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.
