In the 90s，I wrote an article titled Liu Qinghe’s Ink and Wash Words and Cultural Direction. At that time，Teacher Liu was still trendy and avant-garde in CAFA’s traditional Chinese painting department and field of portraits，the reason was that he actively introduced description of contemporar life and gasp of current emotions in a way combined with fine brushwork and freehand brushwork. These works broke away from the shaping system of traditional Chinese painting but was different from the so-called ideology of new Chinese painting. To most people and me at that time，this was a new art of city shape，but to ink and wash paintings，especially at that time，it was really difficult. At the end of the article，I wrote：“The meaning of Liu Qinghe and his art are shown suddenly in his question brought forward and way of answering the question. More important is that he is providing meaning recognition while providing a way of feeling，thinking and expressing with ink and wash painting as the turning point，making us review our life and culture. Undoubtedly，his way is one of those meaningful in China’s contemporary art and his pushing will be more and more clear in future.” For me，the ending of that article at the time was right the beginning of this article，while the latter can be regarded as the answer and extension of the former. As China’s contemporary art develops，meaning has already been overly discussed，especially for artists like Teacher Liu，the creation of images and the delivery of visual experiences are more important than those so-called concepts and meanings. Therefore，in this article，my job is not to define“what is ink and wash paintings”through Teacher Liu’s works，but to explore“what ink and wash painting can do in contemporary visual culture”through microcosmic analysis on Teacher Liu’s materials and image language. Teacher Liu’s spiritual temperament tends to be sensitive and his feeling towards things tends to be microcosmic. He never talks about big theoretic issues，nor like those macroscopical theories. Therefore，this article will sample some keywords in his creation for microcosmic analysis to push forward the microcosmic study on the artist.

　　Brush，Ink and Paper

　　Liu Qinghe learned folk fine art when he first entered CAFA and then changed to traditional Chinese painting department in his postgraduate period. It may be the explanation for the source of“fine brushwork”painting trails in his works. The training on folk fine arts at that time was focused on comic strip and New Year pictures，which were different from orthodox freehand brushwork portraits. Through education of these early years，he developed two characteristics：one is his preference of line shaping，the other was long-term use of “bark paper”. Comic strips and New Year pictures requires high density use of pen，so in Liu Qinghe’s latter works，the use of medium brush tip has always been a major charateristic in the picture，regardless of the amout.

　　The experience of comic strips and New Year pictures enables Liu Qinghe’s works to have a characteristic different from traditional freehand portraits，that is emphasizing “shaping” in pictures not blindly pursuing randomicity of ink. In his picture，image shaping is the result from integrated use of lines，ink and colors. To some extent，he even deliberatedly passivated randomicity of ink and wash in early times to gain space for control of the pictures. Just this technical requirement made Liu Qinghe begin to choose fairly rough“bark-paper”to meet the demand of“shaping”. The use of bark paper enabled the controled randomicity of ink，wash and colors on rough fiber bark-paper became one of the main characteristics and interests in Liu Qinghe’s paintings.

　　Maybe just due to the changes of the proficiency of the artist’s use of techniques，or the changes of the artist’s psychological status，Liu Qinghe’s use of ink has experienced a changing status from little to much in the past 20 years. His works before the mid 90s were still in an unified perspective space，especially in Rain-Snow，he added“layer”elements shaped from lines and colors based on perspective. While his use of ink was always limited to the inside of human or props. However，beginning from the end 90s，the use of ink was enlarged and used in presenting sceneries，weather or atmosphere. This change firstly formed the artist’s unique stain visually and sharply enlarged the volume and viewability of the image，and emotions then surpassed the shapes to become main factor to capture attention.

　　The wide use of ink enabled Liu Qinghe’s lines to have new characteristics. Before 1993，lines were always shaping factors used by the artist and were used to define borders of images，making the effect of ink more controlled feelings. But in the late 90s，lines began appear inside images and above ink color，changed from definition to emphasis and elevation of images. Then in works after 2004，we find that the artist begins to create special line interests through deliberate blankness between colors and ink color. These left not painted“lines”add more interest，rhythm and colors to the lines in the picture. But they still represent the artist’s interest in control and shape. This control under randomicity of brush and ink is the biggest difference between Liu Qinghe and current prevailing contemporary or traditional ink and wash painting，also his main characteristic in style. On one hand，he adds higher quality to the effect of images than simple emotional release，on the other hand，the core is still to maintain enough space for emotions and concepts behind the images.

　　Viewpoint and Narrative

　　In 1990，after graduation，Liu Qinghe participated the famous painting exhibition of the new generation. Though at that time the new generation painting was still an art style lacking specific definition，Liu Qinghe’s portrait of meaningless daily life and“incomplete”composition affected by photography shared some kind of temperamental coincidence with the new generation artists in the field of oil painting. Just this kind of coincidence has accompanied him in the following 20 years and become one of the core characteristics in his works that distinguishs him from other artists in this area.

　　Specifically speaking，the difference is shown in two sides，that are viewpoint and narrative. Though his creation was focused on ink and wash painting，Liu Qinghe does not inherit that kind of scattering and panoramic viewpoint of traditional Chinese paintings. Early in his creation，characters and sceneries were arranged in an unified perspective and environment. The only thing the same to traditional freehand portraits was that it cancelled the deep relationship in space and replaced with factors of“layers”. In his latter works like Man in a Swivel Chair，Games and White Night，the artist began to use that incomplete composition way of medium shot. From Fly with the owl in 2003，the artist adopted more close observation viewpoint similar to“close-up”. Until now，we will find in Liu Qinghe’s works that the viewpoint is something moving constantly between close and far and he tries any possibility but intentionally or unconsciously evades the panoramic viewpoint of traditional Chinese paintings. Early look-up viewpoint in Mr. Wang has been enlarged into short-distance high angle shot in recent large-size portraits，while in Hearts and Spade，there are even separation and regroup of viewpoints. From this angle，Liu Qinghe’s works provide a contemporary visual experience which is the mixture of human’s viewing and machine viewing(shoot，video or electronic images)，though his works are evolved inside the range of ink and wash painting. Compared with traditional Chinese paintings，it is a unnatural and mechanical way of viewing，also a modern viewpoint. To some extent，the change of viewpoint is more externalization of art presenting“city life”and specific visual realization. It is also the essential difference between him and new literator paintings or those compromised and experimental ink and wash paintings.

　　Compared with new literator paintings and experimental ink and wash painting，another characteristic in Liu Qinghe’s painting is that unique narrative. If say the narrative of new literator paintings aims at freedom of ink and wash through combination of poems，books and paintings，then experimental ink and wash paintings radically refuses narrative to expect freedom of ink and wash like abstract paintings. Then Liu Qinghe clearly confirms the narrative while looking for contemporary way of narrative，making the speciality of ink and wash self-explained in the context of contemporary life. In his works，we can see not the overlapping and grouping of symbolizing signs，but emotional expression of contemporary life scenes. What he describes in his works are not complaints，judgements，but those endless atmosphere surrounded. His narrative does not evolve on specific events most of the time，but is a stop of a life moment endlessly repeated. Just for this，his works contain wordless but unbounded power and penetrability. Just from the angle of viewpoint and narrative，Liu Qinghe’s creation should not be simplified to a comprise between traditional and experimental，but contrarily a new beginning and risking surpass in presenting modern life experiences and visual experiences，as well as a realization and take-on of modern life.

　　Imago

　　After we mentioned the artist’s narrative in his works，it is inevitable for us to say something about the associated imagos with these narrative. Liu Qinghe’s works portrait not stories or events，but intentional and unconscious moments in life. Compared with literator paintings grown out of freehand portraits，his characteristic is that the imago of narrative lies not in objects in daily life，but in behaviors related to those of contemporary society. It is noticeable that in Liu Qinghe’s paintings，the choices of imagos are mainly related to his technical characteristics in different stages.

　　Nets and lines were imagos oftern appearing in his early works. This kind of imagos were more or less under his early training of fine brushworks. Just as early the artist controled ink by lines，the appearance of nets and lines more reflected unsafety feelings floating in real life and desire for safety. These images were born in such a sharply changing times of the 90s，but are still worthly of aftertaste. In the latest Grow up and Begin to Learn，nets and lines both contain double meanings of safety and astriction，more interesting than evasion of danger implied in early works.

　　With complication of the use of ink and wash，moutain fires and weather became major imagos after 2000. The artist’s early portrait of bourgeois life was changed to superorganic surviving experiences in contemporary society after Meteor Shower. Mountain fires and heavy ink-colored black clouds beyond created a kind of unsafety feeling behind outing and leisure life. People in the images seemed to be between on the scene and out of the scene，while danger and anxiety were delivered to us out of the scene through this indifference on the scene.

　　The imago of water became the most widely used theme in the artist’s creation after 2003. In early stage，they still took up a part of the imagos，as an opposing and arguing existence against fire，but now，with the exploration of ink color by the artist，they are enlarged to form extremely strong imagos. The transparency and refraction of water provides a stage for the artist’s presentation of brush and ink，like the lonely swimmer，huge water surface，indifferent people besides，they are undoubtedly stressing upon the danger and helpless moods of contemporary people. It reminds us Wang Shuo’s description of Ma Xiaojun being unable to land as being sieged in a swimming pool at the ending of Ferocious Animals. Though different in medium，this kind of desperate feelings are the consistent.

　　But swimming and looking on beside the swimming pool pushes the artist’s imago finally more towards metaphor of contemporary life. Symbolization is still to express one of the artist’s judgements，but metaphor is to package the judgement to be more daily and to release more emotional power. When these imagos move from symbolization to metaphor，the artist conceptually cuts off the last simple symbolization umbilical cord to traditional literator paintings through peaceful exploration of daily life and moves towards contemporary expression，which helps his works gain weight and penetrability under effeminate，random and uncertain appearance of ink and wash.

　　Until now，Liu Qinghe’s ink and wash creations have experienced for over 20 years through different stages. His meaning is not in re-establishing ink and wash language’s current validity to express，neither restoring the language’s spiritual base currently through injecting literators’spirits. What he is after is a kind of contemporary expression. The so-called contemporary is not abstract ink and wash，not abstract graphics，not fuss at trivias in real life. His works always express his thinking and anxiety about modern life. This thinking helps his works surpass the literator painting’s incapability and evasion towards the reality and achieve a kind of specific spiritual images of contemporary intellectuals. This is a kind of spiritual change of creation methodology，with meaning surpassing reformation of technologies. His images are specific，actual and of contemporary life characterists. In the process of establishing contemporary images，he gives up pursuing of essentialism of ink and wash，gives up graphics and symbolization，forming humanistic viewing of daily life. To me，his works are not a compromise between traditional ink and wash painting and contemporary art，contrarily，his art does not set itself as a dissociating“other”in the trend of contemporary art，but spiritually and essentially actively dedicated to realistic thinkings of contemporary art. To this sense，no matter language or spirits，Liu Qinghe is an unique connection between literators and humanity.

作者：Li,Pi