The absurd existence
------interpretation of Yang Kai’s oil painting
by Chen Guohui
（余博雅译）
In contemporary age, it seems that Chinese painting is sinking into an image environment swarm with symbols, when symbolic vision with a large number of mediocre flat painted symbols is in originality crisis, we are pleased to find that alternative artistic qualities of "New Expressionism" represented by a group of young artists in Guangdong like Huang Shichang, Xiao Wucong, Hu Cheng, Yang Kai, after the wave of sign painting.
I had written an essay which has pointed out that their concept of art is for the creation principle of "disenchantment" while against the strategic technique and vivid image symbols. On the one hand, they have actively absorbed the creation style and idea from foreign Neo-Expressionism which emphasizes individual’s inner feeling and expression, paying a lot of attentions to the spirit, not just the innovation of form on surface; on the other hand, they deliberately get rid of the shallowness and frivolity of politics, the naïveness and innocence of cartoon drawing, keep distance to the popular sign painting, even the contemporary mainstream way of painting, try to pursue vague and even obscure meaning. As a result, they attempt to reconstruct a new visual experience through their own sensitivity in expressive individual language: it is not only different from the expressive painting with intuitionistic emotion, but also different from appropriation of image resources and the "Richter-style” way of pursuing of painting; but seeking a breakthrough of spiritual concept in the form of expressionism, which obviously reflects a true attitude after getting away from symbolic creation. In order to fully express the individual's inner feelings, they even deliberately decline the painting language or try to hide them in the atmosphere of emotional and vague images, and defend the purity of their paintings in a simple form. The problem is that the narrative themes and metaphorical psychological spaces which have been trying to be expressed in paintings are vague, hazy. This has showed the contradiction of unity of rational and emotional spirit: it has to maintain natural, non-rational spiritual experience, as well as convert the empathy of reality theme to the form of expressionism in a certain distance, so that the painting can be an expressive carrier of deep inner spirit - a kind of record of self existence, so is called "new expressionism" style.
Yang Kai’s oil paintings have a strong sense of life, in which has hidden the worship of instinctive vitality and the lash of absurd humanity. Therefore, the deformed and absurd iconography of life has become his potential subject matter of oil painting. For example, the works like "The doll of Gods" which depicts the chaos between the gods and the devils after reversal of their roles; "My Bride" does not portray the dressed and beautiful bride, but skulls symbolize turbidity and disorder of humanity; in "The Story of Earth Mother" the digestion and separation of characters in the painting cannot restrain the stagnant, indifference, impassive atmosphere ... ... Although every piece of Kai Yang’s works has its own precise theme and content, but strictly speaking, the theme and content of a work is not the essence and focus of expressionism. Though there are basic provisions about forms, such as the form of representation, black and white color, expression of personality and freedom of using paint strokes and so on, but objectively speaking, the artist's emotional expression is still the most important. Perhaps it is difficult to define Yang Kai’s style as Expressionism, but it still has some opportunities of to become Expressionism, particularly the absurd life images, strong emotional psychology and unique spiritual stimulation, which makes the core strength of his works show a power of outward expansion. This is the result of artist’s thoughts and performance about the sense of alienation of human nature, rather than a process promoted by reason.
In fact, Yang Kai had gone through a period of anxiety about artistic style, and gotten rid of the confusion and binding brought by realistic painting from academism, then he has found a way of expressing inner depression, nihility and gray images which have been trying to build on vision. He takes his personal experience as the focal point of art and life, trying to show the falsity of humanity, ridiculous and boring "existence". In a series of disordered and expressive works, artists are searching for the true self in the criticism, pursuing personality and emotional extreme in form. There is a kind of indescribable life attitude and understanding of his lifestyle in Yang Kai's artworks ---- obviously artist's brushstroke language shows a strong tension of language, at the same time strengthens the intensity of expressionism.
From a technical point of view, the deformation of characters is an important feature in Yang Kai’s painting. The distorted and flat painted figures are particularly isolated on the background --- in the expressionist brush strokes languages, the characters seem to have lost the skeleton and become strange, blended motion of matter and spiral shape. The almost abstract, smoke-like iconography on the painting, among the strongest artists’ emotions, like Nietzsche said "exciting depression", no wonder there are critics directly describe it as "only lingering breath left on the picture". It goes without saying that these absurd and depressive emotions are from the strained and stressful modern life, from the extreme absurdity and horrifying dark side of real life "existence", while the deformation of Yang Kai’s painting characters is exactly the portrayal of modern people’s pain and unrest.
Furthermore, in order to eliminate narrativity of painting, Yang Kai has introduced irrational factors into painting. It depends largely on the effect of contingency, such as the use of greasepaint effect which is similar to water spot or ink mark as the shadow of painting; dripping the color from the agitated brush, strokes unconsciously slipping; or making a base on the canvas directly, applying impasto in order to show a sense of hierarchicy, etc. These intentionally or unintentionally caused factors have changed the desired effect of the painting, and strengthened the impromptu factors. To Yang Kai, the brushstroke is the key of creating shape, each movement of the stroke on the canvas is changing the shape, which has a positive meaning to the expression of shape. In terms of the effect of thick impasto, the texture shows the artist's perception and illusion, cohered with all his touch of nature and spiritual life.
When I was enjoying Yang Kai’s oil painting, it reminds me that once I published an essay about young artists Huang Shichang’s artworks with the title of "With Regard to Huang Shichang’s Problem Consciousness in His Recent Artworks". I think his work "not only concerns formal language expression as abstract expressionism do, more importantly, he concerns a symbolic form of expressionism, attaching the psychological feeling or thought to the expressive form, which endows with insight into modern life and anxiety. " Similar to Huang Shichang, Yang Kai is also an artist with strong emotional expression. His works have "symbolic images" of absurd humanity existence, which reflect the insight and symbolic expression of the real life. The difference is that in Yang Kai's painting concept, there is a digestion of the sense of works. In other words, artists want viewers not to identify the contents of painting, but rather to explain the meaning of image on the life, as well as the symbol of the artist’s personal attitude towards life presented in the works. Thereby Yang Kai intentionally or unintentionally has created the integrity in expressive paintings which is a present irrational painting, also chosen a way of personalized language in the real painting context with the greatest freedom, Yang Kai was seeking new aesthetic value precisely during this process in form of art. Frankly speaking, the absurd and depressed emotionality in Yang Kai’s painting is like wildfire burning freely - this may be the brilliant part of his paintings, just as boiling energy. The absurd "existence" in Yang Kai’s works blends the unconscious creation impulses, feelings of depression and images of experience life. This is rather an artist’s desire for walking out of visual utilitarianism and back to the salvation of people who is absent of spirit in utilitarian society than a fictional iconography Kai Yang has extracted from realistic experience. At least, Yang Kai has raised the issue in his works, but this kind of question remains in the process of exploration. (The author is teacher from the Department of Arts and Humanities, Guangdong AIB Polytechnic College)
------interpretation of Yang Kai’s oil painting
by Chen Guohui
（余博雅译）
In contemporary age, it seems that Chinese painting is sinking into an image environment swarm with symbols, when symbolic vision with a large number of mediocre flat painted symbols is in originality crisis, we are pleased to find that alternative artistic qualities of "New Expressionism" represented by a group of young artists in Guangdong like Huang Shichang, Xiao Wucong, Hu Cheng, Yang Kai, after the wave of sign painting.
I had written an essay which has pointed out that their concept of art is for the creation principle of "disenchantment" while against the strategic technique and vivid image symbols. On the one hand, they have actively absorbed the creation style and idea from foreign Neo-Expressionism which emphasizes individual’s inner feeling and expression, paying a lot of attentions to the spirit, not just the innovation of form on surface; on the other hand, they deliberately get rid of the shallowness and frivolity of politics, the naïveness and innocence of cartoon drawing, keep distance to the popular sign painting, even the contemporary mainstream way of painting, try to pursue vague and even obscure meaning. As a result, they attempt to reconstruct a new visual experience through their own sensitivity in expressive individual language: it is not only different from the expressive painting with intuitionistic emotion, but also different from appropriation of image resources and the "Richter-style” way of pursuing of painting; but seeking a breakthrough of spiritual concept in the form of expressionism, which obviously reflects a true attitude after getting away from symbolic creation. In order to fully express the individual's inner feelings, they even deliberately decline the painting language or try to hide them in the atmosphere of emotional and vague images, and defend the purity of their paintings in a simple form. The problem is that the narrative themes and metaphorical psychological spaces which have been trying to be expressed in paintings are vague, hazy. This has showed the contradiction of unity of rational and emotional spirit: it has to maintain natural, non-rational spiritual experience, as well as convert the empathy of reality theme to the form of expressionism in a certain distance, so that the painting can be an expressive carrier of deep inner spirit - a kind of record of self existence, so is called "new expressionism" style.
Yang Kai’s oil paintings have a strong sense of life, in which has hidden the worship of instinctive vitality and the lash of absurd humanity. Therefore, the deformed and absurd iconography of life has become his potential subject matter of oil painting. For example, the works like "The doll of Gods" which depicts the chaos between the gods and the devils after reversal of their roles; "My Bride" does not portray the dressed and beautiful bride, but skulls symbolize turbidity and disorder of humanity; in "The Story of Earth Mother" the digestion and separation of characters in the painting cannot restrain the stagnant, indifference, impassive atmosphere ... ... Although every piece of Kai Yang’s works has its own precise theme and content, but strictly speaking, the theme and content of a work is not the essence and focus of expressionism. Though there are basic provisions about forms, such as the form of representation, black and white color, expression of personality and freedom of using paint strokes and so on, but objectively speaking, the artist's emotional expression is still the most important. Perhaps it is difficult to define Yang Kai’s style as Expressionism, but it still has some opportunities of to become Expressionism, particularly the absurd life images, strong emotional psychology and unique spiritual stimulation, which makes the core strength of his works show a power of outward expansion. This is the result of artist’s thoughts and performance about the sense of alienation of human nature, rather than a process promoted by reason.
In fact, Yang Kai had gone through a period of anxiety about artistic style, and gotten rid of the confusion and binding brought by realistic painting from academism, then he has found a way of expressing inner depression, nihility and gray images which have been trying to build on vision. He takes his personal experience as the focal point of art and life, trying to show the falsity of humanity, ridiculous and boring "existence". In a series of disordered and expressive works, artists are searching for the true self in the criticism, pursuing personality and emotional extreme in form. There is a kind of indescribable life attitude and understanding of his lifestyle in Yang Kai's artworks ---- obviously artist's brushstroke language shows a strong tension of language, at the same time strengthens the intensity of expressionism.
From a technical point of view, the deformation of characters is an important feature in Yang Kai’s painting. The distorted and flat painted figures are particularly isolated on the background --- in the expressionist brush strokes languages, the characters seem to have lost the skeleton and become strange, blended motion of matter and spiral shape. The almost abstract, smoke-like iconography on the painting, among the strongest artists’ emotions, like Nietzsche said "exciting depression", no wonder there are critics directly describe it as "only lingering breath left on the picture". It goes without saying that these absurd and depressive emotions are from the strained and stressful modern life, from the extreme absurdity and horrifying dark side of real life "existence", while the deformation of Yang Kai’s painting characters is exactly the portrayal of modern people’s pain and unrest.
Furthermore, in order to eliminate narrativity of painting, Yang Kai has introduced irrational factors into painting. It depends largely on the effect of contingency, such as the use of greasepaint effect which is similar to water spot or ink mark as the shadow of painting; dripping the color from the agitated brush, strokes unconsciously slipping; or making a base on the canvas directly, applying impasto in order to show a sense of hierarchicy, etc. These intentionally or unintentionally caused factors have changed the desired effect of the painting, and strengthened the impromptu factors. To Yang Kai, the brushstroke is the key of creating shape, each movement of the stroke on the canvas is changing the shape, which has a positive meaning to the expression of shape. In terms of the effect of thick impasto, the texture shows the artist's perception and illusion, cohered with all his touch of nature and spiritual life.
When I was enjoying Yang Kai’s oil painting, it reminds me that once I published an essay about young artists Huang Shichang’s artworks with the title of "With Regard to Huang Shichang’s Problem Consciousness in His Recent Artworks". I think his work "not only concerns formal language expression as abstract expressionism do, more importantly, he concerns a symbolic form of expressionism, attaching the psychological feeling or thought to the expressive form, which endows with insight into modern life and anxiety. " Similar to Huang Shichang, Yang Kai is also an artist with strong emotional expression. His works have "symbolic images" of absurd humanity existence, which reflect the insight and symbolic expression of the real life. The difference is that in Yang Kai's painting concept, there is a digestion of the sense of works. In other words, artists want viewers not to identify the contents of painting, but rather to explain the meaning of image on the life, as well as the symbol of the artist’s personal attitude towards life presented in the works. Thereby Yang Kai intentionally or unintentionally has created the integrity in expressive paintings which is a present irrational painting, also chosen a way of personalized language in the real painting context with the greatest freedom, Yang Kai was seeking new aesthetic value precisely during this process in form of art. Frankly speaking, the absurd and depressed emotionality in Yang Kai’s painting is like wildfire burning freely - this may be the brilliant part of his paintings, just as boiling energy. The absurd "existence" in Yang Kai’s works blends the unconscious creation impulses, feelings of depression and images of experience life. This is rather an artist’s desire for walking out of visual utilitarianism and back to the salvation of people who is absent of spirit in utilitarian society than a fictional iconography Kai Yang has extracted from realistic experience. At least, Yang Kai has raised the issue in his works, but this kind of question remains in the process of exploration. (The author is teacher from the Department of Arts and Humanities, Guangdong AIB Polytechnic College)
