligraphy and ink wash. This knowledge background fostered his deep feelings for traditional Chinese art, determined his art patterns, and made his artistic characteristics of lacquer art full of colors of oriental culture.
In terms of creative substances, Wang Tian Liang is good at finding substances in traditional cultural symbols. Not only patterns in painted earthenware and decorated ceiling of Dunhuang, but also the elements of calligraphy including gapgol (inscriptions on bones and tortoise carapaces), jongjeong, jinjeon, hanye, wibi, and choseo (cursive style) are all renewed through his decomposition, transplantation, combination and mixture. All of his works, such as early modern decorative gakji and modern ink wash painting, later "Chilseo" series and "Yangsou" series, and recent "Daegi (Big Vessel)" series, are deeply rooted in Chinese traditional culture. Therefore, his works not only have a tradition of oriental culture, but also have a modern aesthetic taste.
In terms of the creative style, Wang Tian Liang followed and developed traditional abstract techniques. Abstract techniques, which are not the exclusive properties of the West, can be seen everywhere in traditional Chinese art. For example, Taihu stone in Chinese amusement park, which has the characteristics of Su, Lu, Chu and Tu, shows the nature of abstract sculpture. The wave pattern flowing like clouds of marble used as decoration in traditional furniture or display items are similar to Western abstract paintings. In traditional lacquer art, the ever-changing Byeon-do-mun-sik made of patterns with different heights using some natural objects or tools is also a representation of abstract techniques. These abstract techniques inspired Wang Tian Liang's creation, and his long practice of Chinese calligraphy and ink wash gradually gave his art abstract characteristics.
In terms of artistic expression, Wang Tian Liang chose lacquer art as his ultimate destination in art. Long ago, Wang Tian Liang already held exhibitions of modern decorative gakji and modern ink wash paintings. In his later artistic career, he constantly experimented with a variety of materials including porcelain, pottery, wood, soil, paper, metal, and stone in his creative work. With the deepening of experimental practice in creation and the maturation of artistic ideas, he has gradually become interested in the cultural characteristics of the materials themselves. And he realized that in artistic creation, the choice of theme and the changes in artistic characteristics all cannot depart from the specific aesthetic tendencies of materials affecting creation. Therefore, Wang Tian Liang did not turn back once having set his final goal as lacquer art, jumping into the sea of ottchil and having himself registered in an ottchil village. Fuzhou is a famous city of ottchil in China, and thus has a very rich tradition of the ottchil culture. Chen Xiaoan, in modern times, revived the traditional Chinese metamorphosis technique, and renewed the coloring technique which uses pigment made of gold and silver. And Li Zeuching has further developed and created a Byeon-do technique that produces many types of abstract patterns. In lacquer art, there are a variety of materials, abundant techniques and styles, and many themes. It is also a collection of vast cultures that combine two elements of mind and material, taking all the advantages of different arts. As it is high, deep, peaceful and profound, and able to contain a vast area of Chinese culture, there is an infinite potential for development in terms of culture.
In the creative aspect of lacquer art, Wang Tian Liang focuses on the three-dimensional form of ottchil. Fuzhou's lacquer tradition, on the one hand, has provided excellent environmental conditions for the development of the lacquerware owing to its rich heritage, but on the other hand, the development and maturity of traditional lacquer art have resulted in many rules within the industry. This conservative idea served as an obstacle to creativity. Therefore, some people see Wang Tian Liang as a representative of heresy against tradition. In the face of these obstacles and difficulties, Wang Tian Liang willingly began the creation of his own three dimensional lacquer sculpture. The concept of three dimensional lacquer sculpture was introduced from Japan, and back then, China was still at its beginning stage. Wang Tian Liang was one of few pioneers and explorers in this area. In fact, there was already a three-dimensional expression in traditional Chinese lacquer art. Examples include Jinmyosu (guarding animals) in the tomb of a man of the Chu dynasty and Buddha statues made using the dried-lacquer technique in Northern and Southern Dynasties and Sui dynasty, all of which were classified into the category of lacquerware and did not have their own names. If I name these, I think "Chilso" is the best. This is more obvious than the concept of three dimensional forms. It is just as we do not have to call the tea a drink. Wang Tian Liang's Chilso works, particularly his "Daegi" series, shows dignified and silent artistic effects based on the philosophy of "Dae-bang-mu-u, Dae-gi-man-seong, Dae-eum-hui-seong, and Dae-sang-mu-hyeong (A large square does not have corners, a great vessel is competed late, a loud sound cannot be heard and a big shape does not have a shape)" from Tao Te Ching. The works in this series have no excessive color on the surface and are black as a whole. This means that the artist has long contemplated the combination of traditional lacquer art and ink wash. In terms of techniques of forms, he adopted and used freely the traditional metamorphosis lacquerware technique. Therefore, Wang Tian Liang's works come in various forms, which show a vast spirit like the heaven and earth that appear in the lacquerware of Chu dynasty and Han Dynasty. Works may be combined in high and low, arranged by hanging, and displayed in a show window, which fits the aesthetic needs of modern society. The cultural meaning implied in these works transcends the category of pure painting and pure plastic arts. This adds the beauty of grandeur and magnanimousness to the sophistication and splendor that Fuzhou's metamorphosis lacquerware originally possessed. This is a new form of Chinese lacquer art, as well as the exploration and creation of modern lacquer art. This is a new achievement by Wang Tian Liang's successive creation and creative succession. One artist said, 'The tradition is 10,000 years old, and creation adds a year to this.' Such one more year added by Wang Tian Liang shall be integrated into tradition, which will become a new tradition. There is an old saying “By cherishing old knowledge, you learn new knowledge”. The artistic creation of Wang Tian Liang has been developed on the basis of the traditional lacquer art. As his works are water with its source, trees with roots, individualized continuation of traditional lacquer art, and the pioneering creation of modern lacquer art, they have a vitality at their prime.
Currently, Wang Tian Liang stands in the golden era of art creation. He is young and overly strong, like the sun high in the sky. I am expecting more and better works from him, and at the same time, hope he contributes more and more to the creative activities of the Chinese lacquer art ceaselessly.