-Liu Xiaochun (researcher, Institute of Fine Arts, China Academy of Fine Arts) Liu Yiyuan's works are between abstract and concrete. Of course, he has a good perception of western paintings, but he keeps his perception of nature and then promotes it to the level of abstract expression. In this way, his works cannot be said to have no oriental tradition, nor can they be said to have no modernity. He found a balance between the two and formed his own things. These works are visually new, but if you look closely, you will find them very attractive. Compared with similar western abstract works, it has the originality of China painters.
-Fan Dian (art critic, vice president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts) Liu Yiyuan is a typical and representative of the transformation from tradition to modernity. The ink part of his paintings uses the traditional language of China, introducing white powder and color, and a little western painting language. He organically combined the two languages in one picture, and made a new variety of Chinese and Western, but China was the main one. In the concrete and abstract, he also found the combination of the two.
-Mo Zhai (research fellow, Institute of Fine Arts, China Academy of Fine Arts) In my opinion, Liu Yiyuan is destined to be a lonely traveler, because he still believes that human feelings are the eternal theme of art, and he is full of reverence for lofty feelings and noble personality. He strives to find a personalized artistic style and hopes to surpass individual life in the artistic sublimation of expressing emotional life.
I think Liu Yiyuan probably seeks happiness in life through painting, so as to refuse the secular pressure of forcing people to make profits. In his works, we can see repeated overlapping color marks and ink marks that lasted for several months. This is not only the result of his casual brushstrokes, the correspondence between heart and hand, and the continuous dialogue between people and paintings, but also the trace of his mind flowing and thinking for thousands of years.
If Liu Yiyuan's works still retain the natural image in the early 1990s, then in recent years, this natural image has become more and more simplified and closer to the symbolic "spiritual image". In my opinion, Liu Yiyuan's works have gradually separated from the traditional concept of "landscape painting" in China, and are entering the field of vision of contemporary people as a kind of "mind like landscape". His concern for the ecological environment is no longer the meditation of classical scholars on the unity of man and nature, but the search for new harmony in the conflict of pictures and the opening of people's hearts in the sheltered scenery, which is the result of a painter observing the world in a personalized way. In his chaotic world, we trace back to nature, understand the eternal order of the universe and touch our hearts.
-Yin Shuangxi (editor of Art Research, art critic) I regard Liu Yiyuan as such an artist; He always tries to find a rational balance between personal emotional expression and artistic experiment, and between oriental classical tradition and western contemporary influence, which makes his works different from "abstract ink painting" which completely abandons the traditional modeling scheme, and from "New literati paintings" who sticks to the pen and ink factor. For those who lack clear artistic goals, this neutral scheme often sacrifices their individuality, but Liu Yiyuan accurately grasps the moderate tension of individuality creation between traditional artistic conception and modern techniques, thus making his art gain its due position in the ever-changing contemporary China ink painting world. These works of his are atmospheric, profound and profound, which are the perfect combination of the author's "spiritual image" and the experimental motif "landscape".
Thomas Eliot, a famous English poet and literary critic, discussed the relationship between the artist's "historical consciousness" and his "personal expression" in his masterpiece Tradition and Personal Talent (19 17) written at the beginning of this century. He quoted Wordsworth's famous definition of poetry to illustrate our rational choice, historical significance and personal feelings in creation:
Poetry is a natural overflow of strong feelings, and its source is the feelings recalled in peace.
Eliot is talking about poetry, but the value principles it advocates are also applicable to painting. In an artistic environment full of "expression" and "thoughts", Eliot's teaching may have become a masterpiece, but I still believe that an artist with a strong sense of his own history and tradition can understand and solve the contemporary problems he faces more deeply. In my opinion, Liu Yiyuan's art contains such characteristics.
Heart-shaped scenery was originally put forward by Yin Shuangxi when planning Liu Yiyuan's solo exhibition in 1998, which is a concise description of Liu Yiyuan's ink and wash art style. In Huang Zhuan's view, perhaps the half-China and half-western term "the heart is like a landscape" has explained the essence of Liu Yiyuan's artistic scheme: it is an attempt to achieve the idealistic academic goal advocated by Lin Fengmian under the knowledge background of contemporary art. At present, Liu Yiyuan's heart-like landscape provides a batch of ink and wash "texts" (Pi Daojian) that can be interpreted from multiple angles and levels for China art critics. Because of Liu Yiyuan's long-term exploration in developing the contemporary expressive force of ink painting and integrating Chinese and Western painting languages, he has become the focus of some critics who pay attention to the cultural transformation of contemporary China.
-Shen Wei/Heart is like a landscape-Liu Yiyuan's ink painting art/> Issue 4, 2003
Shen Wei, professor and art critic of Hubei Academy of Fine Arts: Liu Yiyuan's works, because he also held a solo exhibition in Beijing on 1998, and he has also done some solo exhibitions in recent years, so his appearance, for example, must stand out, that is, we have always used the concept of ink heart image to summarize some of his works. In other words, his works, that is, we have always regarded him as a modern interpretation of this traditional freehand brushwork. For example, the surface looks like an abstract painting, so it is undeniable. Since the reform and opening up, this painting has been influenced by western art. But in essence, it is actually a changing way of traditional ink painting in modern development. Zhang Xiaoling, Dean of the Graduate School of China Academy of Fine Arts and an art critic: This requires a high level of cultivation to understand. A very high realm, that wonderful pen and ink, that realm is very difficult, which includes this kind of moral cultivation for a lifetime and a kind of knowledge accumulation.
Liu Yiyuan's ink paintings show some very ordinary and simple natural objects. The painter seems to be deliberately depicting the naked body of nature and deliberately amplifying its rhythmic breathing through rhythmic lines. Therefore, the nature described by Liu Yiyuan is not only a symbol of spiritual realm, but also a mirror for us to reflect on life. All kinds of complex intertwined mentality and thoughts of nature, society and life caused by this kind of aesthetics are also in line with the aesthetic taste of most contemporary people. Therefore, some discerning collectors were immediately attracted by Liu Yiyuan's works.
Liu Yiyuan's heart-shaped landscape works are a unique contribution to the modernization of China ink painting. Fan Dian (curator of China Art Museum)
Ten years ago, I got a preliminary understanding of Liu Yiyuan's landscape works by quiet inside. 1998, he held a small exhibition in Beijing. At that time, a group of art critics saw Liu Yiyuan's works and thought that his works showed a new image. Everyone unanimously appreciates that he can stick to his own unfashionable and different path on the carrier of ink and wash. In today's information age, artists can easily follow their predecessors, others, especially westerners. Therefore, it is very important for artists in China to strengthen their artistic belief and persist in artistic exploration, which is also a very valuable quality of artists. And Liu Yiyuan is a painter who can really hold his breath and sink his heart to do in-depth articles.
Today, ten years later, he came to Beijing again with his new work. As the curator of China Art Museum, I am very happy to see these new works in China Art Museum. His new works are placed in such an artistic space, which shows that his artistic exploration direction is of positive significance and language is powerful. We often say that many works are very effective in the artist's studio, but they will be re-examined in the big exhibition hall of China Art Museum, that is to say, whether the works can stand the test and be comprehensively examined in terms of spirit, cultural connotation, visual structure, pen and ink characteristics, etc. In fact, this is not only a professional requirement, but also a unique requirement for art in the face of a very rich contemporary image world. Therefore, I think Liu Yiyuan's great paintings reflect the achievements of his continuous efforts towards his artistic goals in the past ten years.
In my opinion, his efforts are mainly manifested in two aspects: one is that he is exploring how China's ink painting is combined with his own psychology, personality, education and other factors, so his mind is like a landscape painting, which can be said to be that he is painting the scenery in his heart. Of course, the scenery in his mind is not empty, but his feelings about natural scenery, and it is also the result of his understanding of the relationship between heaven and earth and people in thought and philosophy. His spiritual image landscape is a kind of vibration, a kind of ringing, a kind of moving, a kind of response formed on the basis of his inner understanding of the outside world; Secondly, he grasped the aesthetic demand of ink painting art in public space today, which is another difficult problem. In this respect, many artists have absorbed the abstract language of modern western countries and tried to integrate ink painting into modern aesthetic space. The same is true of Liu Yiyuan in this respect. The difference is that he has strengthened his experiments on ink and wash materials and added varied painting methods. For example, from thick ink to light ink, add pink pigment and pay attention to the change of picture structure. In particular, the exploration of the combination of wet ink and dry grinding has added lasting visual effects to his works. This is a very important feature of his art and a unique contribution to the modernization and modernization of China ink painting.