艺术家 · ARTIST / ©Mao Yan

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【 毛焰的删减和增加 】

文/韩东

©Mao Yan’s work, Portrait of Thomas, Oil on Canvas

The Thomas collection, which began 20 years ago, gives us a look at Mao Yan's terrible cuts. All information that has sociological implications for revealing a specific life is omitted, leaving only an image, a face or a gesture that does not constitute a special meaning.

©Mao Yan, Small Portrait of Thomas No.4, Oil on canvas, 36 x 27.8cm, 2014

As a Chinese artist, Mao Yan also deliberately omitted "China" from his image, modeling a white European. But is he painting white europeans? If Mao Yan had only drawn one or a few Thomas, it would have been, but if he had only painted this white European for twenty years, it could not have been a specific person. It's not a white European, it's not a Thomas, as the name of the series suggests, it's a "Thomas series," in which Thomas is just a human figure, just an abstract face. It doesn't even matter if it's an abstraction of a face, it's just a symbol. However, the image on the picture is so real and concrete.

©Mao Yan’s work, Portrait of Thomas, Oil on Canvas

By abridging, the wool flame achieves what I call "concrete abstraction." Shang Yang once said that it is rare for an artist like Mao Yan to achieve abstraction through the language of painting (in this case, the language of image) because it is impossible. Abstract, before the formation of concrete can exist (color, line, shape, volume, light and shade, etc.), after the formation of concrete image is the most likely to belong to the symbol, rather than abstract. It is difficult to reconcile the conflict and beyond the conflict, but Mao Yan did it. Mao Yan also omitted naming, by the way. "Thomas series" is a general topic, for the convenience of words, specific to each picture, even if there is a name also difficult to remember.

©Mao Yan’s work, Portrait of Thomas, Oil on Canvas

Considering that Mao Yan was also a poet who dealt with language and words, this approach to the naming of his works should be a kind of deliberate vagueness or weakening. He also cut out words that were not in the language of the painting (a counterpoint to the one that was titled "my poet" before the Thomas series began, for example).

For nearly two decades, the Thomas series has been the main part of Mao Yan's paintings. He also drew something else, tried out different ways of drawing, and left it at that -- as some sort of "after-work" game or something to watch with a pen. The following mentioned increase of the hair flame is not included in the unusual movement that began in the past year or two. The hair flame began to increase, and I made a conscious effort to draw more things.

Mao Yan, Portrait of Thomas - 2016 No.1, 2016, Oil on canvas, 110 cm × 75 cm (43-5/16" × 29-1/2") © Mao Yan

We need to pay attention to what the artist subtracts, and, crucially, to what he adds after the deletion. This minus one will reveal the extent to which artists have penetrated into their work, and the very different places they have reached. It can be said that the mystery of art is close at hand. This is not an exaggeration. For example, as a writer, I am particularly concerned about Hemingway's famous omissions. Hemingway's cuts triggered a revolution in the novel's narrative that continues to this day. Unfortunately, his increase is more ambiguous. Perhaps that was one reason why Hemingway's writing became unsustainable. I digress.

©Mao Yan, Fragments of Portrait No.1, 2018, Oil on canvas, 75 x 55cm

©Mao Yan, Woman with a Mirror, 2017-2018, Oil on canvas, 130 × 90cm

In the past two years, Mao Yan was always surrounded by instant relief pills and other medicines. The image or image of this xindan was also closely related to his personal life. MAO yan does not directly add symbols of Chinese or social life. To do so would be to compromise and repeat the mistakes of the past. Xindan is very abstract, if it is not spoken by MAO yan in literary language, you really can not see.

©Mao Yan’s work, Young Man, 2017, Oil on canvas

The visuals are just dark circles that are connected or intertwined, like ping-pong balls or power balls, moving like a model of the DNA double helix. But in any case, these danes or pills are not part of Mao Yan's paintings. I mean, they are neither the background nor the foreground of the picture space. They have nothing to do with Mao Yan's images. This is very important. Xindan is not part of the painting, just like what appears in another painting, another painting. Or the borders and decorations of the painting being painted (or looking at). However, in the treatment of brush strokes, colors and other painting languages, xindan is absolutely in harmony with the painting and image being painted. To apply the linguistic terms, within the scope of reference, xindan and the subject image of the painting go their own way, and in the signification, they come from the same whole.

©Mao Yan’s work, Young Man, 2017,Oil on canvas

Here are some new additions to Mao Yan. Is it a flash or a reflection? Or is it light refraction? Or was it the moment the glass broke? In short, some irregular light body, the light is unique to appear on the picture. Without communicating with Mao Yan, let's call it "light body". Like xindan, the light body does not belong to the painting being painted. It has nothing to do with the image being painted, but it blends into the picture in terms of pen and color. The same abstract, elusive, but it seems to be with the use of xindan and mutual generation. There is an inevitable relationship of mutual influence between the heart and the light body, not a separate act.

©Mao Yan, “Andy of Scotland,” oil on canvas, 150 x 100cm, 2013-2014

If the density of xindan represents reality, the light body represents emptiness. Xindan represents space because of its volume sense, while the light body represents time because of its flicker. This is a dimensional structure formed between space and time or between reality and reality, neither of which can separate from the other. A virtual reality, a light and a dark, one is a closed circle, one is a road through... The relationship between the two is obviously stronger than the relationship between them and the image. It seems that Mao Yan added a depth of field to his paintings, like a frame. But this frame is not the frame of a painting in reality, nor is it a concrete frame on the picture, which is more mysterious and profound than that. In my opinion, the thing formed by the union of the xindan and the light body can only be explained in terms of dimensions.

©Mao Yan, Sitting Y, 2016, Oil on canvas, 110 × 75cm

Of course, Mao Yan is not from the effect of all these considerations, deliberate to have these increases. All the addition and use of construction is the result of his long thinking, judgment, concentration and experimentation. All this "complicated simplicity" is not work that can be done by reason alone. Perhaps reason is only suitable for the interpretation and interpretation after the event, and truly transcendental creation can only be grasped by genius in its moments with patience and simplicity. Once achieved, genius immediately returns to the same physical reality as us, marveling at what it has done.

©Mao Yan, Sitting Y, 2016, Oil on canvas, 110 × 75cm

"What is this? Why am I drawing these circles and lights? I had to, but it wasn't bad..." Mao Yan said.

【 惠书文｜艺评 】朱峰 · 20年代：雕于气，塑之以息的“数字装置”

策展手记｜惠书文：由观念到“物质”的超验知觉，遇见黄鹿——合与生

作者：中国当代艺术