Jingting Mountain

2018.3.16-4.21

Artists｜Chen Duxi, Dong Dawei, Li Zhanhao

Duration｜Mar 16 - Apr 21, 2018

Venue｜Tong Gallery+Projects, D06 Main 2nd Street,798 Art Zone, No. 2 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing

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Today's contemporary art in China is a fusion and co construction of diverse cultural contexts under the influence of international trend art, which has an impact on the inherent "artistic tradition". At the beginning of the new century, many young artists who have studied in Europe and America have returned to China, using their own artistic practices to rejuvenate Western trend ideas and avant-garde concepts in the local context. Together with local art practitioners, they are promoting and influencing the progress of China's current humanistic and artistic thinking.

Easterners have always been good at using calligraphy and painting to express their heartfelt feelings. This literati's elegance has accumulated a completely different aesthetic concept from Western art through thousands of years of artistic practice in China. Today's understanding of "traditional art" has become a diverse flavor in the contemporary context, and tradition has been transformed and developed in contemporary consciousness.

I first met Du Xi, and in a corner of his house, I held onto the tradition of being a disciple from the past, using the knowledge of contemporary people to cultivate myself. His artistic creations mainly focus on traditional silk painting, and the themes of his paintings continue the aesthetic habits of Chinese literati. He is good at using lines to depict the vast water waves and the realm of mountains, rocks, and caves, and Fu uses "shallow descent" to render. Its use of lines combines the brush and ink skills of Ma Yuan from the Song Dynasty's "Water Painting" and Hu Tinghui from the Yuan Dynasty's "Spring Mountain Boat Painting". It also reveals the exquisite color scheme of the Ming Dynasty's "Wu Zhuang" landscape, demonstrating the extraordinary skill of Jigu. He draws inspiration from the past and transforms it, not bound by it, creating a unique visual language. It is not easy for Chen Duxi, who adheres to traditional art, to fully appreciate the humanistic care and temporal and spatial concepts of contemporary people from the beauty of form and the fun of writing in his works. Today, Chen Duxi has become increasingly vibrant as he draws inspiration from ancient Chinese brush and ink, transports the hills and valleys of the Song and Yuan dynasties, and comprehends the current human body.

Dong Dawei's studio is a small laboratory for color cultivation. The experimental "color body" in his artistic works is different from the new direction of Pop art pointed out by Richter's "chromatography series". Its difference lies in the fact that humans do not directly intervene in the emotional function in painting, but rather interact with the physical properties of materials as the subject, naturally generating standardized and quantified bodies. The subtle changes in its color contain visual energy points in the rational and restrained structural relationship. This series of artistic creations not only reflects Dong Dawei's keen talent for color application, but also reflects his conceptual exploration of painting art creation. What left a deep impression on him was his color powder painting works, and the generation of his works was like a poetic act. Under the influence of the act, the color powder extended into a multidimensional space - the process of generation was like a rainbow. This poetic extension endows painting with clear temporal, spatial, and behavioral attributes, making it of extraordinary significance.

Dong Dawei's artistic creation maintains a conceptual balance with the traditional way of painting. Without style, one may develop a style, while avoiding emotions can stimulate them. It is precisely because of this that he has given us a new understanding of painting art.

Li Zhanhao's works are mostly visually mechanical and indifferent, while their production is rational and complex. He achieves his understanding of painting through the use of techniques and aesthetics. In his works, you can feel the confrontation between time and mind.

He completed it through temporal precipitation with a scientific rational temperament and trace method. Through the passage or fermentation of time, relying on intensive labor like cultivation, he interprets time itself, and time becomes the positive theme of painting, which may contain helplessness, sadness, or contentment. As a result, his works have developed a special meditative temperament and credibility in terms of integrity. In his paintings, the deliberate use of linear blank spaces becomes a visual awareness of the background; The dense lead strokes of the work have a humanistic tone that can directly describe the characteristics of the post industrial era. The screen is restrained yet not losing its luster, very close to the metallic radiance of early human civilization - the Iron Age, with a low-key emotional development, which is in line with the demand of contemporary aesthetics returning to monochrome.

This kind of manual labor with a trace like temperament brings the restless daily life of the artist back to tranquility. It is precisely this deep-seated emotional appeal that fills him with the original intention of artistic ideals."Jingting Mountain" originates from a five character quatrain by the great poet Li Bai. The poet personifies Jingting Mountain and depicts the loneliness of artistic life, while also moving forward with self-reliance; Shi Tao lived in Jingting Mountain in southern Anhui for 15 years, where he borrowed the past to open up the present and learned from my teachings. Although Dong Dawei, Chen Duxi, and Li Zhanhao have different artistic styles, they have had a mutually encouraging artistic singing experience through the "Jingting Mountain".

Text | Li Zhanhao

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