On Yang Ermin’s Artistic State

　　By Shui Tianzhong

　　Some scholars claim that the last century is a century in which mankind witnessed the greatest changes in history. The changes, which are so called by scholars, involve almost all aspects of human life, from geographical environment, science & technology and political system to the living patterns of common people. Art unexceptionally experienced such surprising changes, too.

　　Art has changed greatly in its sense as well as in its form. The emotion and delight expressed in painting have dramatically changed, too. As a man who has experienced the great historical changes of the 20th century, I am deeply puzzled from time to time to notice the sense of being hurt, by tumult, by anxiety and by endless pranks that are stuffed in present-day paintings. The admiration and mission of artists have so fundamentally changed that they seem to be angels in illusion who announced to the public the doomsday trial in Confessions. The hope and confidence that have gradually developed in people's mind are no where to be found in present-day artistic works.

　　In such a popular tide of culture, artistic works about life and normal ways of life, which remain pure, simple and gentle, look different, fresh and unusual. Yang Ermin is just such an artist whose painting deals with all the details of people's everyday life.

　　In comparison with the present-day paintings by those artists who take care of various sharp, extraordinary and major problems, Yang Ermin's paintings look pure and gentle. The very purity and gentleness lie in the fact that the artist chose everyday life as the subject matter and he dealt with his paintings in a simple and natural way. Perhaps because people have lost their ordinary and gentle state of mind, the significance and delight expressed in Yang Ermin's paintings suddenly seem strikingly new and fresh. Calm and unhurried, he painted ordinary fruit and flowers; he painted comers of ordinary rooms. He painted common people who are not at all extra-ordinary. It's very hard for one to find from the figures Yang painted the slightest sign of deep, crazy and desperate belief, which are most popular and appeal to many artists nowadays. In the peaceful atmosphere of life, Yang Ermin skillfully combined the significance of traditional Chinese painting with the constituent concept and the combination is full of poetic significance with modem liveliness. More than one thousand years ago, Ouyang Xiu, a famous poet in Song Dynasty, once sighed that "the leisure, tranquility and delight remain difficult to reach", which means that it is hard for artists to reach the highest state of art. And Yang Ermin’s exploration in his individualized paintings seems to be similar to the ancient poet from a new angle.

　　It is quite popular for contemporary Chinese artists to learn and absorb the techniques and ideas of Western painting so as to make Ink and Wash Painting more impressive. This, of course, is a rather long process of development. Thanks to those senior artists who stuck to their course and bravely faced the blame and criticism that kept pouring in, Yang Ermin. As an on-coming artist, is now able to get rid of all the fetters and restrictions in his artistic creation and face freely and easily the painting in itself. So it is no longer adequate for critics to judge his paintings by traditional rules and criteria. Due to our cultural background and customs, we still call Yang Ermin’s paintings Chinese painting or Ink and Wash Painting and we still feel happy and delighted to savor in his paintings the traditional Chinese cultural flavor. His paintings, in fact, are simply different from the New Chinese Painting, a style represented by famous Chinese artists like Xu Beihong and Liu Haisu. His painting is also different from the combination of Chinese and Western painting, another style represented by Chinese artists like Lin Fengmian and Wu Guanzhong. In absorbing techniques from impressionism and postimpressionism, Yang Ermin took a different path from Tian Liming. His style is strongly foreign and the ink no more dominates other elements of painting. Such aspects as the formation of the scene, color design and the horizontal balance of details enable viewers to feel the purity of a whole and the abundance of a part represented by Monet and Bonnard. His paintings, however, also reveal quite naturally the typically Chinese poetic quality. This, of course, is decided by the artist's character and his state of mind. But we have to realize in the meanwhile that traditional Chinese tools and materials for painting also play an indisputably important role because the purity and smoothness, the reservedness and modesty are all closely related to the unique quality of traditional Chinese writing brush, ink and wash and Xuan Paper.

　　(Written on July, 2002,Beijing)

作者：水天中