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¡§Yu
pi yu mo,¡¨ to have
brush, to have ink was an expression that the ancient
masters of Chinese painting used to question the
existence and processes of painting.
The creation of a painting begins with
materials and ends with the marks that make up the
whole.
Traditional
Chinese painting has a history of studying the mark as
an individual act, a physical act that an artist makes
to produce the image of the painting.
This physical expression within the individual
mark is a creative process that is developed within
both calligraphy and painting.
¡§Calligraphy does not represent the visual
world. Rather,
the calligrapher takes the given form of the written
character and using his own brushwork as a gestured
and improvisational sign, recreates through personal
expression the forces of nature, transcending the
literal meaning of the written character in a new,
expressive language.¡¨
Wen
C. Fong, Art Historian, from Possessing the Past:
Treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei,
p 107, edited by Wen C. Fong and James C. Wyatt
¡§In
Chinese painting, artist ¡§write,¡¨ painting; here
¡§write¡¨ means the strikes show the artist¡¦s
strength and at the same time natural relaxing
expression. Chinese painting emphasizes on ¡§letting
the inner breathe lead the brush¡¨ Yueying
Zhong
Can
the mark within painting and calligraphy transcend and
through the collective whole create a harmonious
oneness that is Tao? Within painting there is a
suspended belief that the mark creates a literal and
also symbolic stroke that is the form/shape of the
object. The artist practices this act over and over
again. Perfecting
the physical motion of creating the image/mark.
Making a mark that is an object, and thus
making the subject of this exhibition.
Suspended
Marks is an
exhibition about the use of these marks, born out of a
tradition that has culminated in the contemporary
setting. Yueying
Zhong and Lamp Leong began their training and artistic
careers in China. Both artists left China and currently have studios in
Columbia, Missouri.
Both artists have developed their styles from
this tradition of mark making and have incorporated
the Western influence of their location.
Both have been given the challenge to suspend
marks within the gallery setting at the Saint Louis
University Museum of Art.
They will develop scrolls that will be
suspended in the middle of the main revolving
exhibition gallery.
The viewer will have the opportunity to see
marks that are floating in space.
Thus, the suspended marks will be the object
and subject of Suspended
Marks.
There
is a certain amount of belief in the viewer that a
mark can create images that the viewer believes to be
true; true in representation of an object, feeling, or
theory of ideas.
The viewer suspends a belief when he enters the
museum or gallery space to look at artwork. It is within that physical act of creating that suspends time
and location for some artist.
The artist is able to transcend and communicate
an emotion, perception or image that the viewer reacts
to and puts his own personal belief(s) in the work.
Suspended
Marks challenges both
the artist and viewer to suspend belief and to take a
physical look at the work of Yueying Zhong and Lampo
Leong. The
site-specific work allows the guest to view work
painted on translucent silk that has been suspended
from the ceiling in the gallery.
The viewer is allowed to walk around the pieces
forcing the eye to see the surface and mark
simultaneously. The
viewer should become aware of how the eye shifts from
a surface to depth of space and how the viewer directs
his eye to see the suspended mark within the context
of a greater whole that is Toa.
Artists¡¦
Biographical Information
Yueying
Zhong
Yueying
Zhong is a former associate professor of Fine Arts in
the Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, China.
Zhong is an artist, critic, writer, and teacher
with many achievements. He has published more than 50
academic papers in various art periodicals in China
and in Taiwan. He is the author of three books:
Chronicles of Major Events in Chinese, Western
Art History and Charm and Style.
An accomplished expert, he was editor for the
following prestigious art magazines:
Fine Art, Garden of Fine Art, Contemporary Academic Art, and Grand
View of Fine Art in China.
He left China in 1995 to begin his career as a
professional artist in the United States.
His studio is located in Columbia, Missouri.
Lampo
Leong
Lampo
Leong was born in 1961 in Guangzhou, China.
He was trained in the classical Chinese
disciplines of calligraphy and painting at the
Guangzhou Fine Arts Institute.
He developed expertise in two distinct painting
styles: the colorful, in-the-moment spontaneity of
literati brushwork and the precise, controlled
meticulous painting cultivated in the imperial
academy. Upon
graduation from the institute, he moved to San
Francisco, earning a Master of Fine Arts degree from
the California College of Arts and Crafts in1988.
Leong's
work has been collected and displayed internationally,
from China and Japan to the United States and Europe.
Leong's design was selected by the San
Francisco Arts Commission for installation in a new
plaza in San Francisco, California.
In 1998, Leong won the gold medal at the 15th
Exhibition of Chinese Calligraphy hosted by the Museum
of Fine Arts in Macao.
He currently teaches fine art at the University
of Missouri, Columbia.
Lampo
Leong says of his art form,¡¨ I integrate Chinese
calligraphy as abstract patterns in my paintings by
cutting calligraphic images done on rice-paper and
collaging them onto canvas.
The abstract arrangement of these fragmented
icons in a free-floating cosmic composition evokes the
sense and energy of Asian culture and synthesizes the
experience and vision of a modern artist.
These qualities are enhanced by glimmers of
glowing illumination from gold metallic washes along
with gestures of vitality and rhythmic strokes of wild
cursive Chinese calligraphy, which resonate with an
archaic spirit of the earth."
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