"Style is the Man" exists in both Chinese and Western language, though literally different, but with nearly the same meaning. That is, the artists and their works should be closely related. That's why Mikel Dufrenne argued that we may think that Beethoven's music is powerful, or that Beethoven is powerful; and we may say that Mozart's music is cheerful, or that Mozart is cheerful. It is not a wrong collocation. As in pedantic words, there is not ontological dislocation.

　　However, not all artists deserve the saying that "Style is the man". Some artists are looking for their own style through the whole life, but in vain. These artists together with their works would be soon forgotten by history. Both arts without style and life without its own feature are called failure in terms of aesthetics. People get successful in aesthetics through different ways, some with ease, some with more twists and turns.

　　It seems that Ren Zhe easily finds his own style, either accidentally or inevitably. Shortly after graduation, Ren Zhe devoted himself to sculpture themed on the ancient warriors. I would like to describe his style in two words, i.e. "grandeur and strength", borrowed from the "Twenty-four Poems". The ancient heroism developing from "grandeur and strength" forms the uniqueness of Ren Zhe's works in modern arts. This is how Ren Ze could soon make a figure in the contemporary artistic field.

　　Regarding Western art, since the 1950s when the abstract expressionism was replaced by Pop Arts, heroism has been on the decline. As for the Chinese contemporary arts, heroism is also subject to criticism, deconstruction and sneer. It is no exaggeration to say that Chinese contemporary arts originate from the rebellion against fake heroism. The best way for the rebellion is to demonstrate real cynicism. Scoundrel and raffish trends are popular in Chinese contemporary arts because of their deconstruction of fake heroism. However, when fake heroism became history, cynicism lost its target and consequently its power. More importantly, due to simple imitation and repetition of forms, cynicism itself becomes fake. After accomplishing its task, Chinese contemporary arts featuring cynicism will definitely be replaced by new style and mode.

　　From the beginning, Ren Zhe did not follow the path of cynicism, or devoted himself to imitating the popular style of contemporary arts. He firmly pursued his own way of heroism, which may be closely related to his natural temperament and the environment. Though not tall or mighty, he is full of heroic character seen from his eyebrows, with absorbed vision and firm complexion. Therefore, his selection of the ancient warrior as the subject for his works is not accidental, but entirely out of instinct. Precisely because of this, he can steadily walks into his works, and expresses his true feelings thereby. Ren Zhe's ancient warriors seem to be mannered for artists growing up with model operas, misty poetry and ridicule literature, etc. But we should not forget that Ren Zhe was born in the 1980s, when the cultural styles intoxicating older generation of artists are merely legendary for them. On the contrary, films and TV series on martial arts affected the growth of this generation of artists to a certain extent. As many ancient costume plays are narrated to allude today's world, Ren Zhe's ancient warriors are used to express his true emotional appeals. Different from totally westernized artists, this generation of artists like Ren Zhen have more confidence in their own culture, with which his figures are full of meanings rather than empty symbols.

　　Ren Zhen is lucky to find his own style matching with his temperance and character from the beginning of his creation. However, not everyone can successfully incarnate his temperament into artistic style. The spiritual character conveyed by the ancient Chinese warriors has not only the authenticity in terms of personal existence, but also far-reaching implication when it is closely associated with the long history of culture. Today, it is absolutely right for artists to stress true feelings, but the expression of true feelings alone is not definitely good arts. In an increasingly democratic and flat era, true personal feelings are not enough to move others. Only when true personal feelings are associated with long history and vast society could it cause the resonance from others. Even more fortunately, the true feelings of Ren Zhe are not his own ravings, but are internally connected with the spiritual nature of Chinese culture. Ren Zhe brings the remote cultural spirit to the presence through his own feelings, and bestows new life into the abstract cultural spirit. In this sense, we could not see any hypocrisy or unwarranted complaint in his works.

　　Vertically, Ren Zhe's works are related to the long history, while horizontally to the vast society. After experiencing modernism, the human society entered the so-called popular era, where heroes are not valued and shrink in number. However, deeply in the heart of everyone, the pursuit for meaning with depth, height, strength and breadth has never stopped. Arts have to be different from the real life if it wants to keep its own identity. This is art dissimilarity advocated by Wolfgang Welsch. The rich and colorful Greek arts are not the reflection of the happy life of Greek people as imagined by Johann J. Winckelmann, Johann CF von Schiller and other thinkers during Enlightenment, but the proof of the unbearable misery of Greek people as discovered by Friedrich W. Nietzsche. To make the unbearable life worth living, the Greeks invented the fantasy of the modeling arts and enchanting tragic plays, through which they were removed or anesthetic from the pain in real life. According to this principle of dissimilarity, arts, in the era of heroes, need a little cynicism, while arts, in the era of rampant cynicism, need a little heroism. Ren Zhe's works can arouse our deepest resonance, as they pull away from the earthly life and evoke the demand for elitism, thus bringing a sense of regret for belated encountering.

　　From my point of view, I really appreciate the motion of force in the Ren Zhe's works. Those of us who were born in the 1960s experienced the revolutionized cultural environment. Born with traditional humbleness of the Chinese people, we would feel awkward and shy, even with a sense of shame when talking about the traditional Chinese calligraphy, drama, shadow boxing and other cultural forms. After the constant correction in recent years, we learn to appreciate the charm of calligraphy and shadow boxing. Once our cultural memory is aroused, we will be intoxicated and gain a great aesthetic pleasure, as they are, after all, the beauty associated with our flesh and blood and infiltrating into our cultural genes. Chinese aesthetics does not appreciate simple human motions, but trend, tempo and rhythm full of inner dynamics, which are embodied vividly and incisively in Chinese calligraphy. With a passion for calligraphy, Ren Zhe has a deep understanding of the beauty in rhythm in Chinese calligraphy. Although he learned a lot from Auguste Rodin and other Western masters in sculpture, Ren Zhe's works are full of strength, which obviously comes from Chinese tradition. In this sense, we could say that Ren Zhe's works has got rid of the influence from Western sculpture, and push the traditional Chinese sculpture to a new height with the help of western sculpture.

　　Recently, Ren Zhe created a serial of warrior sculptures from stainless steel. In addition to all the advantages in the previous bronze sculptures, these sculptures in stainless steel have another layer of connotation. Compared with bronze, stainless steel is more contemporary with a strong pop flavor. In the bronze works, Ren Zhe tries to get rid of the limitation of realism through exaggeration and distortion, and to strengthen the tensions among meanings so as to tap the potential for interpretation. In the works of stainless steel, due to some dissimilarity between the media and the subject, tension among meanings is amplified. Powers from the contradictions between Chinese and Western, traditional and contemporary, elite and pop, strength and beauty are smartly used by Ren Zhe. These powers become the source of dynamics to expand and enrich the implications of the works.

By Peng Feng

January 27, 2010, Weixiu Garden, Peking University