Ni Jun’s paintings appear to be in the style of painting from the 19th century. It seems that he lived in the same era as artists like Édouard Manet and Oscar-Claude Monet although Ni leads a modern life in today’s world of the 21st century. Ni’s works entail an air of nostalgia and tribute to the past while indicating a climate of distrust of the new era and displaying an affinity with the known world. Indeed, a sensibility of nostalgia and stubbornness could be considered a virtue.
Like the Impressionist paintings, Ni’s paintings are characterized by the style of Pleinairism (which employs outdoor painting or the capturing of outdoor lighting). Even though not all of his paintings are works from life, Ni follows a style of realistic painterly painting to depict figures and objects drawn from his memories and/or imagination. As a result, we come to see a series of paintings that are descriptive yet demonstrate a sense of darkness, which serve to constantly remind us that the paintings of the past centuries still hold value today. Ni’s paintings are mostly about figures, landscapes, and objects, or a combination of these subjects. In a strict sense, he is essentially a studio painter, which is not to say he only makes paintings in his art studio; instead, Ni studies the conventional subject matters in detail over and over again. For Ni, painting is not only a form but also an indefinite game in which players compete with each other within the rules from one generation to the next.
Therefore, in Ni’s paintings, we can see sentiments of memorialization as well as a conceptual glossary. Ni threw himself into an old collective tradition that was short-lived yet characterized by heroism. Within the tradition, painters were beyond the categories of craftsmen in the past or “artists” of today; they ventured into art only within a few limits and they only engaged with their peers.
I had been unsure about the small dimensions of Ni’s paintings which reminded me of Camille Corot’ s works until I paid a visit to his studio. I then realized that his apartment was where he created paintings. In addition, he had another apartment dedicated to painting, which was a 10-minute walk away. Painting has become a part of his daily life; therefore, we see in his paintings so many daily objects—such as flowers and food— and his friends and acquaintances. He even made a painting of the quarantine hotel room where he stayed. Of course, there is one subject that a painter must deal with: the painter himself.
Such a living room that combines a painter’s painting studio and their everyday life reminds us of a study used by the literati in ancient times of China. Like painting studios, salons played a central role for painters in the 19th century, which functioned as a painting studio and a sitting room. The essential dual functions of a literati study are to create and to appreciate, as evidenced in gatherings of literati.
Ni Jun creates paintings in his library-like studio, which is not only the home of his own but also attracts visitors with a sincere interest in painting and respect for his art. *Trans. by Yahia Ma
April, 2023
