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  Ciao Amore

  2021.12.25 - 2022. 2.20

Curator: Zhou Tong

Venue: D06, Middle 2nd St., 798 Art Zone, No. 2 Jiuxianqiao Rd, BJ

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Tong Gallery+Projects is honored to announce that the solo exhibition of artist MENG DEYU Ciao Amore will be open from December 25th, 2021 to February 20th, 2022, during which the artist's latest paintings will be presented. Look forward to seeing you there!

Drawing is the Saviour 

By Zhou Tong

Progress can only be made by nature, by contact with nature, with the eyes. As you observe and paint, the eye becomes focused. I mean: no matter an orange, an apple, a bowl, or a human head, there is a high point closest to the human eye, which has a strong light and shade effect and color perception, and the edge line of these objects extends toward the center of our eye level. If you have this kind of temperament, you can be a painter. As a painter and colorist, even if he is not very sophisticated in creating harmony, he can draw a good picture. Of course, he has to have a sense of art that the merchant hates. Then, that institutions, perks, honors are only for the satisfaction of idiots, rascals, and scoundrels. Don't be an art critic. Paint. Only paint can save you.

/ Cezanne to Pierre Bonnard, Aix, 25 July 1904

Cezanne‘s letter has one of the most important secrets, which is exercising the heart to watch, to match the union of external things. From a known reference translation, of course, it is difficult to catch the point. Therefore, only based on language comprehension in Cezanne, and reoccupy appear a statement expressing, can have a little bit closer to a thing or two. From this point of view, it's not just the words that move you and me, but the understanding above.

When modernism came to Cezanne, it was like a big river turning into a big bay, and the heart became dominant and the subjective torrent flowed away. Today, art even have replaced reality. Objects and landscapes have been replaced by dimensions created in the mind, and nature has become rare. Fortunately, China has just finished industrialization, and some people still have a natural affinity for nature. Meng Deyu is one of them.

Mr. Meng was born in the northeast of Anshan, on soil in him with a peculiar guileless. His love of painting and intelligence let him admit to the affiliated high school of central beauty. These experiences, however, did not make him arrogant. At the time of the college entrance examination, he was confused by the domestic art education in China. When he knew a friend who applied academy of fine arts in Florence, Italy, he decided to follow him.

As the birthplace of classical oil painting, the peninsula has a tradition of ancient Greek Rome. In the eight years of learning, he kept exploring with his highly respected professors. He understood the essence of the whole of the western classical paintings and particularly studied Cezanne to cubism, the origin, and the path of modern art. It can be said that for practice and training of cubism, few artists have come close in China.

Cubism is from Cezanne, that is, deconstructing and reconstructing the world. The most important is, not only is there no fragmentation, but the line of deconstruction, block, and stereo, which can become and be used to understand the image consciousness. Cezanne’s works are unprecedented but attract countless followers. Meng is one of them.

Everyone has their own interpretation of cubism and Cezanne. And Meng Deyu also has his own ideas. But he does not stop trying. In his recent works, he rearranged the perspective of looking up from the whole set of studies in the past and pulls back to the relationship between self, mask and object. Here's what he wrote to me:

These days I am trying to plant some kind of plants in the landscape. In summer, birds would come to eat seeds. Ancient people would also do these kinds of things, like making some masks to scare birds from eating seeds of crops. So am I in modern society. And in ancient China, masks were also a symbol of power. Because the farmer is the most basic class. And the mask is the connection of the top class of interconnected power and the most fundamental class. In a historical view, the appearance of the mask, like color, is changing from time to time with the change of the social structure. But the mask remains all the time with migrations of birds and human beings.

Through this passage, I gradually deepened the understanding of his creation. Even if the mask in the picture is not obvious, but still can see how to break through the past hinder his watch that layer of estrangement. Which is what Cezanne said, is to return to watch itself, and the breakthrough of the method. In Meng’s view, you can see a variety of structures and reappearance in his tries. The form of expression is abstract expressionism of course. But the most important concept is the heart observing the world and the original existence of mutual knowledge, integration, harmony.

For abstract expressionism, too specific interpretation is unnecessary. The only way is to understand the artist itself. I am open and waiting for the meeting in the open of the exhibition to talk freely with you.