Contemplation the Universe - on Wang tianliang’s art
By Wu zhan
2008 Mountain is a very important series of Wang tianliang in terms of a sum-up of the artist’s personal creation, a methodology attachment for international contemporary art. Although no specific term neither methodology is contained in the title, but the process of creation and completation shows the discovery by the artist in three dimension and harmonize them into one. So this series can form a particular art value through the process of personalized creation of the artist, and highlight its unique value in the public art history.
Wang’s art focuses the inheritage and discovery of the Chinese traditional culture, he persist in mutarify the skills,and carries along grand enthusiasm towards phylosophical contemplation in traditional art concept. No matter lacquer painting, utensil sculture, ink or calligraphy, the difference inbetween these traditional art forms can never be the boundry of Wang’s art, in contrary, in the past few decades, his extraordinary energy transformed into countless artworks, liberately manaing the variety of different art methods, techniques, medias and materials. With a improving maturity of artistic skills, Wang express his cultural thought through multiple aspects.
Wang not only went through the 85 New Wave(Cerebration liberation movement), but experienced the whole development of 30 years of Chinese contemporary art. To the artists of his generation, western philosophy influenced their structure of knowledge and grand enlightment for their creation. So to face the 2008 Mountain series, someone will consider this influence on Wang, e.g. reference from the western collage art. But when we take a close look, you’ll discover the so-called “collage” seems to different from the previous works while hold something more special, and shares a huge difference from “collage” which originates from and bloom in the western modern art.
The western collage art usually divert and reposition some fragment notes in the context of public culture figure or specific social direction. But the “fragment” collaged by Wang is personalized and original, include the broken lines and characters, houses, mountains, stones, figures and trees in his scenery works, lacquer filling, lek foil and inlay gold and silver into your lacquer works. Even though the visual image is like collage, but these “broken pieces” are not public, the “reposition” is nothing like the western collage with very specific social point, these works are not export-oriented reconstruction of meaning, but a nature expression of “searching for a mental reality” from the artist. So the collage works of Wang is either how artists respond society nor the methodology of the public subject in art, but an expression of evaluation as “a speakless hometown cultivated in mind”.
Apart, no matter how close this series comes with the western collage art,one detail mus be noticed: these collaged “broken pieces” are mostly from the Chinese ancient calligraphic paintings, the poetry calligraphy print painting.Wang’s “collage” tracks the structure mode of the ancient paintings and calligraphy, combines individual work pieces all together, therefore reposition the “linear time traces of individual” into “meaning collective of Synchronic”, to present with dot visual structure.This not a two dimensional divert or combination of foreign public text, not a reconstruction of meanings generated through diverting foreign public information, but a nature harmony of Wang’s personal art feelings and thoughts.
From this aspect, Wang’s so-called “collage”, on one hand revived Chinese ancient combination of poetry and painting to present in a familiar visual way to the contemporary generations,therefore natually transformed the Chinese traditional painting and calligraphy on the sense of methodology; on the other, reconstructed the time order of the text and meaning, applying the dot visual structure of synchronic to present personal art track, formed the works as kinda of “Externalization of Pneuma”, and organically replenish the methodology of western collage art.
Accordingly, in terms of the nature order of the personal creation of the artist, the 2008 Mountain series of Wang can accurately express this order, it’s an extract and highlight of his previous lacquer pinting and sculpture. From the processure of artist’s personal creation, persue of formal delight, and his way of balancing life and art, classic evaluation of eastern thining and artistic methodology is what mainly support Wang’s art. In another word, the core values of Wang’s art is exactly the “scenery carries idea” in the context of eastern culture, not the “abstract aesthetics” in the western art track, as an import academic route, this core value can be expressed more acurately and scale in the 2008 Mountain series.
