03. The Metropolis Old Shanghai

The specific thriving cityscape of last century and the visual symbols it brought often attract and intoxicate me. On my arrival in Shanghai in 1982, I was appealed to them. At that moment, with a pen, I sketched several in the Bund and by the Suzhou River. 20 years after that, I was a little timid and disturbed when I painted them in a studio, because I was not so sure whether I could find a proper way to represent the images, to turn spiritual experience into visual images and to transform memories into images. In an ambivalent and complicated mood, I painted “The Metropolis Old Shanghai” about the Bund in old Shanghai within a month, which was exhibited in “the 3rd Selected Paintings Exhibition in China”. It was my first important exhibition, as well as a watershed in my art course.

06. The Shiliupu Wharf

From 2003 to 2006, I was dedicated to the lines in the film Hamlet, especially the monologue of “To be or not to be” by Hamlet. Both the words of Shakespeare and the performance of Sun Daolin were so stunning that I could even blurt out these lines. “The Shiliupu Wharf”, “Beside the Huangpu River” and “The Tram” were painted in that period. I was not sure whether it was influenced by something underlying, or for any other reason. People often relate these paintings with the scar art. A friend named Xu Guosheng from Shanghai once texted me, saying “Modernists need the ups and downs in your art, one similar to the scar art. The past brings a sense of loss to the middle class after their success. Your paintings bring a mixed feeling of prosperity, success, loss and regret. That’s the value of the paintings.”

07. The Wharf

Art is not an attendant of history and reality, but an analyst and repudiator. I would like to paint “The Wharf” in an analytical and critical way. Therefore, I could release an emotion from my soul, at my will. The conflict between perception and reason is inevitable, but I need to balance them appropriately.

10. The Beach

When I painted “The Beach”, I was in a lyrical and arbitrary state. My rule “to work with inaction and to strive without conflict” can only be detected in the result, rather than in the process. Sometimes the value just lies in the occasional discovery, instead of your original intention. Your acuity for the expected splendor is tested, and routinism would probably stop that.

11. “The Sea View House” was painted in a relaxed mood to try and explore, and I dealt with the painting affirmatively and explicitly. Thick or thin, lines or shapes, I finished it directly, without any repetition or overlying. Many people even mistook it for a sketch.

14. The long-distance bus was called a coach or a long-distance passenger car. It was from my childhood memory, just to compare it with the present.

15. “A Villa in Changning District” was painted for the Shanghai Expo. The sponsor needed it to be objective, so I had to balance between its difference and similarity with the original one.

18. The Patrol Vessel

It was exhibited in “Expansion and Fusion – the Contemporary Chinese Oil Paintings Exhibition” in 2008 and was hanged in the middle of the exhibition hall of the National Art Museum of China. Actually, although not too much time was spent, it didn’t come out smoothly, almost lasting a year from 2007 to 2008. When half of it was finished, I felt it was too stiff and dull, without the feeling that I wanted. I was disconsolate for a long period, and had laid it aside for quite a while when I broke it through with a converse procedure. In the process, I mastered the nature of oil paints and the method to use oil. That was probably my biggest gain.

19. Zhiyuan Vessel

Matisse once stated, “Expressions of physical images could be free from reality, but they could reflect the emotions rising from the bottom of the heart.” Zhiyuan Vessel was a notable vessel in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894. I painted part of it particularly with crimson to draw back from the object that representationalism relies too much on, and to emphasize the original intention of subjective expression and visual variation. The painting was exhibited in a conspicuous position of the exhibition hall. But I don’t think I’ve already expressed myself fully.

29. The “Sea Soul” series

36. After finishing the relatively complicated schemas of wharves and vessels in my cityscapes, I tried to break up the whole into parts, to extract one part for special representation. My “vessel” series is just for that consideration.

39. When I was painting “The Second Contact”, I was infatuated with the violin music of Heifetz, no matter when I was staying in my studio or driving. I often turned it up, even to a deafening loudness to enjoy his speechless skills. His incomparable skill and razor-like tamber always made my flesh creep, and my mind was stuffed with the notes and rhythm. However, these feelings could not be expressed in a painting. A fine or exceptional painting will arouse your admiration or meditation, or brighten your eyes up, but it can’t make your flesh creep. That’s probably the difference between visual and audio apparatuses. Just as Mr. Wu Guanzhong said, “Puny art can refine your eyes, but great art can refine your mind.”

40. It was a convenient painting about a mail-cart from the first half of last century in Shanghai, a vanished sight.

41. The “Gust” series

It was a series to relax and experience mixed media. I chose motorbikes as the subject because I was infatuated with it when I was younger.

47. A series of postcards

One day in 2009, a student of mine visited my studio as appointed and brought me a series of postcards of the gardens in Suzhou in the 30s of last century, explaining that it was bought from a bookstall and I would definitely love it. The postcards were transverse strips, as high as a cigarette box, but the width of them was around 30 centimeters. That was totally different from the current postcards. More than ten yellow pictures of gardens and vistas of the old town were presented, including Lion Grove Garden, Double Pagodas, Fengqiao Bridge, Tiger Hill and Canglang Pavilion. My eyes brightened up and I couldn’t help saying “great!” while incessantly looking through these pictures. The reason why I love the postcards is that they deposit the tranquility, purity and distance of the garden sights, in sharp contrast to the rumpus, din and heavy traffic of the old town at present. I often examine these pictures carefully, wondering about the tranquil and cozy old town of Suzhou nearly a hundred years ago. The streets paved with flagstones, the lanes, smoke from the chimneys, canoes passing by the river and the double pagodas rising from the neat pink walls and black tiles, all those images brought me endless aftertaste and reveries although they’d changed a lot. I tried to find sincerity about the old town from these pictures so as to paint them well and truly in an inornate way that was close to my affection, but it seemed to be difficult to break through. Therefore, I left it aside for quite a while, but I kept thinking about these close images that seemed to be far away. In 2010, I left Suzhou to teach in Nanjing University of the Arts. Till then, I’d lived in the old town for 14 years. When I was sitting in the high speed railway carriage, seeing the leaning tower of tiger hill, I suddenly realized that I must paint a series of works in memory of my experience in Suzhou. The postcards were the blueprint of my paintings. Although these were in smaller sizes, they were distinguished from my “Landscape” series and “Sea Soul” series and presented my recognition, understanding and emotions for the city. You will realize its power after something is gone. Thanks to the city and the student who has already become a teacher in a college.

56. After I finished “The Patrol Vessel” and “Zhiyuan Vessel”, I chose to portray smog in an extreme way, so I painted “The Aphrodite”. The innovation of visual forms and artistic media is an important symbol of contemporary art. Any art form is the reassembly and deconstruction of the objective world. Old media are reused after they are improved and altered to enrich the artistic language and expressions, or to update the visual perception.

03. The Dongshan State Guesthouse It was drawn in 2002 when I started to sketch landscapes. At that time, my paintings were not in large sizes. And “The Dongshan State Guesthouse” was produced in late autumn of that year.

07. Sketches in Yimeng

In the early winter of 2003, I guided a group of students to the mountainous area in Yimeng to sketch when it was still quite green in South China. Winter comes earlier in the north of China. It was a little bit chilly in November, and leaves had already turned yellow. These changes made us, especially those who came to the north for the first time, quite uncomfortable. We decided to cross the bridge since we’d come to it. After we settled down, we started to experience the mountainous area of Yimeng and sketched its sceneries.

12. Arriving Zhaji

On my arrival to the village of Zhaji in the south of Anhui province, I felt I had escaped from the madding crowd. After a break when it turned dark, I finished the sketch.

16. The Staircase

It was a rainy day and I couldn’t sketch out. I glanced around my place and the stairs aroused my interest. Then I finished it.

17. South of Anhui Province

The architecture in the south of Anhui province is of its own style. It would be conventional and dull to paint it objectively. So I climbed up the flat roof to have an overall view of the whole village. I weakened the individual characteristics of the architecture, but strengthened the integral features, to create a rhythm and strength between mountains and fields in the sketch.

22. The Prow

The prow was placed in the foreground and took up almost half of the painting. It was similar to a subjective spot in a film, as well as a post-impressionism one.

The Jerricans in the Wharf No 1

This was the first time for me to sketch in such a large size. It was going smoothly about the jerricans in a small dock in Dongshan of Taihu Lake. At that time, I was just trying to experience a large sketch to seek momentary gratification. Years later when I examined it again, I found, compared with smaller sketches, it brought me some “other” ideas. It was not a waste of its size.

The Jerricans in the Wharf No 3

The rusty jerricans were painted with bright orange, and shone in the sun. The expression stimulated me and I added too much in the painting.

Breather

When I sketched out, it was quite usual to be in an accident or in an uneasy situation. For instance, it rained or turned dark before you finished painting, or the car was driven away when you were drawing it. These were just trifles but they might have a negative influence on your mood. When I walked on the flagging of the dock with my paraphernalia in hand, I glanced around for something to paint, only to see a powerboat approaching the shore like a lingcod, fluctuating in the wave. The boatman said it was just a whistle stop. After an instant of hesitation, I unfolded my canvas to finish the sketch named “Breather” in a short period before the boat sailed off.

A Standard Room

It started to rain after a noon break in Shitang County in Wenling. The thick low cloud made me gloomy with dim light. I had no choice but to turn on the fluorescent lamp, and leisurely painted “A Standard Room” with the cracking sound of raindrops, wind and leaves.

A Repair Shop

A repair shop in the wharf is set for simple repairs of ships, one similar to repair shops for cars and bikes by the roadside. The only difference is one by the roadside and the other in the wharf.

Enclave

In the midsummer of 2010, I was invited by colleagues from Nanjing University of the Arts to sketch in Yangshan of Wuxi. Enclave was a car of one colleague.

39. The Parking Lot in Luxiang

Every time I came to Luxiang in Dongshan of Taihu Lake, I lived near the parking lot. On the May Day in 2010, a road in Dongshan was under construction and the parking lot was turned into a stock ground. Piles of lime in the sun were rather glaring. The recurrence of reality in art is not a copy of it, but a re-cognition by the artist. To touch scenes that go against ordinary visual experience could bestead your thoughts.

40. A Courtyard with Wood-Caving Pavilions

A garden style architecture and pond is no stranger to me. And I was into the context of the stripes in the sunshade in a perspective form, and its altered formula together with the surroundings.

A Sketch in Fanqie

I reviewed some sketches after I finished one in Fanqie of Vietnam. All the skills of drawing for me to be indulged in were soon gone like passing clouds. The purpose of accumulation is to create constantly, and the resort to artistic skills would destroy oneself, leaving paintings without any power to express your emotions. That was probably the consequence of lack of self reflection.