Chao Hai's quite swift arising in ink field reveals his unordinary strength.  When I first met him several years ago, he held an exhibition in Nanjing.  Frankly speaking, at that time I have not heard about this name.  I felt a little surprised when watching his paintings, as I don't know too much about painters in Xi'an, maybe because of my limited interests and habits, I don't think highly of painters lacking in smartness and novelty, certainly, this is probably related with my understanding of Chinese painting.  I always advocate and emphasize innovation, and do my utmost to regard new conceptions and new forms as attention focus.  However, sometimes I find myself to claim love of what I actually fears, on one hand I proclaim and emphasize, on the other hand I instinctively repel them.  This kind of paradox is combined with the long-standing assimilation I have been receiving, and I have very serious complex of scholar's painting.  After 1990s, innovation of ink painting has presented a splendid sight, and become the important force of contemporary painting circle, and the outstanding ones among them have been generally recognized and well acknowledged.  Reviewing the most recent creative situation of ink painting, Chao Hai has become a person who is almost impossible to be neglected.  Many critics pay attention to him and give him favorable comments, which I think is not occasional.  The irreplaceable characteristics of Chao Hai's works, including specialty in form and technique, win for him a stable position.  Doubtlessly, as for his region, his transcension and coverage have already proved that he is not only a painter in Xi'an.
　　Even though, I still have to make some self-criticism on the problem of ink painting to some extent, as obviously, the existence and development of ink painting have generally exceeded the evaluation scope of traditional Chinese painting.  Some of its new elements and new ways need the equipment of new train of thoughts and new ways of speaking, just like facing Chao Hai's paintings, those traditional comments don't fit.  What puts me in a dilemma is that I don't' have very high estimation for the present situation of the whole ink paintings, meanwhile, when I am facing some real works, I would feel quite fond of and agree with them - please notice, I always advocate, when judging the works, the elements of habit and emotion ought to vacate the position for sense and belief, therefore, I usually pay more attention to the important outline instead of the specific details.
　　Now, so-called ink painting which people usually mention is actually experimental ink, a group of middle-aged and young artists' leading product at present, a kind of painting standing between traditionalization and westernization with Chinese characteristics.  What's the essence of experimental ink?  Simply speaking, it tries to keep away from the tradition, meanwhile attempts to keep even with western art, to promote the traditional material's function of ink painting onto contemporary level.  Making a comprehensive survey of all the artists engaged in experimental ink, there are only very tiny difference and disparity, and the same aspects include: 1. Mostly black and white, amplify and exaggerate some partial element of traditional ink to be an independent visual form; 2. Between abstraction and concretization, use lots of experiences of western abstract paintings for reference plus some elements of traditional Chinese painting, which is a quite typical combination of Chinese and Western; 3. Utilize the functional characteristics of Chinese painting's materials to create material effects which couldn't be found in western abstract paintings; 4. Most ink artists evolve from traditional Chinese painting, thus from time to time would be restricted by past experiences.  In concepts and during the producing course, there are always the remains, either abstract or semi-abstract, and it seems that I haven't seen any kind of purity in anybody's works.
　　As a part of contemporary art and complying with the times' requirements for art, experimental ink becomes some sort of symbol, indicating the modern transformation of traditional art.  As it emerges in new form and appearance, it brings forward the problem of how to evaluate it, because any art after all is a cultural phenomenon in our times - and for culture, we could only spread, exchange and judge it, but not to discuss the significance.  For my own opinion, the pressure upon experimental ink is double, to be compared with both traditional ink and with western modern art.  As for its quality and height, we could only assume that it still stays in the course of development and evolution, and it still needs time to prove whether it could represent the art level in this period.
　　Strictly speaking, Chao Hai doesn't completely belong to the circle of experiment ink.  His particularity is so obvious that his works could be easily recognized at the first glance under any circumstances.  However, this kind of "recognition" has its rational reason, not that he purposefully seeks for any novelty or peculiarity, but that his honesty, perseverance and sincerity as an old peasant touch every audience.  Chao Hai doesn't have the speculative psychology to follow the vogue, which is his greatest advantage.  Just as he stands in a relatively secluded environment for a long period, on one hand it innately refuses outside temptations, one the other hand it establishes the strong belief for himself.  We may assume, we could hardly find many other artists like him, who has been hiding in his small studio for more than a decade, doesn't care about anything happening outside, and just devotes all himself to his painting.  Moreover, Xi'an's regional limitation is always quite remarkable, those painting schools or trends are very repulsive.  After Shi Lu, so-called painting schools or trends are actually empty shell to bully others with their power, and we couldn't see any true strength there - surely I mean those having already benefited from bullying others with painting schools or trends.  Chao Hai (with only a few other artists similar to him) is an exception, which means self-seclusion and self-separation are not always wrong, sometimes it just assists someone to culminate in his career.
　　Some of Chao Hai's works are shocking, which is a different point from experimental ink.  I suppose, though experimental ink also talks about spirituality or metaphysics, there is always a little alienation between the works and artists' own experiences.  An artist's real experiences are valuable, and it's even more valuable for him to truly express this kind of experiences.  I couldn't affirm that Chao Hai's present style completely comes from his individual experiences, as not any artists is absolutely independent, he would be influenced by macroclimate or microclimate more or less, and an excellent artist could just digest this kind of influence into his nutrition instead of harnessing him.  When Chao Hai talks about his art concepts, the spirit, an abstruse subject, seems to be materialized for him.  His life, his experiences and his inexorable contemplation for many years has established an ideological frame, so that when he faces the white paper, brush and ink, his spirit is already melting.  Therefore, I believe, all of Chao Hai's declarations out of his works are unnecessary, as his works have explained everything.  I want to add one more point, now there are quite a few artists promoting all kinds of thoughts in their works, some even shout out loudly, which is wrong.  A good work is like a complete book, through which the audience could understand everything, and the advocated things may be just the opposite of the work.
　　Chao Hai's themes are quite fixed, and he depends on this basic point to elaborate.  The problem of theme seems to be less important for modern artists, as they take expression and communication as the goal of pursuit, however Chao Hai is different, the theme occupies a very crucial position all along, indicating Chao Hai's stubborn side that, like many successful artists in the past, he exerts his utmost effort and meticulously pursue perfection as always.  According to habitual categorization, there are so-called suburban rural theme, urban theme and etc, whereas Chao Hai exceeds the siege of themes.  Carefully viewing his works, we would find out his capabilities to break out the siege.  In short, he has been released from the complex of "suffering and hatred", and the peasants, land and livestock all become a certain symbol, as objective depiction weakens, while the connotation of ordinary humanity and existed substantiality gets amplified a little, maybe one day he would suddenly start to paint people in cities or automobiles, whose effects would still be largely identical only with minor differences.
　　Chao Hai's techniques are very practical, that is to use accumulate-ink method from traditional ink - certainly, his accumulate-ink is not a simply imitation but to strengthen and refine its element to change into individually notified objects.  Audience may see the beauty of ink marks, ambiguity and accumulation layer upon layer in his paintings.  Those seemingly monotonous blocks, those seemingly boring and blurry images implies the creator's profound accomplishment accumulated through many years, also the actual display of talent and spirituality contains many unspeakable mysteries.  As visual art's transformation into language could only be implied, compared and paraphrased, and the original meaning of art is always the work itself, therefore, any comment is only a approach in a different level, impossible to be united completely with the work.  How to transform traditional form of expression into individual pattern could not be achieved by every artist, even if it's not only about the problem of talent, then, painstaking exploration and incessant polish are the only way.  Chao Hai has established his position in ink field through many years of practice, then he is to climb the peak of art with greater efforts and great resolution.
 

作者：Li,Xiaoshan