The Guardian of Mother Nature
—On Liu Daguang’s Works of Art
(An oral account by Li Tianxiang and Zhao Youping, and edited and written by Dandeli Gallery)
We were in for a number of pleasant surprises when we met Liu Daguang again after years apart. First, we were surprised at the pen-and-ink drawings he had finished in the past few years which appealed to us greatly. From his work, The Hint of Spring, we not only saw his fine and meticulous depiction of lines, light, shade, and spacing of scenery, but it also made us feel the quivering of the branches and leaves in the breeze as well as the warm breath of spring — we could not help but marvel at his superb techniques in drawing and his acute sense of perception.
Working on pen-and-ink drawings is a time-consuming process and it often appears as a challenge to an artists’ basic sketch training. For this reason, in comparison with other forms of art, there are relatively fewer artists engaging themselves in pen-and-ink drawings, and moreover, far fewer who can successfully create top-quality pen-and-ink drawings. Undoubtedly, very few artists can match Liu Daguang in terms of artistic skill in pen-and-ink drawings. Liu’s solid foundation in sketching is one essential component in his becoming a qualified landscape artist. This skill also ensures his success in being able to reveal nature in a refined manner regardless of the techniques he uses and the types of variations he chooses to pursue.
Before the “cultural revolution,” Liu Daguang was one of our students from the Second School attached to the Central Academy of Fine Arts. During the 1970s, Liu, along with his schoolmates, was sent to the army unit stationed in Xiheying, Hebei Province, to be tempered through manual labor and had to set aside artistic creation. But now we are pleasantly surprised that he has come to us with a pad of gouache landscape paintings he had completed on his free time during his time in Xiheying. Though the paper of the paintings has turned yellowish, the paintings themselves are a vivid reproduction of their life experiences during that time, as if allowing the viewer to relive the events from that period. We’re stunned at these beautiful time-worn paintings — it has been a long time since we last saw such plain, unadorned yet heart-stirring works of art. These paintings are not eye-catching and have no bright colors on them, but they are brimming with simple tender feelings which profoundly stir up the emotions of the viewers. This simplicity is beauty in the truest sense of the word. In regards to the levels of appreciation of beauty, if it is agreed that the highest artistic realm in figure painting is the sublime, then the highest artistic realm in landscape painting is the natural and the unaffected. Through Huang Binhong’s experience we’ve acquired a full understanding of the saying that “when facing nature, ‘the neglect of some things or nonessentials’ should be highly valued.” In this regard, Liu Daguang has put this idea into practice in his gouache paintings, in which depictions of all matters, big and small, are neglected, but the artistic ambience of the landscape is highly epitomized. He neglects certain matters so as to give prominence to his conception and expression of the artistic ambience, which is the very soul of a painting.
Liu’s pursuit of the beauty of artistic ambience has been carried forward in different phases of his artistic creations and can now be found in his oil paintings. His “Golden Autumn Series” reveals to us that the reaped field is permeated with a sense of grief in the first rays of the dawning sun. The scenes in the paintings, open and spacious, have profound messages, as if conveying a feeling of loss and frustration after a whole year of busy and hard work sowing, irrigating and reaping. Seizing precisely the special features relating to the artistic ambience and the light of the scenes, he presents us with a truthful depiction of Mother Nature. It is quite noticeable that of all the things in the world, Liu has a special love for trees. For artists, successfully painting trees is no easy feat, but Liu’s techniques in painting trees are superb. The spacing and rhythm of the branches are arranged naturally and properly and the shapes of the trees are varied. From his work, The Green Symphony, we can feel Liu’s deep intoxication with the thick green woods in the strong light of summer. Using green color in various cold and warm tones and readily employing the style of division on color, time and again and layer by layer, he puts his heart-felt praises on canvas. As a result of this, a song of the forest, dark-green colored, moistened, profound and transparent, appears before our eyes.
Confucius said, “A basic idea runs through the entire Confucian teachings.” In the world today where the desire for material comfort prevails, Liu Daguang continues to pursue, with a dispassionate mind, the beauty and artistic conception he aspires for, without a hint of impetuousness or eagerness for quick results and immediate gratification. Viewing his earlier pen-and-ink drawings and gouache paintings to his more recent oil paintings, we can see that Liu’s works from different periods have all been bound with the natural quality of “being consistent”, i.e. his perseverance in the pursuit of art and his ardent love of “the true, the good and the beautiful.” Liu lives an honest life, and his art works and techniques are honest and down-to-earth as well. He presents the viewers with a matter-of-fact manner of what he has felt within himself through his art works, and the messages his works relate to the viewers all consist of a form of calmness, nature and warmth.
The artistic pursuit of Liu’s works is not to attain material truthfulness or lifelikeness. Instead, it focuses on “the true” of the spiritual, “the true” of “the true, the good and the beautiful”, and the unity of “the good” and “the beautiful”. In no way should art be associated with the desire for material comfort. Art should exert benign influence on and inspiration to a person’s spiritual world. Therefore, the value of art can never be assessed with material and money. Tagore said, “Set the bird’s wings with gold and it will never again soar in the sky.” With this in mind, viewers must calm their restless minds before they come to reflect on Liu’s works of art. We also believe that viewers will be rewarded with a poetic atmosphere of their own through reflecting on Liu’s works of art.
Art Critic’s Biography
LI Tianxiang was born in Shanghai in 1928. He was admitted to Oil Painting Department of Peking National College of Arts (later renamed the Central Academy of Fine Arts) in 1946 apprenticed to such internationally renowned oil painters as Xu Beihong and Wu Zuoren. Li later advanced his studies at the Repin Academy of Fine Art in Leningrad, Russia. His graduation work ‘Children’s Library’ was collected in the Museum of Repin Academy of Fine Arts.
Upon graduation, he was retained as a lecturer at his alma mater and was later appointed Dean of the Art College at the Shanghai University in 1985. Professor Li taught in the Xu Beihong Art Academy of the People's University in Beijing before retiring in 2005.
LI Tianxiang has been the council member of National Fine Arts Association, Vice President of the Shanghai Branch of the National Fine Arts Association, Vice President of Technology Aesthetics Society of China’s National Society for Aesthetics, and President of Shanghai Art Education Research Association.
Zhao Youping was born in 1932 in Hei Long Jiang province and graduated from Beijing Central Academy of Fine Arts in1953 under the tutelage of legendary masters Xu Beihong, Wu Zuoren and Ai Zhongxin. After spending another two years in post-graduate studies, she devoted forty years of her life teaching as a professor at the academy.
In 1983, Professor Zhao was assigned by the Ministry of Culture to conduct erudition on Western Oil Painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Art in Belgium, and she also visited other parts of Europe to gather knowledge and experience that would prove critical in her artistic journey. She has also been a professor at the Xu Beihong Art Academy of the People's University in Beijing.
Zhao Youping has been the member of Chinese Artists Association, and council member of China Oil Painting Society
