Pang Maokun is well-known for the portrait of an old Yi woman. This oil painting is named Apples are ripe, which was painted in 1983. During the following few years, Pang Maokun continued to paint with the same theme. Those paintings were so impressive that people thought of Pang Maokun as one of the leading painters depicting different cultures of the minorities in the rural painting movement throughout China. People hardly noticed the unique observing consciousness that already exists in his first well-known painting: The old woman is squatting, putting her two hands above the eyebrows to shade her eyes from the bright sunlight, staring into the distance peacefully. At that time, the painter’s choice of her motion in this painting was highly praised and was regarded as the proof of his grasp of details. But today, when we look at this piece of art again and try to understand the inner meaning of this motion, we finally get to the question: How does the painter look at the world? Rather than saying that Pang Maokun noticed a typical scene in life, we should say this is actually the way he looks at the world. What I’m trying to say is that it’s not because the painter saw an old woman’s motion and then painted it on canvas, it is because the painter always gaze at the world in that way. Pang Maokun is not that kind of person who loves to be in the crowd, he is quiet and focusing on the inner spirit. However, his eyes are bright and with hidden sharpness, sometimes people get wrong impression about him. I guess in his own imagination, the figure named Pang Maokun would sometimes raise his invisible hands to protect himself from the bright light of chaos from the practical life, while seeking to reach the hidden thoughts of humanity. After appreciating his works for many years, the word “silence” suddenly jumped into my mind one day. By combining this key word with gaze, we find a position, a visual direction, and a habit to observe the humanity.

　　To remain silence is not to be motionless. On the contrary, it is a tranquil status after complex experiences. Just like that old Yi woman, staring into the distance and raising her two hands to shade her eyes. It seems that she is protecting her eyes from the bright sunlight. In fact, this motion represents the observing consciousness to observe and gaze at each moment of our lives.

　　There is a another woman’s portrait by Pang Maokun named the rainbow appears silently: A young girl is squatting in the mountain, bending her body, hiding her face in her arms, with her eyes secretly and quietly staring at the front. Perhaps this painting is not really a piece of art from Pang Maokun’s point of view. It looks like the painter depicts a shy and inner self, a secret gaze at the outside world. With or without purpose, however, it reveals the painter’s attitude: Facing the chaos of this world quietly. The painting Woman sitting inside the red door is a sharp contract. The painter put all the objects inside the room, and it seemed that he was depicting quietness. However, as observers, we immediately find a unique angle used in this painting, angle of the painter: He was outside the door, looking inside, painting what he saw there. This unique “visual angle”, I call it gaze. It is the theme of Pang Maokun’s paintings. He was not painting a quiet woman sitting in a red sofa inside a room; he was painting a way of gaze. There are another two paintings with the same theme, Casual time No.1 and No.2. Obviously painted at same period of time. The casual feeling inside the room and the randomness of searching the outside emphasize the gaze at gaze itself.

　　Different from Apples are ripe and Rainbow appears silently, the indoor women series reveals a concentration on inner world from the outside world. The theme is outside the canvas, rather than inside the painting. Hands shading the eyes and face hiding in arms represent searching for the outside from the inside. Pang Maokun purposely hides the searching attempt to create a meaningful vagueness in these art works. The indoor women series depicts the artist’s feeling first, then the feeling of observer, and then observer’s feeling towards the painter’ feeling. When going through his works of this period of time, I find that Pang Maokun has painted a large number of paintings with the same theme, which I call “indoor series”. The frequently used theme reveals Pang Maokun’s infatuation for the visual angle. It’s a determined gaze to observe the other space through the walls. I even have the idea that Pang Maokun is more interested in those that were not painted, those that were covered and hidden. He is determined to limit our sights inside the frames and would not let us see the hidden world. This is the way the painter questions the meaning of observation. It shows his instinctive thinking and his doubts that cannot be wiped away.

　　Let us have a look at the still life painting Lamplight on the desk. To me, this is not a still life painting. It is a figure painting, because there is a human figure in it. Painter’s intention is revealed by the two mirrors on the desk. The image in the mirror is the result of gaze, yet the beginning of gaze. The gaze is dual, being the object and the result at the same time. It represents the paradox of observation and becomes a key word for culture criticizing. Pang Maokun depicted the mirror carefully and firmly to emphasize the reflection. However, the reflection is limited by the frame of mirror and appears to be incomplete. It is difficult to tell what it really is. This unique character determines that ideas expressed in this painting are sophisticated and complicated, and it successfully beats those simple scenes in former paintings.

　　In front of the mirror and Morning light from the window are two typical women portraits. In these pictures, reflection in the mirror is complete, but the woman who is looking at herself in the mirror is just a profile on canvas. In art history, it is actually a custom for the painters to discuss the relationship between observer and the observed. According to Michel Foucault, Diego VELAZQUEZ’s masterpiece Las Meninas of the 17th century is actually a visual explanation for observer and the observed. The artist imagined that he was facing a big mirror and he was painting the reflection. That included himself, his model, maids and servants who were playing around. Until Michel Foucault discussed the ideas of this painting from a political angle, people used to think of this work simply as a portrait, like a diary recording painter’s working status. But from Michel Foucault’s point of view, it is more than just a portrait. The relationship between observer and the observed represented the gaze of governing power. Social classes were represented by the observer and the observed. This kind of relationship was so real and so cruel that even the painter who lived in it felt hard to breathe. Same kind of gaze appeared in The Sabine Women, 1799, large painting of French classical painter Jacques Louis David. Generally speaking, our eyes would be attracted by the woman in the center who raises her arms to stop the conflicts and war. But soon, our attention would be drawn away from her and to the little boy particularly placed at the lower part of the picture. He is staring at the observers. Obviously, the artist tried to expand the scene from the painting to the real life with the boy’s observation. And this turns a seemingly classical painting into a method of political propaganda.

　　The key is gaze. It is an inner observation, a self-reflection, an attempt to reach and discover the outside world. It is interesting that Pang Maokun has depicted a series of women, aiming at gaze. Female images play an important part in his numerous works. Although his models change from the Yi women in his early works to the modern women in his later works, Pang Maokun always bears in mind the inner observation, gaze and reflection when he paints. I can never agree that Pang Maokun should simply be classified into the realistic style of Chinese oil painting. Moreover, I find his interest and depth in paintings are totally different from those of excess hollow details, especially different from paintings with merely pretty girl. True, women in Pang Maokun’s works are always charming and adorable. But what really arouses our interest, what gives actual meaning to those female images, is an everlasting character, an unforgettable visual impression, and below the surface, a meditation. It is a meditation on gaze and the hidden thoughts behind the gaze. Otherwise it is impossible for us to understand why Mythology of today series named by Lu Hong, which Pang Maokun painted in Shanghai last year, appears so strange and weird. It is not rational to say that Pang Maokun suddenly gets mad about the images on internet, so that he has totally changed his interest to become “fashionable”. On the contrary, the true Pang Maokun never changes. The weirdness in this series cannot cover an expression that always exists in his works of art. What kind of expression? Gaze under the mask of coolness. Figures in his paintings are the observed for sure, but this is only the first impression. Few people realize that we, observers wandering in front of Pang Maokun’s paintings, are the ones being gazed. Gazed by whom? Those figures in his paintings, of course. They are gazing and staring at you in a way of being observed. They look straight into your eyes, and you have no place to hide. But if you think deeper, who is actually gazing and staring at you? There is only one man, the artist Pang Maokun. He is hiding behind the exquisite depiction, behind the trap of realism, behind the eyes of adorable women, gazing at you quietly, gazing at the world you represent. It is a world different from his, a world full of nonsense, a world with endless joy.

　　Pang Maokun is there, standing, silently, gazing at you, staring at you. He doesn’t have to do anything else. His gaze, followed by his stare explains everything.