Xu Hualing
Like Chen Hongshou (1598-1652) and Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), Xu Hualing takes the calm approach, and paints in the most unhurried and patient physical composures. It is popular for artists today to perform, making the act of painting a resemblance of having a fight. Although in the years to follow this phenomenon is going to change, those involved in the art community are contemplating: why should one imitate people in the renovation business a few years ago? Can you not run off after “hitting a pot of gold”? Xu Hualing is a leading woman artist among those calm practitioners; her temperament and painting style make one think of the intellectual pursuit in the seemingly moments of “sunshine after a short snow” and “returning herds in a thunder storm”. A country’s culture will always be compelled to subdue in serenity at its high tide of madness.
Erotic paintings are often works by men; nevertheless, Xu Hualing allows us to peep into the sprout-like Chinese women through her eyes and hands. Psychologically speaking, when a woman paints another woman, it is obviously different than if it were painted from a man’s perspective; a woman is more familiar with the internal energy of the feminine body and how her blood trembles and floats under her skin. Over the last few years, Xu Hualing has painted images titled Fragrance, each detail conveys the intrinsic observation of a female painter, which causes the male counterpart in awe.
Female painters’ different interpretation is often the nuanced didactic lesson for men. Their observation and portrayal on the female hair, bosom, underwear and gaze would always permeate the motherly kindness and the sisterly sympathy. Therefore, there are embedding, intimate dialogues between the feminine members in Xu Hualing’s works, their spiritual connection is unfathomable for men.
“The desolate river makes a larger reflection of moonlight , and your vision expands when you see a sail boat drifting afar.” The Chinese understanding of the aesthetics of intangible spirit has always been the top in the world. Flowers blossomed in the north while vibrant hues covered the southern provinces. Suddenly everything is shrouded with mist. Chinese girls growing up on this land understand the intricate beauty of gazing flowers in the misty space. Without using languages, since the ancient past, paintings always have the advantage of “penetrating one’s heart without words” to convey abundant meanings. By seeing the psychological turmoil upon the world of empty rivers and the distant landscape, Xu Hualing is able to command this principle. She took an intrinsical Chinese painting style to a sailing boat, and drifts far away.
Excerpted from Moments of Blossom by Ni Jun published in February, 2007 issue of Fengdu magazine. Translated from Chinese by Fiona He
Biography
1996: Graduate from Fine Arts School
2000: Graduate from Chinese Painting Department of Central Academy of Fine Arts, Bachelor’s Degree
2003: Graduate from Hu Bo Studio of Central Academy of Fine Arts, Master’s Degree
2003-2007: Teach in Art Design College of Beijing Polytechnic University
Exhibitions
2007: 2007Seafair¾The Fine Yacht, America, Beijing International Art EXPO, Beijing, China
2006: New Drawing Annual 2006, Yan Huang Art Museum
“4th N12 New Painting Show”, C5 Gallery, Beijing, China
International Asian Art EXPO, N.Y., US
2006: Palm Beach¾America International Art Festival, Florida, US
2005: “Academy Meticulous¾1st International Youth Meticulous Figure Art Exhibition”, Today Gallery, Beijing, China
“4th N12 New Painting Show”, museum of Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
Art in the 20th Century, N.Y., US
Toronto International Art EXPO, Toronto, Canada
International Art & Antique Exhibition, N.Y., US
International Contemporary Art EXPO, Paris, France
2005: International Asian Art EXPO, N.Y., US
2005: Palm Beach¾America International Art Festival, Florida, US, Contemporary Art from Greater China,
Goedhuis Contemporary, N.Y., US, London, British
2004: “2nd N12 New Painting Show”, museum of Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
Dragonfly on 10th National Art Exhibition, collected by Zhe Jiang Art Museum
Exhibition “SHE”, Beijing Season Gallery, Beijing, China
Perfume No.5 wins Gold Medal of “Li Chang” National Youth Chinese Painting Annual, collected
2003: Exhibition “N12-Power of Drawing”, museum of Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
Perfume No.5 wins the prize of Academy Innovation on 1st CAFA “Luster of Academy” Exhibition
2002: Drawing Group of Tibet, 5th National Meticulous Exhibition, Yan Huang Art Museum, Beijing, China
2001: Napping wins Recognition Award on Chinese Rock Painting Exhibition, China Art Gallery, Beijing, China
2000: Exhibition “We”, Contemporary Art Gallery, Beijing
Another Space (4 panels) wins the second prize of CAFA’s 2000 graduate creation, first and second panel of which are collected by museum of Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
Winter wins the second prize of 1999-2000 CAFA’s student achievement exhibition
Drawing Group of Figure Creation wins the second prize of 1999-2000 CAFA’s student achievement exhibition
Publication
2005: Case study of Chinese Contemporary famous Painters¾Xu Hualing’s Meticulous Figures, Beijing Industrial Art Press
2006: Contemporary Meticulous¾Xu Hualing, Hebei Education Press
Wild at Heart
-- On Xu Hualing’s Recent Painting Series XIANU: Chinese Swordsgirls
By Ni Jun
With great delicacy, using tightly woven silk, Xu Hualing paints fantasies and wild dreams from the times when she was a young girl. Psychologically, she has secretively completed a personal wish.
“Distant dreams unformed in light autumn drizzles,
And a night of breeze from the west embracing a guest house.”
Quote by late Tang dynasty swordsman
For many years, each time when Xu Hualing leaves Beijing for somewhere far away, for example the eternally beautiful region of southern China, she would immediately enter a mode of tranquility that is distant from the hustling and bustling of the metropolitan, and continues with her world of distant dreams. Since she was ten, she became infatuated with neatly bound books and various versions of television episodes on Chinese knight-errantry written by Mr. Jin Yong, a deeply beloved journalist and story-teller based in Hong Kong. In the 1980’s, a time when the mainland is flooded with Hong Kong and Taiwanese pop culture, the People’s Republic was stepping out of the dark, sealed and isolated period and began to nurture “a generation of knight-errants with liberal minds”. Who would have thought that Xu Hualing, a teenage girl at the time, was also part of this group? Yet, she was.
Certainly Jin Yong recognized that his readers are not only literate men, but dreamy girls as well. He wrote “female” knight-errants as “woman warriors”, or the chivalrous ones among women are swordsgirls or rather xianu in mandarin pronunciation; xianu are specifically intended for young women readers among all Chinese on earth. Jin Yong not only wanted to reform contemporary Chinese men, but he also wanted to propose to Chinese women a bright direction that is different from Mao Zedong’s view of femininity; he wanted to reveal to the world of his study and perspective on the relationship between men and women since ancient times. Through his protagonists, Jin Yong attempted to change his nation single-handedly. What we see through Xu Hualing’s new works has reopened our new debates about Jin Yong and the stories he created as well. His primary intention, as what he had once proclaimed himself, was only to write fictions for a Hong Kong newspaper called Ming Bao. Yet, this small flame has spread into wild fires.
I can sense that Xu Hualing’s twenty years of Chinese swordsgirl infatuation has been an unexpected intellectual present to me. She reminisced to me, and to herself, of things from the past in details. I interrogated her, an interrogation to myself at the same time, “What can women really see in the spiritual dream world of Chinese errantry? And what is the evaluation in the minds of Chinese girls with regards to that Yang Guo, or that Dugu Qiubai, the swordsmen who strived to defeat?”
As I was writing this essay, I already knew my Chinese text would be translated into English. This has made me to sympathize with the English translator on the difficulties he or she might encounter. Can we not try to translate all the things written in Chinese into English? Can we only talk about the Chinese knight-errantry in a Chinese language?
Apparently, Xu Hualing’s aesthetics taste for these paintings is of Chinese nationality, which is one of the reasons I have always supported her.
When we speak of art today, we are aware of the unfortunate consequence of national “fundamentalist” cultural establishment, at the same time, we also question the so-called internationalism and the globally standardized art prototype consequential of technological revolution. To develop the national aesthetics in full spirit is not at all a preferable plan. Rather it’s to fundamentally meet a psychological need; because to depend on other’s cultural language would be an inadequate reason for planning. Men swinging swords and halting horses in the battlefields; their deviousness and wit tactics are always going to be the basic approaches. However, art is something streaming down to a river of time -- one’s duty and consistency are often crucial elements. The art world in a country like China, if one can still make such a claim, is now chaotically unwieldy and almost lost its chances to glory, thus has come the time for the emergence of the female knight-errants. When a woman is about to manage this chaos, her approaches would often be indistinct, misty and mysterious.
Weng Meiling, Qi Meizhen, Zhao Yazhi and Huang Xingxiu were actresses playing Jin Yong protagonists, who also have become the protagonists for Xu Hualing. Unlike Jin Yong’s fictional details, the artist only has to handle the world on a piece of silk. Xu Hualing continues to apply mineral pigments, and use water to dilute the colors. Her elaboration and spreading of the hues are accomplished even more with a relaxing state of mind. This year, with each and every one of her brushstrokes, Xu Hualing has given up all nuisance on techniques, she is more at ease with the flowing and leisurely portrayals, which she has applied throughout the years, of the Chinese swordsgirls she has always wanted to depict – they were the artist's spiritual guides when she was a young girl. A person’s long time obsession with a kind of dream face, relying on the time spent for each brushstroke and spread of colors to form, has accomplished paintings one after another without any rush to these dreams on silk; this is also part of the swordsgirl style in terms of endurance.
Dutiful yet free, on her seemingly indistinct, faded and intangible silks, Xu Hualing has intentionally painted red lips and red nails for the heroines. Every girl who likes to accentuate her flaring features likes to reinforce her gender. About twenty years ago, Xu Hualing had colored all female knight-errants’ skin on numerous children books printed with the stills of a TV drama or movie based on Jin Yong novels, just like other kids who liked to draw had painted the faces and bodies of their idols. Still using these juicy red markers, Xu Hualing now paints the lips and nails red satisfying her own swordsgirls named Yazhi or Meiling. Being a swordsman or a swordsgirl is all about a role of the liberator for others and also about one’s efforts for a self-liberation. “When we look around today, who can be called a xianu in your mind?” I asked the woman painter.
My conversation with Xu Hualing and this writing both conclude with the love issue between men and women, since the “pretty Huang Rong” and “Baby Dragongirl” both were not single. “What a perfect lover!” Xu Hualing confessed her dream man was Yang Guo. A proud, stubborn yet passionate and responsible knight-errant not only provides his woman a sense of security, but also the origin of all his woman’s fantasy and ecstasy. In places like Suzhou, Tongli, Kunming and the central but old section of Shanghai, Xu Hualing has enjoyed delicacies and freedom with her “Yang Guo” in days of escaping the mundane.
“The heavenly wind blows on the sleeves of her gown,
In the elusiveness her body floats.”
As written by Zhou Dunyi, a Song dynasty man of letters, to a friend.
Because of Xu Hualing and Jin Yong’s creations, if you contemplate appropriately, your sword of wisdom would pave yourself a new path of joy in life. The word “love” is always imbued with a dense red. Being aloof from your lonesome hero, or without your swordsgirl’s sentimentality, how would the other one know of that you are wild at heart?
September, 2007
Beijing
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