Fang Lijun and Realization of A Great Harmony

China was a forgotten dream-land for the West in the past. It was a central empire in the Far East for Europeans and it was Marco Polo who reminded us of this country. Since then, Chinese were willing to sell china to us, but were cold to further economic and cultural exchanges. They regarded western culture as barbarous. The West, on the other hand, believed in the superiority of its own civilization. Since China did not want to open, the West attempted to conquer the country with brutal force. Little remained of the dream, but the two worlds moved closer, even if in a tragic way. After China had achieved its independence, it spared no efforts in seeking a unification of the modern society a difficult process, always in danger of the collapse of a civilization thousands of years old. The nadir of this crisis was possibly the Cultural Revolution, which started in 1966 and lasted ten years.

Fang Lijun is one of the artists who grew up in the Cultural Revolution, began their art careers after Tian’anmen Square Event in 1989 and won world fame since 1990s. Many artists emigrated to the West but some of them stayed in China facing with the fact that their works could not be exhibited in China at that time. Fang Lijun, 38 years old now, is one of them. His paintings cannot be understood without drawing in his teenage experience in the Cultural Revolution. Many people at the same age have the same experience with him. For Fang Lijun, the experience is hurting and influential to his personal life and his artist life. It is decisive in his artistic creation.

Let us view his works with the perspective of Western art. These works are distant and strange, sometimes even ridiculous and childish. Recalling the traditions of Chinese paintings, we can find nothing related to them in those works, nothing related to the past. However, we will come to realize what links those paintings to China and to the West. This way of thinking may be misleading, reminding people of the conflict that doesn’t really exist. Western artists get inspiration from other cultures, but their styles and content are still framed by western art. Of course, the reverse could happen that a Chinese artist could draw inspiration from the styles of western art. What I want to make clear is that the West will definitely not be the only attraction in 21st century. The artists from other cultures will enrich the world art. Their influence is significant and even decisive. From this perspective, it is exciting to learn what those artists, like Fang Lijun, is going to deploy to enrich our art experience.

Characters are the themes of Fang’s paintings, but sky and land are components of space and are dispensable for the understanding of those works. In his early painting series The Swimming Pool, we see the refined harmony of people and water which represents a unity of power. In his new works, the human body looks like in the situation of zero-gravity, like clouds in the sky and balloon-like flowers which accompany them. The floating body looks affectionate. The puppies-shaped colors look like costumes of the ballet in the outer space. The faces are as dull as masks, with their uniformed smile or surprise, covering up real ideas. Painting is just a surface, like life: carefree and surrounded by flowers. It is like a silent drama performing between sky and water. Time terminates as in an old picture. Fang Lijun is like a magic performer, making up colorful face snapshots. Fang Lijun reminds himself and all the reviews of his paintings of the lies heard in their adolescence for some of which Fang Lijun had been a disseminator. He remembers the silence, suppression and hypercritics of that particular time as well as his tears before the paintings of Chinaman Mao when Mao died in 1976. The works from him and some other artists after 1986 are labeled as“Cynical Realism”. Only in virtue of critical satire and self-satire can those artists surpassed the hurt suffered in their childhood.

Fang’s paintings are very cool, refusing passion and fight, avoiding hatred and anger. They involve with memories and are regarded as self-relief. Although his childhood is deformed, yet still there as a part of life. Even the wound healed up, the scar is still visible. That may be one of the reasons for Fang Lijun’s staying in China. It is especially important for him today to deal with the issues in the scene.

Recently, monumental wood carving gives Fang Lijun another expression weapon. The stingy use of color reminds us of his early gray paintings. We are more visually familiar with them. The facial expressions are very dramatic and fear is no longer a part of them. The lines and dimensions we saw make the works more abstract. However, the subject doesn’t change: it is still about the human who looks like to seek savior from space and who fights against torrents for life. But, wood carving work is a gray world without sweet optimistic and happiness presented by secular colors.

I didn’t fully realize how important it was for Fang to keep direct touch with China’s daily life until I visited Fang’s studio in Beijing several years ago. I understood at the same time how strong he had to be to live in his own county where he is impossible to display his works to the public as a member of an isolated and marginalized social group I also got to know his works and we exhibited some of them for the first time on the Ludwig’s collection exhibition “our century” held in Koln in 1995. Some works of Huang Yongping and Yan Peiming were also exhibited. The three artists belong to the same generation. The master work of“2N”in series 2 was in exhibition for the first time too. We named it as“yelling” because it associated us with Edvard Munch. The face with open mouth and closed eyes represents the distorted silence revolting against three background characters. This work possesses the feature of expressing the inner reality of self-portrait in the sense that the yelling is conveying a message. This is a great work in terms of technique. The color is refined and slight, like silk, properly reflecting lights. It won world appreciation and attention for China’s contemporary art. This is a turning point where we can see the soul of China for the first time which continues its mystery. Fang is neither able to uncover it in one try nor able to make the answer public. His works can be interpreted in many ways. The artist doesn’t say much and leave the interpretation to reviewers.

Fang Lijun makes his works floating in a instable world, in an unknowable atmosphere of the astrospace. He presents a painting of infinite emptiness and a cucoloris of an immense world. Fang Lijun disregarded the real land and made up an imagined world where happiness can be found. He is greatly satisfied with his art world where he finds freedom and security and where he even can give his reviewers flowers. His paintings remind people of the past and guide people to look forward for the future. Perhaps the ideal China is not exclusive to the far past, but it will come around in the near future as a fact that we have learned to understand and to love. For us, Fang’s art gives hope that people can understand each other through art, which might lead to realization of the great harmony.