Peng Weiheng – the Hermit in the City

I have appreciated the recent works of Peng Weiheng in his studio, there were seven or eight pieces of nude which seems to have the feeling of new classism at the first glances. But their topic seems to be the oil paintings of escaping realism. A peaceful and aesthetic breath which doesn’t make me feel strange, and the windy, resigning, sad or even absurd elements in the modern ideal are expressed peacefully. I believe that he has accurately grasped what he was finding in the past ten years. The procedure of repeatedly anxiety and skills seems to have passed, and his feeling of painting tends to be mature or even harmonious. The classism grafts the windy, void and tiresome status of the modern humanity as the ideal of modeling of the objects. Plus the presentation of existence and windiness, it seems that Peng Weiheng is insisting the externalization of the procedure of survival with the outlook on life of escaping. It is the sensitive internal thought of an artist and the insisting of his stubborn ambitions and I believe that he is an excellent artist being near to the successful alcoholization.

I recognized Peng Weiheng for more than 10 years, and we had painted together in Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1999. At that time the academy rented the old factories in Dazhanzi temporarily before the new academy have been built, so the conditions are not very good. Just like all the persons going to work in Beijing, we just come with the heart of admiration to the saint palace of art. When seeing Weiheng for the first time, you can feel the salubrious and experiences feeling; his eyesight was as peaceful as autumn river, and there is some sadness behind it; the pale face shows the emotion of martyr. Weiheng came to Beijing when he was 26 or 27 years old, besides drawing diligently every day, he had to also take his time – or even stayed up all night – to do some part-time jobs for survival. Now 798 in Dashanzi has become the internationally famous art zone, but that place where CAFA locates was very bleak ten years before; at that time a lot of young painters rented houses in the villages, and Weiheng lived in Dongxindian, which was about 5 km far away from CAFA. We remember that he was a man from Southern China which didn’t fear coldness, and such man is very scarce. In the winter, we often saw that he wore few clothes and his face was frozen to red, riding bike and rushing into the colleges. Sometimes when it was very late, I found he was sleeping in the classroom with the lining clothes on the model stage wrapping him. But Weiheng was affected by the classical painting, for he had some classical quality in his character – sometimes he can expose the manner of nobleman. I nearly haven’t seen any his behaviors of being embarrassed, maybe he was very poor, but only if he had some money, he would invite everyone into his home for meeting and appreciate his simple but exquisite cooking skill. His manners and tableware which seemed more better than other person going to work in Beijing had shown good style. I can often thought of Weiheng – a not very tall man but he had a peaceful and repressed air of arrogance in the normal talking. In fact, Weiheng had the extraordinary air of arrogance in his character; maybe just for such reason, he can insist painting in Beijing at ease.

Weiheng seldom took part in the communicative activities, and he seldom met his several good friends of painters when he lived in Yanjiao for many years. He poked himself in the room and was an urban helmet. We had become the close friend in the winter of 2000, and we often meet in “Danchepeng” bar nearby CAFA. I remembered that a lot of our classmates drunk and danced there in the Christmas Day and New Year’s Day of that time, and sometimes we often talked about some little secrets after drinking for some cups of wine. There I remember the name of a sincere girl by his saying. In a cold morning not long after the party, there were some snows on the ground and I found that he was sitting on a cement block nearby the college gate with a standard posture lonely and I felt very astonished. He glared at the place far away, and I often made joke that he was just like a doggy waiting its master coming back. The thin girl whom Weiheng was waiting for at that morning was the sole accompaniers during he pursued to the air just like a martyr during these ten years. I believed that without her accompanying, his road of pursuing to the art will be hard. At that time this girl – who was a student of Beijing Film Academy – was only 20 years old. She was another martyr who totally devoted herself to the spiritual carrier. I believe that during these ten years, her anima, sensibility, passion and thirst for knowledge had become a good assistant of Peng Weiheng when he was insisting pursuing to his own values in the painting. Actually, Peng Weiheng was indeed waiting for his master in that morning in the winter.

The painting of Peng Weiheng is silent and repressed just like himself. There are some nothingness and resignation in his painting, and he was focusing on some endless description to the details and the fantastic space transformation. His colors are classical and his feeling is light. Some elegant or even exclusive intention is expanding in the overall painting and each detailed brushes and colors. Sometimes you cant find the space environment which these colors can refer to; a background which you are totally not familiar with and the reality and symbolization are incorporated together. Some early works of Peng Weiheng was also very fine, a face facing to the mirror and has the cream painted on, even each little foam was finely painted; a triptych just like the altar in the Middle Ages showed his inherent religious complex; some oil painting presenting maze and broomcom just like the scrolls of traditional Chinese painting showed his previous training on Chinese paintings; some pigs and their textual dialogue presents his procedure of incorporating in the modern painting in Beijing in the recent ten years…

The creation procedure of an artist is showing the value of the procedure, just like any section of the procedure of life. The internal essence of a man decides the quality of his life and creation. His humanity and art quality which I have seen are full of noble spiritual strength. Today, his works have had the total elements of excellent art works, and I am very exciting and incentive as a cordial friend of him in the art. I don’t know whether the commercial success is different for each artist. The life of Cezanne is the most real life enjoying art and I revere it very much. Weiheng has been quiet as a pussy, but if your are very successful in the future, are you still a helmet painter living a sequestered life?

Shao Peide  2010.12.4 BeiJing