After experiencing the "Scar" or "Cynic" at the turn of the century, how should Chinese contemporary painting face a new future? If we say that the cynical laughter in the "Cynical Realism" since the '85 New Wave is driven by individual's resistance and catharsis to the collective age, then the paintings in the past decade have carried more individualized emotional expressions. The concept of "Bad Painting", which was first proposed by the curator Marcia Tucker in 1978, has gradually developed into one of the trends of contemporary Chinese painting in recent years. The emergence of the concept and program of "Bad Painting" in a broad sense seems to have accomplished and enriched the freedom of choice for individual expression. On the other hand, many specific works can't withstand meticulous scrutiny, and they often slip into the wave of representational and hollowing out.
How can we inject contemporary painting with the vitality of the times, regional characteristics, collective memory and touching power? Will the basic languages which have already existed for thousands of years in the art world, such as emotion, composition, color, brushstroke, trace and space, shrink into smaller islands or penetrate into larger areas in this art era of media explosion? Deng Wei's new work in recent years has opened a window, allowing us to glimpse the vast world of painting, as well as the imaginative freedom related to the reality and the inner mind, myths and legends, subconsciousness and unconsciousness, art and desire.
According to the curriculum vitae, Deng Wei has the characteristics of standard academic school. When he studied and worked among the most important and famous art colleges in China, he learned from the academic scholars and famous artists of realistic painting. From his serial figurative figures in early years, we can see his skillful techniques and keen sense of painting. He has excellent ability to handle and control the picture structure, whether it's the shaping of a single character's structure, the capture of the character's appearance, or the spatial layout of a group of figures. Among these figurative works, there is also a feature that is not easily noticeable, that is, the rhythm and state of his painting. Those seemingly light, accurate and generalized strokes and smears constitute the unique body shape of the character and represent his special temperament of painting. This kind of transition between "temperate" and "fast moving" shows a good artist's sense of propriety, and reveals the artist's enthusiasm and enjoyment in the work itself.
The works on exhibition represents his "painting expedition" to the more unknown painting field and inner world. He temporarily sets aside the depiction of real social scenes and concrete figures and moves toward more inner and subjective paintings. I saw these paintings in Wuhan at the beginning of April. They were mingled with world-famous sights and scenic spots, silent dislocations, changed cultural symbols, looming literary tastes, and passed-down folk legends. While the audiences don't know whether to laugh or cry and after they break into laughter, the works are made audiences thought-provoking. With his continuous creation of the past few years, Deng Wei realized a phased transition in his personal painting career. He temporarily bid farewell to the "realistic" perspective of real people, which brings him closer to the artist's spiritual reality and inner reality. This group of paintings is his smart answer to his own question. It's a spicy "ridicule" and "flirting" between him and the reality. And for the relationship between him and painting, it is "naughty" but sincerely continuous dialogue.
We can see the deliberately tampered "Madam White Snake" or "Jing Yang Gang", the originally "livable and sightseeing" small bridges, pagodas, houses and explosive blue light between the rocks, the absent-minded magpie which is tied up with a red line in the black background, the fascinating place formed with piles of unattended stone arrays, a small red sun in the landscapes, or the endless void of "profound scholar", etc. From the Western Paradise to Middle-earth, from mating dogs to the fruit of the summer, all legends are about human love and hatred, and all the scenes are about the disorderly world. Deng Wei even painted the repeated theme of "Journey to the West", but his new idea was to pull out the local features of the character's faces and props, such as the face of the White Horse and the rake of the Pigsy, forming a strange and humorous feature. This approach to alienating objects is like the silent performance of a black humor play. For example, the golden cudgel that crosses the diagonal of the picture becomes fragile and slender in the extrusion of the black background. The "artifact" separated from the specific use scene and actual function, just like the male pride and lonely penis, radiates a brilliant light of unparalleled loss.
And those stupid stones directly sketched or repeated painted with lines are not only occupied the picture space, but also about the afterimages of Chinese spiritual life and even collective discipline. Stones are the artful historical symbolism in Deng Wei's works, whether it's a cliff stone carving or a plaything in the palm. Stone is not only the emotional sustenance of Chinese old-fashioned literati and meditation worshippers. On the other hand, it is also a material carrier of the declaration and confession of the power. Deng Wei's "Shallot Greeting the Guests" puts a green Chinese onion which is gracefully stretched like an orchid on a stone. The original self-contained "spirit of pine and cypress" and its spiritual psychosexuality are replaced in a funny way, leaving only an appetizing daily condiment in hands of the woman who cooks. The stone that cuts off the tail of a white snake directly acts as a barbaric force of hypocrisy and morality that will never disappear. These stones are also some externalizations of the artist's inner world. They can be understood as symbols of conventions, institutions, restrictions and ethics. We can also take it as a kind of limitation and orthodoxy of the painting field itself. However, there are robbing holes amid the stones, suggesting the image of "the Peach Garden" appears in his picture with a glimpse of collective unconsciousness. This ultimately represents a good artist's demand and imagination for himself—a kind of slyness to escape from the barriers, a kind of retreat when faced with restrictions, a kind of folk love to continue flirting with this despicable world and a courage and pursuit of freedom.
In an event last year, Mr. Lv Peng asked my opinion about the current so-called "bad painting" upsurge. My answer is that the problem is not the "bad" of "bad paintings", but that many people and works engaged in this type of creation are not "bad" enough. In the broad sense, after the grand narrative of Chinese contemporary artistic rethought over the social politics after 1989,"bad paintings", as a creative method that sought breakthrough in both style and philosophy, has attracted a large number of creators. However, just like any type of movement that has been imitated and followed, what is essentially lacking in the "bad painting" trend in contemporary Chinese painting is the ability to discover the most absurdity of the inner mind and the surrounding circumstances, and the passion, reaction and wisdom against this absurdity. The current painting needs to be aware of not only the absurd situation of the contemporary people in the consumer society, but also the absurdity of painting itself in the structure of the art economy. The cleverest point and cutest place of an artist lie in his ability to eulogize and describe the existing stupidity with innocence and buoyant whistle, to reflect hypocrisy with frankness, to accompany the laughable with happiness, and to sing and dance around the naked king like the children in "The Emperor's New Clothes". The colorful fruits on the ground in Deng Wei's works are as thorough&light as the first smoke of cigarette after sex. However, when we look closely, we discover the broken fruits only describe the endless grief of a street vendor who is kicked by the city inspector.
The reason why painting still exists today is not to paint a picture "good" or "bad", but to reveal the artist's own personality image. In my opinion, the paintings of Francis Picabia are lovelier than that of many famous painters in the language and rhetoric he displays in painting. The improvisation of a clown with physical and mental unity is ten thousands times greater than the artificial rehearsal performed by famous actors. The power of art is not in the parody of the visible things, not the use of laughter to express joy, or tears to express sorrow-in Ozu Yasujiro's words, such actors are the monkeys in the zoo. Running in the opposite direction often leads to human emotional expression and artistic tension. Part of Deng Wei's creation, similar to Zhou Xingchi's performance in "A Chinese Odyssey", express deep anxiety and extreme worry with absurdity and laughter. Just like the edge of the stone, which hides half of the word "love", yet it's unable to say it in any case.
April 18, 2018 in Nanjing
