Image, Symbol and Openness

Discussion of the Artist Liang Qun’s Oil Paintings

　　In the art of painting there is always the problem of the language of painting. Usually, one only needs to go through those years of art academy training, and can then - no matter whether in ancient times or now, whether in the East or in the West - get a grip on the language of painting technique, so painting an object, flowers, a scenery or story of course is not a problem. What is actually above the language of painting? We can arbitrarily say that painting techniques have already been displayed to the max by previous generations, so there is not much more to say about that. But we can see that the artists painting are still uncountable, they have by no means given up their own artistic dreams just because the technical discoveries are waning. So what again is the problem above the language of painting? When coming up with this problem again, let us have a look at the thoughts brought up by works of the artist Liang Qun.

　　The early works of Liang Qun, especially the oil paintings made in Dalian before coming to Beijing, basically take up the traditional ways of academism and exhibit her ease and ability in painting. Her artistic influence in Dalian is mostly based on (painting) language skills, she can absolutely be called one of the best painters of Dalian. This is a fact, just like the sensational effect that her exhibitions have on Dalian’s celebrities. But there is more to it.

天歌 / The Song of Sky 2012

　　This might almost sound as a dislike of her virtuosity, but it is rather about the biased artists of the Dalian region. In the nineties, Liang Qun and her husband got together with the Yuanmingyuan-artists and participated indirectly in the conceptual trend of contemporary art. They were living in a way of caring for each other and greatly influenced by nature, compared with works from different periods this is easy to see, especially in her establishment of an own style. Later she moved to Beijing and pitched a camp in the Songzhuang artist village, this all can illustrate that there is a problem above “language”. I believe this problem has violently occurred to many artists. Here, we have talked about the reality of art and the problem of existence of art.

混沌开启 / Opening of the Chaos 2012

　　In the reality of experience, aesthetics and painting have been integrated into each other for a long time, and at the same time they have confused the seeing and hearing. In the Western world, this can be understood as the myth of the aesthetics. In the Eastern world, especially the naturalistic depictions and attempts, it always has to do with the essence of the concept of man being an integral part of nature. Therefore, beauty has become a kind of ongoing attitude towards the relation between man and nature, just like the beauty of a flower still life, compared to the natural quality of man, can be understood but cannot be described. Real beauty cannot be described, man can only name the shape and properties of nature as the beauty of true goodness. So, the main purpose of painting is self-cultivation, no other than that. Being able to go along with the objects to compose a form, to attain natural beauty, that is judging a painter’s ability. Bluntly, this is also the reason why realism fundamentalists propagate their belief on a large scale.

　　However, as for self-conscious artists, the technical language of painting has never been a problem, let alone the problems above language. To see a mountain being a mountain, to see a mountain not being a mountain, and then again to see a mountain being a mountain, actually it is a matter of time and space, a matter of the attitude of an artist towards artistic life. When we try to understand the artist Liang Qun, we can immediately get into a dialogue with image, disposition and creative style and have some interaction. In art history, in former times, we can still visualize an artist by his or her works, if we could meet that artist we would certainly still be surprised, as the artist is creating a spiritual self, which also means an own independent spirit on top of the style. Liang Qun has achieved this, her clear-cut stand and individual style can show everybody that art is just as alive now.

　　Here, we need to say that when Liang Qun moved into Songzhuang, she also thoroughly got into her own spiritual world. She uses expressive big brush strokes, strong bright colours, exaggerating distorted freehand brushwork, depicting one abstract flower painting pulsing with passion after the other. In Liang Qun’s works, we can see how the naturalism of flower depictions turns into the open state of bold artistic expression, a symbolic and vivid as well as very interesting personal temperament. We cannot classify Liang Qun’s works as abstract art, although the open state of the flowers under her brush has the three-dimensional structure of artistic spirit and style. I still believe Liang Qun’s aesthetic attitude is one of expressing emotions identical with her life’s ideals, rather than a complete abstraction of style. The moods of her paintings originate in the expression of a metalingual poetry, the composition of her big brushwork is vague and still full of exciting emotional energy, at the same time it reminds the spectator that technique and realistic flowers reappearing cannot limit the fact anymore that art is becoming more and more open. So, in front of art’s reality, Liang Qun’s paintings represent a mode of existence of art changing its face.

　　It is as if Liang Qun’s paintings told us the basic logic of life, just like the natural spirit of flowers and the free poetic ideal that we are chasing after - the poetic beauty of nature has not been in a free form for a long time, but has always implied the free relation of image and symbol. In the separation of man and nature, at the same time that man’s independent personality has got the right to communicate with nature, humanity does not only exist within language and style because of this conscious separation. Therefore we can say that Liang Qun’s artistic attitude is paying respects to naturalism, it is an opening of the art forms of man towards the universe, of course this also includes passive suspicion of the intervention of art in society’s ability to progress.

At Songzhuang Artists Compound

January 2013