Seeks challenge and delights For Yao Kui
David
Pariser, Professor Faculty of Fine Arts, Concordia University.
Translated by Han Zhenhu (Chinese Professor of McGill University of
Canada)
Long
before the European Romantics discovered the spiritual qualities of high
and far-off mountaintops, great artist-monks wandered Chinese peaks and
valleys in search of new material and spiritual perspectives. In the
tradition of these slightly eccentric, gifted, adventurous and observant
artists, Yao Kui also sought a new vantage point. But instead of
climbing a mountain, he left the world in which he learned his craft and
turned his face to the West. He moved to Canada and began a courageous
experiment in looking at a new world through the eyes of an ancient
culture. With little material support and with only a basic grasp of
both official languages, Yao showed the energy and optimism of a far
younger man. He uprooted himself from his native China, and became, in
truth a "A stranger in a strange land" - painting and teaching art in
Montreal. His family and his art were the only foundation for his new
life. I doubt that many artists would be prepared to take an equally
perilous jump into an unknown world with only their art to serve them as
a parachute. This was indeed a demonstration of Yao's unwavering faith
in his chosen path. It is perhaps no coincidence that among those
artists that Yao finds inspirational, there is Paul Gauguin (1848-1903).
For Gauguin also turned his back on a comfortable existence and voyaged
to an exotic land relying only on his energy and his art to sustain him.
From looking at the pictures in this collection it should be clear that
the daring cultural experiment has been a great success. Trained in the
Fine Arts in China, Yao brought his discipline and knowledge with him to
Quebec. Here he observed a new world of places, people and things. His
paintings reveal his technical mastery, his quiet self-confidence and
his delight in new problems and subjects. Psychologists have found that
one indication of the artistic temperament is that the true artist has
the desire to continuously find new and intriguing problems to solve.
Artists are in fact not "problem solvers" but "problem finders". This
desire to find ever new and challenging problems is as much a part of
Yao's character in life as it is in his art.
The work
that he produced in Canada is a unique mixture of his own cultural roots
and the new places and views that he observed. His eye is acute and he
catches the nuances of faces, landscapes and cityscapes with unerring
economy. For example, anyone familiar with Montreal will recognize the
majestic apartments that climb skyward along Cote Des Neiges, shown in
the highly atmospheric painting Mount Royal Under Snow. Here the artist
creates space through the use of the vertical dimension and through the
suggestion of space around a set of monumental objects in accordance
with longstanding Chinese landscape tradition. An equally successful
treatment but this time of a human subject is his Halloween carol-where
the North American custom of Trick of Treat is shown in a glowing
evocation of childhood pleasure. Here color and line suggest the spirit
of the children's delighted play. The children are presented in a
shallow pictorial space, like a sculptural frieze that extends the
length of the page. Using a more restrained technique in his painting,
Montreal Spring the artist demonstrates an eye for complex line and
subtle color. This image is a remarkable hybrid consisting of a Chinese
drawing technique and a choice of colors that is much like that of the
American Impressionist Maurice Prendergast (1861-1924). Like some of the
Impressionists of even Matisse (1869-1954), Yao plays with the surface
of the picture in such a way that we have a highly decorative flat
pattern that functions at the same time to suggest light and space. What
is most evident from this collection is that Yao does not compromise
with his duty as an artist. He does not choose easy solutions. We will
not find the cute touch of the commercial artist here, instead, we see
an artist who insists on taking risks and exploring new possibilities.
Although
Yao speaks with his own voice, he acknowledges the inspiration of
certain key artistic figures. Among his own countrymen there are three
who have served as important reference points, the painters Qi Baishi
(1863-1957), Ba Da Shanren (1625-1705), and Shih-T'ao (1641-1717) The
last two artists are characterized as individualists who, according to
the art historian Michael Sullivan, "Made the first sixty years of the
Ching Dynasty one of the most creative periods in the history of Chinese
painting." These artists reacted to the stale academicism of the
literati painters of the time. As might be expected, the artists from
whom Yao draws inspiration were strong characters who wished to
overthrow the rule of a tradition that had outlived its usefulness. The
two individualists believed in the use of powerful and expressive line
laid down with certainty and justice. Qi Baishi is a modern Chinese
painter. This great master is especially well known for the brush
paintings that he completed in later life, of crabs, flowers, shrimp and
birds. His approach is economic, for with a minimum of detail he invokes
the essential nature of his subject. It is easy enough to see the legacy
of these individualistic masters of line, in a work such as the painting
titled Highway. This relies on the drama of the brushstroke to bring
dead concrete, steel and asphalt to life. The bold verticals and
sweeping horizontals dramatize the thundering energy and whirling space
of the highway-a quintessentially North American motif-but rendered in
the direct language of the masters. Likewise the animated strokes and
washes of Bird's Eye View of Toronto owe a lot to the special legacy of
the three artists. Techniques that were already well known in the 17th
century are applied to a subject that is anything but antique. Here, ink
washes and spirited lines help us to see the energy of the sprawling
city.
Three
western artists have also inspired Yao: Gauguin, Matisse and Picasso
(1881-1970). He became acquainted with them in his formal studies, and
has maintained an affection for them ever since. We have already spoken
of the influence of Gauguin. Matisse is of course a modem master of
line, and line is an essential part of Yao's art. Like Yao, Matisse
explores the tension between flat, decorative pattern and the suggestion
of pictorial space. When it comes to Picasso, Yao is quick to point out
that he does not share the Spaniards' fascination with distorted space.
What is truly inspiring to Yao is Picasso's playful spirit and his
remarkable and long-lived creative energy. These paintings are the
results of an on-going exploration of artistic problems that can never
be totally solved. And it is the difficulty of the task upon which he
has embarked that ensures Yao a long and productive career. For we
witness the way that Yao seeks to transplant his own deep and wide
ranging knowledge of his own artistic traditions and practices from one
cultural context to another. For all that the subject matter may be
Western and the approach a mixture of traditional Chinese techniques
with clear references to older styles, there is no doubt that the
attitude behind the work remains quintessentially Chinese. For it seems
to me that in these very successful images we see how it is possible to
make foreign approaches and foreign philosophies serve the Chinese point
of view. A point of view that seeks challenge delights in difficulty and
rejects formulas that lack the breath of life.
