I remember the in-depth discussion with Liu Shangying in his studio two years ago. It covered mainly three topics. First came how painting could react to the challenges from the visual era. It had to look for its own new possibilities to highlight the appeal of pictorial language rather than follow the trend or retreat in a passive and helpless way. The second was in what way an artist, faced with social transformations, could express his or her concern on the intellectual level instead of responding to the appearance only. The last one dealt with his role as an artist in the academic community: how to give to full play his advantage in the range of knowledge and scholarship so as to stand at the forefront in this era. These topics seemed to have too much bearing on theories, but to Liu Shangying, they were rooted in his practice over years. As to personality, he is sincere, honest, and quiet but fairly thoughtful. He is very insightful to various issues in contemporary art. As a painter, however, he is clear that he has to start with painting as an activity. At that time he had enough paintings on hand for an album, and a lot of his works showed his potential to create. He was not very anxious, however, saying that there was a lot more to do. Touched by his determination and ambition, I wished that he could do more works which were born of his reflections in this period. In the two years that followed, he made a lot of trips, dedicating more to exploration. Underlying these newly finished works there seems to be the answers to the problems in our discussion.

　　Actually his pursuit for something called "grand awareness" has started to arise from his consciousness, or in other words, has subtly changed his art. It is true that the awareness, including firstly his desire to express his feelings that have buried in his innermost for years, is concrete, as it is something triggered by certain landscape he saw on his tour or a kind of impulse to narrate that is aroused by his nostalgia of certain scenery. It is, however, abstract in his own right, because it is about expression aimed to create in the painting something that goes beyond the concrete landscape and the image. Consequently his works begin to return to themselves as art, i.e., a pure state in which the pictorial language becomes a vehicle for expressing emotions. To avoid being concrete and shift to narration are not enough to cover everything about what Liu Shangying is doing in reality. As an artist who shows great concern for social reality and transformations in life, spiritually he has never cut himself off from reality, and his reflections and analysis about the cultural context of contemporary art are quite rational. Or we might as well say that his effort to express his feelings through painting and to translate his social concern into painting does have a subtle effect on his ideas, but he has to find a way that is different from his artistic concern and ways of expression he has been so familiar with, which accounts for why he gradually detached himself from reproducing reality and focused on narratives with grand scenery as theme. During these two years, in the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau he found "the landscape" that fit in with his soul, but more importantly, he discovered the concrete vehicle for the expression of his grand narrative. He regards it as spiritual transcendence and emotional elevation.

　　In the embrace of the pure nature that was far removed from mundane life, Shangying was thoroughly elevated. Both the clear and pure nature and the pristine color and air of the atmosphere had great impact on his soul. He was thus determined to bring forth his most direct and real response. In his journey for painting from life, he reached the place where nature is close at hand. On a large canvas he gave full play to the grand awareness that had accumulated in his mind and was still surging there. These visually amazing works were really inspired by these places that aroused his strong emotion.

　　These new works are not a kind of detailed description but themed narratives. Internally the structure of the works corresponds to the vastness of nature, highlighting the spatial depth on one hand and the width on the other. The image is thus formed that is not restricted by fixed perspectives. It is as if time were also included in the painting, forming a uniquely valuable pictorial structure. More importantly, underneath the so-called "landscape" painting, there is rich rhythm and strong artistic conception, revealing the changing social and cultural atmosphere in our age. It is Shangying's abstract expression or spontaneous overflow of his reflections about reality, as well as implication in the sociological sense that is different from the conventional sociology of art.

　　Admittedly contemporary art in China has took on a multiple look, but how the form and the content appear to be should not be the only standard for "modernity" in an artist's ideal and pursuit. In general, underlying a certain means of art there is definitely a sociological force, differing only in extent, discernability or the artist's subjective consciousness. I believe his art represents spiritual "grand awareness" rather than "grand narrative" in terms of artistic form on the ground that he can go beyond the narrative that focuses on detailed narration of plots without losing the "grandeur" of the spiritual pursuit. Here lies his unique quality, which is really thought-provoking.

　　Such grand awareness naturally leads to the shift in his pictorial methodology.

　　While painting landscape from life, he used to rely on the academic training, paint within the framework of the principal trend, and focus on the artistic conception in the landscape before his eyes. As to figure paintings, he also tried to catch the whole naturally by putting the figures and the background in harmony, so that the figures could integrate into the space naturally. Besides, his pictorial coloring, formal rhythm and handling of the brush also show strong pictorial vitality. At present he is more concerned with the pictorial language, taking depiction as creation and isomorphism between psychology and the object. To get the overflow of pictorial language, he needs an opportunity to experience and another to express, like those in the purgatory who have to experience the real pain both physically and mentally. The large canvas spread by the lake on the plateau was like an open heart that was ready to take in every bit of strong emotion and reflections. Here painting, as a really enjoyable process, mixes landscape, air and light to compose a great symphony. Conventional approaches are obviously not enough for such state, so he has made a lot of trials and there have been breakthroughs. The painting brush is not the only tool, as everything that can help to build the rhythm and texture is employed in the painting. The innovation in tools has achieved unexpected visual effect. Thanks to his talent in coloring, he has unique pursuits in the choice of tone, and more importantly, he is good at building strong and new relations between colors based on the contrast between complementary colors, between black and white. While being concerned with the abstract structure of a form in the figural modeling, he used to lay emphasis on the changes in movement in the painting, but now the depiction that is no longer concrete tells us that abstract elements are now playing a major role. The power of language is thus fully revealed in the unrestrained strokes.

　　The elevation of an artist's intellectual world is the source of creativity. Shangying has grown beyond his own boundaries, particularly the boundaries of painting as a conventional form of art. The breakthroughs he made, both visual and spiritual, has built a new realm for him and offered us new discoveries.

Fan Di'an

National Art Museum of China

Autumn 2013