XIANG MANG: Abstract Art of Bai Ming

Daozi

Seek for saintliness in the world
Cruise for transcendentalism in experience
Image exists but deceive does not
Neither existing nor deceiving, but absentminded
——colophon

Bai Ming is an artist famous for ceramic, whose impracticable ceramic works of extensive influence belong to practice of abstract spirit as a whole, thus no matter ceramic or painting are all natural carriers of ideas for Bai Ming, and necessary method to express subject with selection of different materials, meanwhile the most important thing is to form a personal modeling paradigm by a general media. Connected together, his ceramic and abstract oil paintings, even abstract wash paintings not yet exhibited publicly, try to, with participation of perception, seek for saintliness in the world, cruise and patrol in transcendentalism in life experience, and seize poetry in nature of time and secrete of nature. Bai Ming’s ‘to put one against all’, i.e. to control natural media by abstract spirit, and the best express of abstract spirit is combination of material media with unknown things, which means to alter materials into pleasure of meditation, into abstruse of contemplation and things not by chance.

Paradigm is always formed by exceptional artist, whereas most practitioners produce blindly within a paradigm, executing derivative poor works. As a matter of fact, the ceramic industry has become a cultural corpse, and fate of abstract art at the present age is not out of sense of conjuncture, therefore, there is a continuous trend that paradigm should be constantly breakthrough, transformed and giving neonatal spiritualism to media and form to form a related but different paradigm.

After personal exhibition of ‘immateriality of great image’, ‘XIANG MANG is a centralized exhibition of over sixty abstract oil painting works created by Bai Ming in recent years. Works are approximately divided into two forms, i.e. two experimental spaces correlating to each other, the former of which is natural abstract, and the later is cultural abstract, which shine upon each other, and explain upon each other, in fact a whole creation of an organic integer.

Bai Ming’s personal exhibition of ‘Image Deceiving’ has shown an untiring seeking intention of the artist, who has been exploring changeability and possibility of abstract language, and colligated former linear style and scribble style, and has formed a stable personal style. To regard abstract art as alienated from the society, not pitching with the age, itself is a kind of high spirit, a confront against fate and a self introspection. Abstract art reality contains modeling elements that construct the world essence, which decide its maintenance of unbending distance with custom accommodation of social utilitarianism, thereby forming a space of free spirit with internal regulations. Painting theories of ancient China divided painting into four cases of leisure, spirit, excellence and skill, among which leisure is the first case, actually a detached bourn placed on life ideal and art ideal. Abstract is the result of percolation and purification of object world by subjective consciousness, and also non-representational consideration of the main body. Bai Ming is lonely in the academy system, even disregarded by utilitarianism, whereas in art tide of vanward corners of the country, he looks quite prudent, introspective and detached from circumference. Loneliness of and clinging to art and life make the artist keep a kind of cosmism of devotional, meditative self discovery, and in seeking for imago of abstract art in recent years, the whole visage of Bai Ming’s works has entered into an mild and lenitive, transparent but abstruse and meaningful poetic artistic conception.

Bai Ming’s recent natural abstract has represented mystery, phantasmagory and beauty of rocks, mountains and rivers, in which white, grey, even protean ink color have become the keynote of quiet elegance and cold leisure, and former linear style has been evoluted in an empty whisht artistic conception, which creates a sense of movement in the menu, the most obvious intentional change after exhibition of ‘Immateriality of Great Image’. Even in a single piece of works, it can be felt about turn, wave, tremble and involution of lines, turning from on vision to another, intentionally reserving plane of paintings, while skillfully built an artistic conception with abundant verve. His cultural abstract is static, exhibiting historical clouds, concretionary cultural and geographic vicissitudes, variegated spirit marks, evidently increasing and deepening with optic density, moving from mild and lenitive and transparent to integrated, massive and powerfully strong circumstance.

Though the headstream of abstract art is Europe in the beginning of 20th century, which has developed into more than twenty genres over the world in the recent hundred years, its context is more adjacent to Chinese enjoyable tradition and handwriting tradition, and 后abstract art inclination has calligraphy and imago. Thus developmental logic of abstract art in China at the present age presents a trend of intersection of cold and heat, and abstract and imago inosculating with each other. In Bai Ming’s works in the 1990s, it can be seen that his language style opened and colligated to cold abstract and hot abstract entirely, during which sense of movement of lines and scribble blocks were the main elements to compose the menu, relatively paying attention to harmony of color texture, delicate change of tinge, and vibration of soul and brightness feeling in vision were its subject, but when viewing in detail, it will be found that its melody is jerky lyric implication. After entrance into a new century, Bai Ming has come back to canvas and rice paper, introducing more imago languages, especially ink color imago language, gradually creating mystery of contemplation, meditation, even space. Though the works exhibited this time in Fangyin gallery were mainly natural abstract, for deep accumulation of exploration experience in early time, he was able to overcome ‘reprint’ of object world, further to get rid of ‘reprint’ of nature, and to evolute to culture abstract. Ink color imago language is worthy of active digest of abstract art, because it does not imitate nature, but expresses and contains myriad phenomena through most compact and capriccioso tinge of black.

From Bai Ming’s recent self-conscious exploration in imago, I have seen a contextual intent of abstract art in China of the time. The character of this context intent sums up to spiritual continue of Chinese enjoyable tradition and handwriting tradition, which I would call imago abstract. For instance, imago image clarifies the mind in picture, and recognizes description of artistic conception and poetry, explaining Chinese imago aesthetic view in production of oil painting works, and expressing phenomena, historical track and beauty of nature in practical life with symbolized, enjoyable expressive technique, combined with modern conception. Concealment and display of form and matter in the menu convert in abstract implication, fusing western abstract expression into orient imago; real form and false form blend with each other, embodying exercise and development of Chinese traditional imago aesthetic thought in production of abstract oil painting in China of the time. Imago abstract oil painting has local cultural spirit, as well as particular experience and recept of cultural 语境 of the time, which expresses reality and ideal of our life from multiple points of view and orientations, and embodies taste trend of society nowadays from actuality of art development. Imago abstract painters have been fusing media, technique and spirit of western paintings with orient taste consciousness and painting spirit to form an oil painting art in a long period of exploration, which enables Chinese to find a manner that is easy to grasp by themselves to express things and feeling. This manner exists in Chinese painters’ hearts, and is also a genetic gene from cultural matrix. Chinese imago abstract oil paintings have a bold and unconstrained vigour of douse and freedom from inhibition, a poetic artistic conception of circumbendibus and lyricism, in which false or true and concealment and display of space, matter and image etc. have enriched expressive languages of world oil painting, which still have foreground to expand in world art of the time. Therefore, development of abstract art will not be able to find way back on the old road of abstract art.

“Image” is a term of traditional culture in China. The real name of “image” was called as “xiang”, the original name of “image” means “elephant”, later it means all kinds of objects including visional pictures. Connecting “xiang” and represented functions can be dated back to Gua image in Zhouyi. Though we can’t examinethatFuxishi created Ba Gua, it is undoubtedly that people lived in Shang and Zhou dynasties used Gua image to augur luck and bad fortune. Then Gua image has become a tool to represent meaning which naturally is God’s will. Why God’s will or theory must be represented by Gua image? There is an explanation in Yizhuan come down from ancient people that the sacred person can see everything earlier than anyone, so he can describe them by any image. Then it is said that “Confucius said that the book can’t describe people’s language which can not express people’s meanings either. Then sacred person’s meaning cant be known; and Confucius still said that it is the sacred person who created image to express his meanings. That is to say that the God’s will is so far-reaching and exquisite and can’t be represented by the common language, it can only be learned and conveyed by way of visional “picture” with comparison and symbol skills. In this way, the ‘xiang’ has the meaning of “above the shape”, while “creating picture to express meaning” become the source of the term of “image”. Therefore, by connecting with imaged abstract art, it is necessary for us to explain the exhibited subject, “ xiangwang” is a concept of image esthetic ontology put forward by Zhuangzi (Chinese ancient thinker), he has a fable in his Zhuangzi. Heaven and Earth: Huang emperor traveled north of Chishui and climbed the Kunlun Mountain to look over the south, he found his mystic pearl was lost. Then he dispatched Zhi to look for it, but failed, so did Lizhu and Chihor. Then he had to resort to augury, he got his mystic pearl at last. Huang emperor said that it’s so surprised that image can help him to get it. The fable told us that it is not possible to know his will (mystic pearl) by reasonability ( Zhi), speech( Chihou) , so did vision( lizhu), but image can know God’s will and travel in super experienced space. The image is a symbol of soul to know the will of the God, while, it is the image that construct the secret of abstract and image art and express the principal that why this kind of art fight against scientific logic analysis.

It should be known clearly but not by guessing, what we are talking about the image means the image integrating ancient philosophy, theology and aesthetics and modern culture concept. The combination and complementary between them made us appreciating the ancient cultural heritage to integrate western contemporary concepts about image, picture and abstract, meanwhile, we can learn and explain Chinese traditional image concept from modern philosophy thoughts and cultural ideas. There are various views to understand image due to deferent understanding of “image”, on the one hand, there is a deference of depth and width to discover the original aesthetic concept of Chinese traditional image, one the other hand, people’s different views and understanding resulted in different views about “image”.

Some masters such as Kandinsky, Malevich, Paul Klee and Mondrian led the orientation of humans’ art thoughts and aesthetic interest in the 20th century with abstract art method and its real connotation. “Abstract” is the corresponding concept of “picture” and is the common point collecting many things and constructs a new concept which is called ‘abstract”. Abstract painting is means the style of painting in the 20th century that devoid of “intimating nature” including many kinds of schools but not the name of some school. It is evolved for a long period time. Whereas, no matter what kind of the school is, its common characteristics lies in trying to broke traditional idea that painting must intimate nature. Since the world war Ⅱ in 1930s, some forms derived from abstract idea had become the most fashionable art style with unique characteristics in the 20th century. The abstract painting starting from direct perception and imagination to refute any expression methods with symbol, literature and description and only comprehend and organize the shape and color on the painting paper. Therefore, abstract painting expressed the pure color is similar with music. It is undoubtedly, Chinese imaged abstract oil painting has been influenced and inspired by the western abstract oil painting. But it is still deferent from western abstract oil painting in essences. It integrated oriental esthetic subject comprehension to atmosphere and inside feeling and outlet in western abstract art to construct the essential characteristics of Chinese imaged abstract oil painting. Chinese imaged abstract painters are pursuing abstract of style Chinese ink painting when creating painting interest of oil painting such as brush, ink, texture and trail, etc. and mingled Chinese poetic image of similarity and dissimilarity into painting, which is a natural connotation integrating Chinese human spirit and painter’s spirit such as Wu Dayu, Chen Mengpi, Zhao Wuji, Zhu Dequn, Xiao Qin, Su Xiaobai, Jia Dahai,etc. by seeing the works of BaiMing, he has entered into the school already.

We can known from Bai Ming’s works that image is a form exists between picture and abstract, which fully embodied art image of artists’ main thoughts and art image. Imaged oil painting cut off and versioned some concrete image to form a kind of gas condition of shape without picture and correspond to the shape of picture remained on the canvas and generates a kind of image visional environment and gives people more spaces. If we draw further the shape of picture on the imaged abstract oil painting, when the last “image” was hidden, the imaged oil painting is turned back the original abstractism oil painting.
After Baiming’s abstract oil painting mingled with image, while pursuing atmosphere and exquisite language, he still pained attention to using perceptive innate capability and potential consciousness of deep soul to express meanings in his painting. The image environment can extend gradually and contain the atmosphere of nature full of secret, change and aesthetics of heaven and earth, which shows increasingly the lyric abstract painting style with cool beauty and macular strength. In a word, Bai Ming’s abstract oil painting embodies a state symbol of individual and personality.

?Tsinghua University Sep. 25, 2007