2009 《JUST LET IT BE》WANG MAO PAINTING EXHIBITION

Opening Reception: May 30, 2009, Sat. 3:00PM to 6:00PM

Exhibition Dates: May 31th to June 26th, 2009,11：00AM-18：00PM

Venue: XYZ Gallery, D05 of 798 Art Center

Contact Info: 010 8459 9299 / 13701104223

Curator: Dr. Caryn Voskuil(USA) & Catherine Cheng

A World of Insignificant Beauty:

Wang Mao’s Longyan Tree Series

By C. M. Voskuil, Ph.D.

Wang Mao, in his late 20’s, is a quiet and unassuming person – humble and serious in a way that few artists are today. His background has provided a fertile soil for the cultivation of creativity. As a young boy, Wang’s parents were part of an opera troupe, thus he grew up surrounded by drama: elaborate sets and costumes, stirring music, and thrilling stories. When he decided to undertake further studies in the arts, he was accepted as a student at the prestigious Central Academy of Theatre in Beijing. There, he chose to focus his varied talents on painting. Today, he lives in a spacious apartment with sparse furnishings and cement floors in the outskirts of Beijing – in one of those sprawling, massive apartment cities that defy individuality and fly in the face of nature. The most notable aspect of his flat is a large floor to ceiling window that admits an abundance of natural light. As a result, it is an ideal ‘garret’ for this serious artist. Here Wang can spread out, focus, and make use of the solitude and light he needs to paint. As for inspiration – well, that he seems to find in a place deep inside of himself. While many artists today are involved in creating a ‘cult of personality’ instead of producing art that is profound and accomplished, Mr. Wang is the antithesis of such ‘artists’. He said very little as he presented his works to me, letting the art speak for itself.

Wang Mao’s current Longyan Tree Series takes as its subject the unique trees found in his home town. Along the banks of the Yangtze River in the town where Want Mao was born lies a ten thousand square meter forest of Longyan trees – the tree that bears the fruit known as ‘Eye of the Dragon’. This forest dates back to the Ming dynasty, and the trees grow in naturally powerful, twisted, dramatic shapes. From his earliest days, Wang Mao grew up surrounded by these trees, and his contemplation of them as a metaphor for the natural world as a whole continues to this day.

Wang Mao finds the artistic inspiration for his current series in the paintings of four grand masters of the Yuan Dynasty; Nizan, Huang Gong Wang, Wu Zhen, and Wang Meng. In an homage to them, Wang Mao has also taken to ‘signing’ his current works with a chop. Their sweeping landscapes are filled with trees, mountains, waterfalls, and cloud-filled skies which dwarf the human elements present. Nestled in the palm of nature, villages and their inhabitants go on with their myriad activities, incapable of disturbing the majesty of the natural world that surrounds them. Like these landscapes, Wang Mao’s Longyan trees exhibit a reverence for the natural world. Like the paintings of the ancient masters, Wang Mao’s Longyan tree Series depicts natural elements that are full of energy, but which simultaneously evoke a sense of calm and optimism because they seem to be controlled by a wiser and greater hand.

The series consists of a study of these trees, and the occasional rock, found in the ancient forest near Wang Mao’s birthplace. In the works focusing on branches and trunks, the viewer is presented with a bird’s eye view of a tree from an upper branch, or an extended branch from the point of view of someone looking from the trunk outward. In no single painting is an entire tree depicted, which at first leads one to believe that the paintings may be abstract studies. Upon closer examination, however, it becomes clear that what is being presented are up-close and detailed views of sections of the trees.

I asked Wang Mao why he chose to paint only sections of trees while the great masters painted entire landscapes. He told me that he feels driven to focus on the small, unimportant and seemingly insignificant parts that make up the whole. Perhaps this is because, without these small unnoticed elements, there would be no trees, no fruit, no landscapes.

Wang Mao’s work is intrinsically Chinese– he is a student of the ancient Chinese masters and a child of their teachings. But Wang Mao’s art is at the same time wholly contemporary, and wholly original. The ancient masters represented a China in which the whole was always assumed to be more important than the parts, but contemporary China is a land in transition. The energy of this transition is felt not only within society and individuals, but within nature as well. To value, honor and focus on the small and insignificant on which all else rests is a world view that has only recently been introduced to China and it has many possible applications artistically, socially, and philosophically. When Wang Mao paints a branch or a stone, he told me, he feels as if he is painting a living, breathing individual being.

Wang Mao’s new works are on the cutting edge of Chinese art. They are both intrinsically Chinese and wholly contemporary. Informed by the great artists of the past, as well as by contemporary philosophers such as Derrida and Foucault, Wang Mao’s Longyan Tree Series is an aesthetic and social narrative that encourages us to respect the seemingly small and insignificant aspects of our lives.