Seeking a Way to Bridge Eastern and Western Arts:

On Study of Yang Ermin’s Paintings

　　By Tao Yongbai

　　When studying the paintings by Yang Ermin, we enjoy the beauty with a sense of tranquility and elegance. The appreciation of Yang's paintings enables us to transcend superficiality and vulgarity of modem life and leads us into a peaceful world to console ourselves for our exhausted soul and enjoy what life offers us. In a sense, his art, just as what Matisse once remarked, is" like a tranquilizer to soul and like an easy chair as well in which one can recover from exhaustion."

　　His paintings look magnificent and peaceful, sophisticated and pure, with the format of western painting and the romantic charm of Chinese ink and wash painting. As is known to all that it has been a tough problem in this century for Chinese painting to adapt itself to modem society because the traditional form of Chinese painting is already highly perfect and standardized as an enclosed independent system. So only when a breakthrough is made in Chinese painting itself, can Chinese painting become lively. For hundreds of years many Chinese artists have been exploring the possible solutions to the problem. Late great master of traditional Chinese painting, Xu Beihong opened a new era of traditional Chinese painting in western realistic technique. Lin Fengmian, with the help of modern western art and traditional Chinese art, made an effort to find a way to the junction of eastern and western art. Several generations of artists kept making academic explorations to decide whether to make traditional Chinese art serve the west or to make western art serve China. Young artist Yang Ermin found his own way by improving the original form of traditional Chinese ink and wash painting in western molding concept.

　　Yang Ermin majored in traditional Chinese painting and also showed strong interest in oil painting and print. He did a lot of art experiments in order to break through the Chinese tradition. He went to Japan in 1996 and settled down there. Japan is a country that is always ready to absorb new art from all over the world. At present the splendid period of Japanese ink and wash painting (also called painting of southern style, which originated from China's literary painting) is gone and

　　is now treated coldly in Japanese society. But facing such a situation, Yang Ermin is not at a loss. As a research fellow in Japan Art Institute, he tried consciously to make ink and wash painting to adapt to international art development. This doesn't mean to win the so-called qualification for international art communication at the sacrifice of the eastern artistic features of ink and wash painting. On the contrary he has been trying hard to broaden and enrich the expressing power of ink and wash painting so as to show its great vitality in international communication of contemporary cultures. He has chosen a way to resolve painting languages of different aesthetic systems from the east and west and achieve mastery of painting languages with his own individual characteristics.

　　Using for reference the principle of western molding formality, Yang Ermin arranged the pattern of his paintings in a way that later caused a change in traditional pattern of Chinese ink and wash painting. By means of plane design and three-dimensional molding, the general appearance of the picture is made full and looks pure, fresh and eye-catching. The layout of the picture is often composed of round shapes inside and square shapes outside with a clear rhythm of order and a sense of beauty. Take for instance his White Chrysanthemum. The focused white chrysanthemum and the vase are both in round shapes with many squares and rhombuses orderly intermingled with each other.

　　The layout offers a sense of abundance and harmonious beauty. The decorative modification of his pictures is based on sketches, with elements of horizontal view, vertical view and contra-perspective view. In Green Fruits, apart from the contrast of round and square shapes, the different objects seem to form a tune of multiple forms as a result of the effect of different angles of view. The pictures by Yang Ermin are done with cautious design but without any sign of ornate. In his pictures, plane decoration and painting join together smoothly, and a natural effect is thus reached with his skillful brush strokes.

　　It seems that, when he uses traditional Chinese Xuan paper, painting brush, ink and pigment, he adjusts the shades of color and the agreement of different colors in the way he deals with colors in oil painting. At the same time the smoothness of Chinese ink is also emphasized in his pictures. He skillfully combined the liveliness and richness of colors from western impressionism with the smoothness of ink from traditional Chinese painting. Thus viewers can observe the rich and subtle shades of colors, and they can sense the pleasing quality expressed in Chinese ink as well. Still Life is only a part of the Still Life with the counter and the ground forming an arc molding, but viewers can feel the warm and prosperous atmosphere inside the Still Life even without any brightness. And Inside the Room is full of small color blocks, and a concerto of emotional colors and shapes is achieved even without a human feature. A warm and merry atmosphere is felt in spite of the stillness of the picture. In his pictures, ink seems to blend in with many other colors. Water makes the colors look smooth and the traditional Chinese Xuan paper weakens the colors with its specific water-absorbing effect. His pictures enjoy an unusual elegance with oriental temperament and cultural embodiment.

　　Yang Ermin's art of ink and wash painting, intermingled with western molding concept and Japanese decorative flavor, has become his individual style with modern spirit and novelty. While widely absorbing new molding elements, he has made greatest use of the effect of ink and Xuan paper, and has broadened the content that ink and wash painting can express. Therefore Yang Ermin has contributed a great deal to the valuable academic explorations beyond the value system of traditional Chinese painting.

(Written on July 20, 1997,

Fangxing Garden, Beijing)

作者：陶咏白