Preface

Since the early 90s Li Hongjun has been aware of the affinity between folk art and contemporary art. Each development of contemporary art is a looking back on the traditional achievements and a regression to the original art. Taking for comparison between the language pattern of Chinese Traditional Folk Art and the creative method of Western Modern Art, he has seen the possibility which Chinese Traditional Art Linguistic System converts into Art Context. Therefore, folk art has always been the main nutrient in Li Hongjun’s art career. Two decades flies, Li Hongjun’s reputation becomes more and more famous, but his courteous attitude to the traditional art has no change in the process of his creation.

From 1996 to 2006, Li Hongjun’s art activities are almost a blank to the people around. While until he became a master degree student in the Experimentation Art Department of Central Academy of Fine Arts, he has been buried alive in the countryside of Shaanxi Province and looked after his sick and weak wife, meanwhile, studying the unsophisticated folk art and standing aloof from the worldly affairs.

There are views that Li Hongjun’s outstanding reputation since 2006 could be regarded as some kind of return of his low-pitched life previously. These kinds of views have no basis, but much more convinced. From Li Hongjun’s works, we can easily see his aloof attitude towards life. Even as the saying recorded in the “History of Song”, Wen Yanbo compliments that Wen Tong is a noble-minded, frank and generous man just like sunny cloud and autumn moon without dust. In this kind of era with much more lust, this quality is not recessive, and the society depends on it to maintain logos and abstention. Engaging in art creation is a conduct of oneself.

Li Hongjun’s works just like his humanness, which seems simple, but facile, abundant and ordered. Li Hongjun attempts to show a kind of respect to the simple three-dimensional Topology. What is Topology? Here we may assume one (or several) point which shares some certain principles of sport logic. We always pay attention to the position of this point in the category of traditional art and then to make sure the position of another point, while in the world view of Topology, we not only record the position of this point, but also pay attention to the time when this point locates in this position as well as its relative order to the adjacent point in a certain position or the successive position in a certain order. In this way, when the state of movement of this point in all factors is statistics up, we will obtain a weird but thought-provoking prototype of imagery model.

Li Hongjun has been found his own creative way successfully, and his works clearly show the ductibility and durative in the language of materials and the expressing way of conception. He uses solo hue and figure without implication to express a strong emotion. As we have seen, Li Hongjun is obsessed with the “benefaction” of traditional art in all occasions. On the one hand, his art creation is a catharsis for individuality and creative anxiety; on the other hand, it is also a kind of rock-firm responsibility for inheriting civilization. Li Hongjun’s creation embodies the conscience of artists who live in Materialistic Age.

Wang Xinyou
Oct. 24, 2010