People on the Stage of Life —— Appreciation of Ink and Wash Works/Jia
Li Wang majored in printmaking, but his interest in different materials and media made him constantly try new things across borders. In fact, finding a suitable language method is a process that all painters have to go through, and it is not necessary to "stay together for life" after learning any major. Li Wang is an unwilling painter, and he has been looking for a suitable language. In the process of searching, ink painting finally became his resting place. His sensitivity and preference for this special material made him feel at home in this field, and he soon entered a smooth "expression" state.
The scenes presented by Li Wang's ink paintings are realistic, unrealistic and even surreal. The so-called "realism" means that its images all come from its own survival memory and are its real experience presentation; The so-called "unrealistic or surreal" means that his works are full of absurdity in time and space. The picture does not show the real scene, and the characters are different from those in the sky. His handling of space is arbitrary. Sometimes the figure is in the boat, sometimes in the water, sometimes floating in the sky, sometimes riding a tree, sometimes standing on his shoulders, or even standing on his head. The figures who appeared were not in the same historical period, but the "Republic of China" wearing robes and round glasses, but the popular Chinese tunic suit and liberation hat in the 1950s and 1960s. In particular, the image of necking and the slackness of handcuffs at the cuffs pulls us back to the past, or the experience of our parents. This is a typical attitude of the old people: wait and see, laziness, slowness, little action and inaction. The impressions of these people with a sense of the times seem to be randomly retrieved from the memory bank, and there is no strict time order. They all constitute a "lost era", a trace of time and a fragment of memory.
There are two symbolic movements in Li Wang's works, one is to raise your hand to guide, and the other is to overlook with a monocle. Both of these behaviors have directionality. It seems that life is elsewhere, beauty is far away, and there is only hopeless expectation in this life. In the composition of the picture, there is often a relationship between an "adult" and many "villains", and there are also symbolic meanings of domination and domination, left and right, and asylum and being sheltered.
In Li Wang's paintings, animals are indispensable roles. They have equal relations with others, even members of the human family. They personify, treat people equally, and even often stand on people's heads. Although birdcages are often painted in paintings, birds in cages are never painted, and elephants are never painted, but a bug can be painted so huge, which is like a child's perspective, a child's attitude towards animals, and the image is as naive as a child's painting.
In some large-scale works, there are juggling characters, which seem to be performed on the stage and like an arena. Or play and sing, or show off your skills in the air, each showing his ability. But there are also idlers, casual bystanders and even Xia Jiaer-style romantic pursuers ... These people on the stage of life constitute the main theme of Li Wang's long life.
There is also a strong market atmosphere in Li Wang's works. This street flavor seems to be unique to Tianjin artists. Since the mid-Qing Dynasty, Tianjin has formed a market culture with local characteristics centered on docks. Teahouses, bookstores and theaters have sprung up like mushrooms after rain, and surrounding actors have poured in. Traditional operas and drums are very popular in Tianjin, and a large number of martial arts experts have emerged. Yangliuqing New Year pictures and clay figurine Zhang Caisu have become famous at home and abroad. Since the Republic of China, popular novels such as martial arts, romance and cautionary tales have covered the national market, fully demonstrating the commonness and affinity of market culture. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, Tianjin seemed to be an international metropolis in China. Tianjin has not only become a concession of foreign powers, but also a place where political figures and cultural celebrities live and haunt. A "Wei school" culture characterized by "dock culture" is juxtaposed with "Shanghai school" culture and "Beijing school" culture. Tianjin, a once glorious city, has deeply influenced its descendants. We can all feel the influence of this culture in the works of Li Xiaoxuan, Li Jin and Li Zhiqiang. Li Wang's works also contain a kind of "Goubuli" flavor unique to Tianjin artists, a kind of street flavor unique to Tianjin, and a sense of humor, absurdity and secularity in Tianjin style.
Comment 2
Conan's dream shines on the dust heart-the literati temperament in Li Wang's ink painting/Wu Hongbin
I liked Mr. Li Wang's works at first, and then I got to know him. There are about two or three years between them. This is enough to explain a problem: if a stranger's work can move you, it must be a good thing. The reason is simple, because the judgment will not be mixed with any emotional factors other than painting. In fact, the work is a "spokesperson", and it communicates with the creator through video discourse, so the tacit understanding between * * * and language it conveys determines the success or failure of the work. To some extent, I am very concerned about Li Wang's ink paintings. In his works, we can read an atmosphere immersed in the traditional literati character and the humanistic care of contemporary intellectuals.
As far as the types of works are concerned, Li Wang's works can be roughly classified as "new ink painting". The name "new ink painting" is actually a broad reference type, which is used to refer to new painting methods that are different from the traditional pen and ink program system. At present, new ink painting is also lively because of the update of techniques and the freedom of expression. And I prefer to understand the "new" of "new ink painting" as the face after the integration of personal temperament and the atmosphere of the times. It is from this perspective that Li Wang's works have an intriguing charm. He did not put the experimental nature of language at the core, but constructed a curtain of his dreams with free pen and ink, and peeped and reflected on the real world through this fantasy.
Li Wang's paintings show a clear fusion of tradition and modernity. Simple image modeling and pen and ink interest constitute the main language forms of the picture. Li Wang's characterization emphasizes outstanding spiritual quality. The simplicity and vividness of traditional literati paintings (especially Badashan people) and the calmness and profundity of western metaphysical paintings (such as Mo Landi) are integrated into one in his works, and they penetrate each other, and the characters in the picture finally show a lofty gesture of spiritual communication. For example, people wearing modern costumes are often used in the picture to create the elegant atmosphere of ancient literati, and the behavior of each character is carefully polished and set by the painter. Therefore, each independent image individual carries the dream of the painter as a classical literati, and it is not difficult to find the painter's intention to reflect on the present reality with classical humanistic ideals. As the saying goes, "My painting creation is an idealized mental state of life that I pursue, and to some extent it is a departure from and anxiety about real life". In All Love, Ming Ji Nature, Vientiane Map and other works, people gathered together play flute, violin, juggle or communicate. These seemingly accidental ancient literati behaviors meet together, creating a contradictory social person, and the sense of opposition between ideal and reality is also like a cone. The depiction of "ship image" in Li Wang's paintings is a concentrated expression of classical aesthetic propositions. In his pictures, there is often a scene of a boat carrying several people drifting aimlessly in the open world. He thinks, "I take the ship as my theme, but the boat of our life is actually a voyage, drifting in the boundless sea." Both ends are empty. Once you are empty, it is full. When you are empty, everything will come to you. Only vanity can accept the whole thing and nothing else, because to accept it, you must be boundless. "In his works, the realm of classical aesthetics is interpreted incisively and vividly. Here, we can find Li Wang's in-depth exploration of the concept of "being or not" in Laozi and Zhuangzi's thoughts, which is exactly the case. As a printmaker, he picked up the ink and wash media that best conformed to the spirit of China's philosophy, and knocked on the mysterious door of China art with Zhuang Daozhe as the noumenon. It can be said that the study of traditional philosophical aesthetics, painting and even the life style of literati has formed the basic temperament of Li Wang's painting.
Li Wang's painting not only stays at the classical narrative level, but deepens and extends his classical complex in the context of the times. He put the aesthetic view of deconstruction and juxtaposition formed since post-modernism in his own picture, forming a unique contextual form. That is to say, Li Wang did not regard the emphasis on "routine" and "non-mainstream" in contemporary cultural concepts as the opposition and contradiction of the modernization of classical spirit, but regarded this concept as a means of supplement and artistic exchange, so his pictures were full of ancient rhetoric and strong contemporary characteristics. Antiques are randomly placed in the picture, or people who have no logical relationship, such as riding horses, walking birds, fishing and watching fish, are tiled in a corner. Vividly interprets the description of the fragmentation of subject value in contemporary philosophy. This picture that breaks the logic of time and space seems irrational, but this absurd scene urges people to think deeply between ideal and lost reality. "Absurdity is an expression of the world, and our seemingly normal logic often deviates from the truth. Due to the limitation of our existing cognitive level, I want to give people enough space and freedom in my works, which can fully extend our spiritual pursuit and observe the reality in my way, "Li Wang said. For example, the series "Chasing the Shadow" and "Chasing the Invisibility" all depict crowded scenes, but in a chaotic world, people feel that the more people there are, the more lonely they are. In Li Wang's works, such as "Feeling without Feeling" and "Empty Talk about Preparation", sometimes he deliberately enlarges an individual in the crowd, making him look down on all the people, and sometimes he turns the characters upside down in the air, which is in opposition to the main crowd. This irrational practice not only produces obvious visual tension in form, but also strongly shows the artist's own doubts and anti-tut about reality and existing rules. When the picture clearly shows the artist's cognition and judgment on society, the intervention of contemporary painting on society will take effect. Needless to say, Li Wang's concern and anxiety about reality conveyed his responsibility as a contemporary visual intellectual.
"Conan has a secluded dream, and he is disillusioned." Li Wang's ink painting seems to be observing the world around us through a pair of dreamy eyes, thinking about real life through the philosophical paradox of "absurdity is truth", and reflecting on the value of classicism to the present through the contemporary retrospect of traditional literati's ideals. It is in this sense that Li Wang's ink paintings vividly convey the classical complex of his contemporary literati.