His Epic

　　Written by Li Xiaoshan

　　I. His Characteristics

　　I have known Yang Ermin for a long time, but we hardly stay together. To me, he is not a high profile person. Comparing with other artists full of enthusiasm about non-artistic life, Yang prefers to paint day and night in his studio. I am a countercurrent---when most people give praise to those who keep humble, I applaud for those who are of self-affirmation, even self-expansion; when the masses worship the so-called masters, I am well-disposed towards the modest ones. To applaud for the former is because they dare to express themselves while others are in silence; this is what courage and boldness is. To be well-disposed towards the latter is because they retain an artist’s characteristics while others are hunting for benefits rather than art itself. Yang has been famous for many years and could have been much more well-known since he has enough ability and talent to realize this. However, he told me he did not like to be high profile lest one day he would be cast away. In fact, it is difficult for a man of integrity to make some positive influence in our age in which every man can hardly be immune from social environment.

　　Yang’s another feature is toughness which could be regarded as his ideal rather than his characteristics. For many years, whenever my friends and I got together, we almost talked of everything except art. Han Shaogong (Chinese writer) once joked that Chinese literati never discuss literature but sports or entertainment news when gathering. Indeed, artists and writers in our age have become afraid of or shamed of discussing academic topics. Nevertheless, if an artist has no interest in art, how could he revere art? Without reverence for art, how could he be ambitious to make great achievement? The interest in art comes from the consistent ideal, a target that an artist would like to reach for his whole life. Yang insists on his ideal; that is to promote the creation of modern Chinese art to a new height.

　　Yang clearly understands that ideal is not illusion. He repeatedly emphasizes that the modern Chinese artist must have wide horizon, open mind and various knowledge. His experience proved how correct this requirement is. Over the past few years, Yang frequently travelled around in Japan and other countries where he learned and created while keeping in touch with domestic art circle. He pored on the development of Chinese painting through his artistic practice and established a plausible criterion---at any rate, an age must have its own art; tradition is glory of past and new glory must be realized by present artists.

　　Many years ago, it occurred to Yang that it was necessary to go back to a pure academic life. Probably, he felt that this was another way of spirit-cultivating. I asked him what he wanted through Ph. D study and he told me he needed the process. Years later, when Yang got his diploma, I asked him if the Ph. D title would be in favor of his creation. He gave me a negative answer, but explained that “I completed my self-design; the important is not the diploma, but that I could do what I want to do”. Yang is so tough that he could spare no time and effort to do whatever he wants. His courage and determination in fulfilling the ideal lift him in our eyes.

　　II. His Idea

　　It is a common sense that an artist’s creation and final works depend on his entire idea. Yang used to tell me his idea of painting. Not only does his passion imply his thinking of painting (especially Chinese painting), but also indicates his rigid attitude when learning new experience and establishing a system of knowledge. I have ever written an essay about Yang which has the same title as one of his paintings “Wind Outside of the Window”. After appreciating many of his works and reading some of his articles, I found the title pregnant with certain significance which has an inner connection with his idea and style of painting.

　　As people who are familiar with the history of modern Chinese art know, traditional ink wash painting began to change drastically since the age in which Xu Beihong (1895-1953), Lin Fengmian (1900-1991) and other artists lived. The Taiwanese painter Xi Dejin asserts that Lin Fengmian will be the dividing line in the future history of Chinese art. This assertion might not correspond to the current multi-situation, but it has an explicit meaning from the aspect of Chinese painting. Lin’s (and Xu’s) practice does not embody his own taste any more, but symbolizes the decline of a system of painting and a historical debut of another counterpart.

　　In modern times, even the most conservative and superficial artists dare not deny this situation that ink wash painting has undergone a change from single polar and confinement to multi-polar and openness. I believe that though a few people earn a living by traditional ink and wash painting (or traditional Chinese painting), yet this fact has nothing to do with academic evaluation. Many people are perplexed by contemporary popularity of traditional ink wash, thinking that market is the barometer of art. As a matter of fact, this is thorough misunderstanding. Yang insists that “at any rate, ink wash painting (here he refers to traditional ink wash) has no longer correspond to modern Chinese society for it is obsolete. Chinese painters should not take obsolescence as uniqueness. The Chinese art circle should get used to making no progress.” Unfortunately, this is also the fact prevailing in modern Chinese society. A lot of previous reformers are satisfied with present situation. Someone says that the more national, the more international. However, Yang questions this view and asks how could an artist put his creative work into reality if he does not have wide horizon and open mind? In other words, national feature is no more than something diachronic which sediments as times go by. It will become a self-deceptive trick if we do not bring it into common judgment.

　　Here, I would like to specifically point out one of Yang’s ideas. He says that “a clear division between tradition and modern could keep tradition away from being destroyed…The Chinese artist would not know what he should do unless he distinguishes traditional art from modern art. Unfortunately, modern Chinese art still fails to make such a division. And it is this failure which becomes an excuse for reforming the artistic tradition of Chinese painting…Someone claims that new achievement comes from destroy of tradition. If so, this way of historical and cultural transmission is really hard to be understood.” Twenty years ago, I wrote an article on how to develop Chinese art with introducing new elements. Preserving and innovating could be undergone simultaneously, but this does not mean they have same significance. Here, my view happens to coincide with Yang’s. Yang is not an emotional artist. His penetrating idea originates from long-term observation and artistic practice.

　　How to innovate ink wash painting is an inevitable question for modern Chinese artists. Many of them spent years of efforts, but got few harvests. In Yang’s opinion, the important reason of failure is that they did not find out the right way but insisted the obsolete principle that “ink and wash come first”. He points out that “one of ignored spots in modern Chinese painting is that the traditional use of color in ink wash painting is still limited to the ‘old system’ in which there is no proper place for intense colors. Over the past century, Chinese artists struggled for taking color rather than ink and wash to create Chinese painting…Lin Fengmian made a harmony between dark ink and strong color. Though his experiment is not perfect and there is no strong artistic school founded so far, yet a kind of new ink wash painting is becoming more and more influential. In today’s Chinese art circle, strong-colored ink wash painting has been an important field; someday, it will be the main stream of Chinese art.” Yang rightly emphasizes the importance of color in ink wash painting. Reviewing the ink wash paintings in last decades, we can find that few artists were willing to study the intensity and variety of color, as a result of which ink wash painting seems lack of vividness. Yang questions that “now that we are in a colorful world, why must ink wash painting be created in ink? Is it because of its name?” He continues that “for an artist, to keep the traditional one-color principle is just like forbidding a girl to wear colorful clothes. There is something I should have spoken out earlier---my friends, my peers, if you are doing experiments on rice paper, add more colors into your painting! Then you’ll get wonderful effects.”

　　Here, the color which Yang advocates to use is not some superficial style which equals to ink wash. Color stands for a standpoint and a soul. To those progressive artists like Yang, the superficial style is nothing but a result, not meaningful innovation they desire for. In conversation, he often unconsciously mentioned his inclination to “technique”: “brush, ink and state are great legacy which our ancients left, but Chinese artists should never be limited to them because of their greatness. Whether an ink wash painting is new depends not on its theme, but the technique used in its creation as well the soul of the artist himself.” For Yang’s part, technique does not merely refer to the painting skill, not simple calligraphy, texture or color combination; it is a rein that can control the whole painting. No new technique, no new development. After comparing Japanese and Chinese painting, he concluded that “Japanese painting has initially developed its modern style, because it has a steady pattern that corresponds to modern aesthetic consciousness. Its normal features are unification of creating idea, modernization of style, purification of language, and innovation of technique. The overall configuration of Japanese painting has stepped out of tradition, but the inner spirit and aesthetic experience is still of Japanese style.” Thus, Yang looks forward to in particular “a new form of Chinese painting with highly unification of idea and technique”.

　　Has such a form existed? Obviously, Yang gives an affirmative answer. As I mentioned above, since the age of Xu Beihong and Lin Fengmian, Chinese artists have been trying to innovate. So far, most of them have returned to tradition, but there are still some pioneers adhering to new experiments. Yang is such a pioneer who has made a great success.

　　III. His Creation

　　Yang is a many-sided artist who has interests in figure, landscape and still life painting and who made great attainment in these fields. In my eyes, one-sidedness means an artist is limited in ability. When discussing poetic composition, the Chinese critic Yuan Mei (1716-1797) gives priority to talent among four qualities (others are ability, insight and courage). The artist is not a labor model; that is to say, he can not make great achievement simply with industrious work. I believe that Yang has enough potential to be an outstanding artist and he does not waste it. I always keep such an opinion that having unique personal feature is a criterion to judge an artist’s style---there is no exception to this in Chinese and western art history. Now that Yang’s talent makes us confident, we should not look down upon him even if he is excoriated or questioned.

　　In my previous articles, I mentioned repeatedly Borges’ curse---a writer or an artist should only do what he can do rather than what he wants to do. To some extent, this is somewhat a predetermined view. I have ever met many artists who were completely indulged in and content with their own imagination, holding no objective judgment. Yang is an artist, modest and low profile, but unremitting and idealistic. An overall view of his recent works tells us that he keeps exploring on his track. This makes him close to Balthus, Morandi in the west and Lin Fengmian, Guan Liang (1900-1986) in China.

　　Here, I would like to analyze Yang’s two early works---“Still Life Created on the Basis of Cezanne’s Works” and “Landscape Created on the Basis of Monet’s Works”. From the beginning, not fettered by old conventions, Yang attempted to graft the expressing way of modern art into Chinese painting materials. That is to say, if he devoted himself to experiments of “avant-garde ink wash” like other so-called pioneers, he would never achieve today’s success. Why does Yang take Cezanne and Monet as the basis of his works? It seems that he did this accidentally, but in fact it is his inevitably choice. In other words, Yang combines inner impulse with his expectation so as to rapidly and effectively release his depression---it is possible to innovate on rice paper, but raw rice paper has a feature that it can not be used for realistic painting. This limitation is an innate deficiency, but also an advantage.

　　In our discussion, I often tried to lead him to speak of his technique. For instance, what is the relationship between rice paper and color? I usually wonder how to use ink wash painting to realize an effect of oil painting since there are obvious differences between rice paper and canvas, watery pigment and oil pigment. Yang indirectly insisted that the innovation of Chinese painting must give prominence to color, because one color (ink), though having made great success in ancient times, is detached too much from modern life. How much detached? It is so detached that all about inheriting artistic legacy has become obsolete. Have we absorbed everything from ink wash (one color) which once attracted ancient Chinese artists? We need not answer this question immediately. Yang’s work is the best evidence. At least, it is acknowledged that besides learning theory, a man must watch or listen to artworks if he wants to understand painting or music. In these two fields, practice is far more important than theory---any point of view (theory) without taking artworks into account is meaningless.

　　Therefore, when lingering among Yang’s paintings, you can find that his contribution deserves our attention and cherishing. Meanwhile, you can also discover an attractive expression of technique which has been perfect. The artist takes advantage of the quality of rice paper and the function of watery pigment to depict modern life and scenes as well as a visual effect of oil painting. In some aspects, he even supplements and adds something which is difficult to realize into oil painting. All these project a favorable view of rice paper and watery pigment. Not only is this a complete experience, but also Yang’s dream. Dream is usually distinguished from reality, but for some people, dream is reality. What does it mean when an artist did unprecedented deeds? I used to read some critical essays on Yang’s works. Generally speaking, the critics give praise to him in two aspects, namely profundity and uniqueness of the state, and innovation and establishment of the form. I pay more attention to his exploration of the technique of ink wash painting. When discussing Lin Fengmian, most of critics talk about his contribution to “blending western element with Chinese style”, a procedure based on the western part. Though easy to understand, the blending is difficult to practice. Yang suggests that a modern artist should not confine himself to the duality of West and China, but turn it to an advantage in creation. Therefore, Yang’s attitude towards creation is detached---artwork is the ultimate solution to all disputes.

　　Here, I would like to repeat that modern Chinese painting is still in a downturn, thus those artists who wish to explore in this field actually shoulder extra burdens. Yang’s creation gives us a kind of enlightenment or a proud attitude---can Chinese painting provoke its potential in new environment? It happens when the painting has no other choice. As Hegel says, “was wirklich ist, das ist vernünftig”. Yang’s work has come into being, as to its reasonability, I have no doubt. Moreover, I think there will be more and more people who like and cherish his work. The ultimate judgment of a work depends on its own quality and this is just Yang’s advantage.

　　IV. Conclusion

　　This article is titled “His Epic” which means a man can create his own epic. However, for some people, the personal epic is the temporary epic. Every idealist desires for creating his temporary epic. It is a great fortune if a man’s judgment on himself corresponds to that of history. Is Yang such a fortunate artist? Is not?

Translated by Lin Zhenhua

作者：李小山