A Double-take on Mingliang

Lin Mingjie, my old acquaintance at the Xinming Evening Newspaper, recently recommended an artist to me.When we met together, unwittingly the artist happened to be Peng Mingliang, a friend whom I came to know decades ago.Early in the mid 1980s, when I was assigned back from Jinan to work in Shanghai, I often went to visit a brass band on Yueyang road due to my work. Once I followed a friend to visit Peng Mingliang who also lived in the neighborhood. My first impressions of his paintings were found in his particular sense of hue and strong technique, and especially that of his unique personalized language with paint.However, the artist seemed to have disappeared from the local art community since then. Only until now did I learn that the man had gone to Singapore to further his study. Yet he decided to return upon graduation, and “locked” himself away now in his studio in Songjiang as a professional artist.After visiting his villa-cum-studio, I was overwhelmed by Peng's recent abundant Production. But his complacent words evoked a tear of my sorrow especially in facing a house full of canvas. I realized that Peng had finally evolved as a mature artist, while my own passion is today yet only an amateurish hobby.Different form what had lingered in my memory, Peng's new painting opened a new chapter in the history of his visual world. Although his subjects remain the same: females, flowers and birds, they are yet altered along the artist's own experience. Beneath his brush, the directly familiar manner of the real and profound depth of the abstract is gone. Each line implies a fine balance between reality and dream, leaving numerous imaginings and metaphors for the viewer. Those soft lines reminiscent of the feminine curves or blossoming flowers are akin to a scale of notes in a melody. The wear of time has obviously subdued the formerly young artist's willful brushstrokes to a more reserved and mild state.I am not here to comment on the vicissitudes of Chinese contemporary art, let alone the artist's achievement in his life or career. Rather, what prompted my thoughts is the rare number of artists in Shanghai, who, would dare to give up everything in order to become a professional artist. Even among these few professional artists, how many could gain a win-win situation in both their creation and marketing? Perhaps the local art scene would be all too beautiful if those who love art were able to become professional, and whose productions would bring in rewards in all aspects.