Xia Kejun
The significance of painKng in the contemporary age lies in none other than that difficulty of tacKle sensaKon and the subtlety of meaning when
faced with the mimeKc simulaKon of technological visuality. However fine or high-definiKon such technological visuality may be, there is nevertheless no way to convey that breath of life [qixi 气息 ] in the body and in the touch of the hand. That aura of painKng is not brought back by technology; in the painKng, an inframince and yet lively breath of vitality is maintained. It is this breath of vitality, irreproducible, which brings forth new opportuniKes for painKng.
Ye Jianqing’s painKngs once again manage to paint Qi (“breath” or “life force”; 气 ), that natural, nimble vital energy within, that ineffable aura
of atmosphere, that subtly mutable breath of life on the Kps of the brush, that inframince “spirit resonance” (qiyun 气韵 ). To paint such vitality (qixi) in an oil painKng has always been a struggle. Turner in his later years perhaps managed to paint the air and the atmosphere, yet it was too realisKc. Monet’s later painKngs, too, perhaps managed to paint that fusion of the water lilies and reflecKons of the clouds, but the brushstrokes were too rough. Richter may very well have painted that texture of billowing clouds with the delicate details of Superrealism, but it is too lifelike, like a photograph, and nevertheless without bearing that intoxicaKng vitality. Though Ye Jianqing is influenced by Richter, he is also guided by Daoist ideas about “empKness” and the “mind” in Zhuangzi [or Chuang Tzu]: “the Dao alone is what gathers in this empKness. And it is this empKness that is the fasKng of the mind.” And so he thoroughly follows ideas in tradiKonal Chinese landscapes about the “spirit and resonance” and “vitality” [qiyun shengdong 气韵生动 ], going on the path towards a painKng with that breath of vitality [qixi]. This is also because he is auempKng to rethink the visuality or viewing of a painKng within a grander system and within a more vigorous and yet unadorned background. How does painKng once again restore the power of looking in painKng? It is by restoring the aura of the breath of vitality [qixi].
Ye Jianqing’s early works sought out a chilly sort of sensaKon. Of course, there was something of Richter and Hockney, but as his ideas departed from Richter’s method, he understood that Richter tried to distance himself from American painKng and to re-establish European painKng— and so formed his own photographic, Superrealist and “squeegee” abstract works. Yet how are Chinese arKsts any different? It is about bringing back the possibility of painKng—from an overall atmosphere— and restoring the “observaKon of the realm [of art]” [jing zhi guan 境之 观 ], or in other words, how to “observe the realm of [arKsKc]
intent” [guan yijing 观意境 ]. Such a realm is built from the overall atmosphere, from that vivid breath of vitality [qixi]. During the twenKeth century in China, however, techniques like Realism and Expressionism were carried out merely through brushwork and schema, while what is truly Eastern is yijing, this visionary realm of arKsKc intent. Moreover, Richter is sKll too febrile; even though the picture plane is thin and light, there is not quite enough of that potency of the Formless Void [xu 虚]. The return to that realm of intent [yijing], that inframince realm, for Ye Jiangqing, is none other than the return to that homeland of his own cultural life, the homeland of the soul. How to make an oil painKng manifest that breath of vitality which comes from the potency of the void [xuling 虚灵 ]? Ye Jianqing became a painter of that vital breath— qi—the breath of life-force. He was fascinated by the landscapes of Huang Gongwang , and roamed through the landscapes of the South (Jiangnan, parKcularly the lower reaches of the Yangtze), becoming a sensiKve painter who gazed at and gathered this vital breath (qi), a wraith who painted qi. The difficulKes lie with the issue of how to paint, in an oil painKng, that resonance, sensaKon, and breath of the vital energy of qi? The quintessence of the classical Chinese landscape rested with “spirit resonance and vitality” [qiyun shengdong 气韵生动 ], but how to re-capture on an oil painKng the vitality of that sensaKon of qi? Inspired by the mists and clouds filling the page and by the subtle transiKons between empKness and substance—beginning with Mi Fu — and also by out-of-focus shots in photography, step by step he generated the phenomena of becoming-void.How does Ye Jianqing look at Qi, that vital breath? How to seize that breath of vitality in nature on the flat surface of a painKng? This arduous process of exploraKon illuminates painKng itself. First, the observaKon of nature is an observaKon with an element of growth. This is “observing
the breath of vitality” (guankan qixi 观看气息 ). In the case of an elemental observaKon of nature, natural things differ from manmade objects; there is the quality of growth, while qi is of an inwardly growing elemental quality. So how then to observe and gaze upon qi, the breath of life-force? From the perspecKve of painKng, it is no longer a quesKon of Western Superrealism or abstracKon but rather to start from that mixture of void and substance. It is to conserve that subtle transiKon between Void (xu 虚 ) and Substance (shi 实 ) between abstracKon and figuraKon. Since the breath of vitality possesses a most exceedingly supple plasKcity and fluidity, such an elasKc processuality has to be painted. Yet in the face of the changes in nature, a steady, calm gaze happens to be needed. Axer painKng Buddhist statues or murals for long periods of Kme, Ye Jianqing gained an auenKve “bodhisauva-like” gaze, a calm inner vision; even viewing a non-existent bodhisauva requires an inner tranquility. Axer persistently painKng a large number of large-scale bodhisauva in series, observaKon as observaKon is sKll nothing but composed and silent observaKon. Only thus does one return to the origins of observaKons; subduing movement with tranquility, one can thus change according to the mists and sKll be able to return to one’s roots. Second, in terms of material and in terms of the techniques in creaKng a painKng, since the breath of vitality is to be expressed, diluted pigments are needed—or perhaps “qi-transformed pigments”. Washing with turpenKne and such like is not enough; the textural traces lex behind are all too visibly obvious. Furthermore, these are lex behind by the material itself and not meKculously treated. This thus requires the arKst to invent his own disKncKve technique. Ye Jianqing has disKncKvely used poppies to dilute oil painKngs, auaining an unimaginably inframince feel. Each and every arKst only searches to liberate the unique tacKlity of the pigment, to release the inner breath of vitality. This fundamentally transforms the thick, heavy texture of oil painKngs with a Chinese sense of tacKlity, making it puff like orchids! Observing the breath of vitality is about examining the “breath of the Void” (xuqi 虚 气 ). The vital energy of qi is not merely a physical thing but rather enters into the process of becoming-void. Chinese arKsts look from water vapor and mist (literally the “qi of water” and the “qi of smoke”); the trembles of the water blur the actual objects. It is not about directly painKng the subject but painKng the reflecKons in the water, or in the rain—the shadow of shadows, or that subtle halo. Ye Jianqing has
long painted urban landscapes which have been “moisturized” by water vapors; he sought to capture that blurry, indisKnct sense of poetry. Observing the reflecKons in the water is about observing subjects that are even more inframince and even more on the verge of becoming void. The “observaKon of shadows” is an encapsulaKon of the culture of water in China. The painKng of bamboo comes from watching the shadows of bamboos; reflecKons in the water have an uncertainty amid the quivering movements, a blurry and hazy sensaKon, which is also the dreamscape of the earth. These are the water and dreams that Bachelard spoke of, and Bachelard is Ye Jianqing’s favorite philosopher! I even believe that he is conKnually re-discovering, in painKng, the elemental and aquaKc qualiKes of Bachelard; such like has never been achieved in Western painKng. These false shadows in the water vapors have the growth of natural vitality. The “Void” (xu虚 ) is the criKcal moment of growth, and not that camera-like, fixed posiKon of the eye in the West。
Then, there is the “observaKon of taste” [guanwei 观味 ]. PainKng is about conveying a flavor or interest that has always been disKncKve; it is a taste beyond words. Chinese culture is parKcular about “taste” or “flavor” [weidao 味 道 ], and the taste or flavor of tradiKonal ink lies in the subtle transformaKons in the ink—wet and dry, deep and pale—yet how to convey this with oil painKng? Ye Jianqing has found a dissolving form and structure with both a classic robustness and also hazy transformaKons, especially in forging the washes of ink and that breath of vitality in mists and clouds at ease. In a work, this is that sensaKon of color in the “empty white” [xubai 虚白 ] or the “empty blue- green” [xuqing 虚青 ]. When the mists are dispersing and merging with a large expanse of white, there is that qi of “empty white” and the “potency of the formless void”. Yet oil painKngs have to express the sensaKon of color. The colors in the works are extraordinarily quietly elegant, merely a wisp of pale smoke brushing over the surface. That sinewy texture of mountain rocks is hidden in the disappearance of the mists and clouds, as though the vapors of the mountains have come directly to the surface. This is that poeKc intent of “blossoming like orchids”. The whole picture plane has become empty and void, pracKcally invisible, with the empty white and the faintest traces latently in flux, moving, breathing. Ye Jianqing has painted the remnant scent of that breath of vitality; the picture plane has become the “remnants of shapes” [yuxiang 余象 ], neither figuraKve nor abstract. These remnants of shapes are the cultural memory of classical landscapes, and yet they have been made faint, which opens up a gap in Kme.
Finally, the painKng of that vital breath sKll manifests the temporality of natural transformaKons. Hand in hand with the flux of the mists and clouds, it is a “voyage of observaKon” [youguan 游观 ] that expresses a taczul, meandering wandering, formally speaking. The large-scale, infinite extendibility of an organic work, and the conKnuaKon of works one axer the other, create a seriality that verges on natural transformaKons. On the large-scale works where Ye Jianqing pays homage to Wang Gongwang’s Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains, this again carries on that conKnuity of tradiKonal landscape painKng and its natural spirit, inspiring us to reflect on the differences in aestheKc appeal in the “perspecKves in viewing nature”. In this exhibiKon, this is what the more quietly elegant works expresses most brilliantly. By juxtaposing different points of views together much like photographs, or by gently unfolding a long scroll for perusal, viewability is married with readability.
These works by Ye Jianqing will enable us to reflect on how, in the age of technology, to face nature and scenery. In what do the differences in the modes of viewing landscape painKngs and natural scenes lie? How to express “temporality” in painKng? How to reconsKtute landscapes with our modern temperament? How should contemporary painKng respond to classical, tradiKonal landscapes? How to transform that classic voyage of observaKon with photographic perspecKves? And what of the contemporary significance of nature? How should contemporary painKng reconnect nature and art? How to make possible the mutual painKng of landscapes [shanshui 山水 ] and scenery [fengjing 风景 ]? How to maintain that tension between the faint void of vision and the sturdiness of objects within the scenery?
We must thank Ye Jianqing, this painter of the vital breath, this craxsman who allows the canvas to draw deeply in the numinous breath of nature, again making the mood-realm [yijing 意境 ] of faint empKness and unaffected grace—long forgouen—appear in front of us. We can merely do as he does, and breathe deeply in front of the works.