2011 - Xia Yang

In the early 80s, Xia Yang had alreadybeenknown intheart milieu in mainland China and admired by the young artists. Through his contribution,Chinese art milieuhadbroadened its horizons during the revolution in early80sin China and to have a elementaryknowledgeof the art trend in the United States. Now,at the age of his late 70s, heis still trying to performnew materials and methods in his painting.
 
Xia Yang was born in Xiangxiang, Hunan in 1932 and was namedXia Zuxiang. In 1951,he started to learn painting at Li Zhongsheng’s studio in Taipei. Later in 1956, he co-founded thewell-known “TongFong ArtGroup”along with Wu Hao, Huo Gang and Xiao Qin etc., and was regarded as the leading advocate ofmodern art movement in the 50s in Taiwan. In 1959 his painting works was selectedfor the Sao Paulo Biennialin Brazil and later on was also awarded with the “NationalAward for Arts”. Xia Yang visited Europe in1963 to seek his creative direction and started his overseas painting career ever since. Five years later he went to the emerging art hub, New York. Influenced by the Photorealism, his painting style changed dramatically. In 1987 he studiedthe combination of folk art and modern techniques.He started to work on metal sculpture in 1999. He came back to Taiwan in 1992 and now resides in Shanghai.            
 
In his early works, Xia Yang made the figures flattened, abstract and Chinese cursive calligraphy-like; moreover, he employed the Chinese elements and images inhis works. These vivid and exaggerativefigures have lost therealistic surface, they have neither facial features nor expressions, yet they possess a sense of speed and unstableness. These kinds of “fuzzy people” images have become the characteristics and peculiar style of Xia Yang’s works.
 
Xia Yang combined the propylene painting and the collagein his recent works. This inherited theChinesesimple lineslandscape painting stylethat he had,and also absorbed the traditional Chinese paper cutting art. He made the art of paper cutting more artful by putting it into his paintings, which gave his works a decorative function but an unadorned atmosphere. Thosepaper images brought literates atmosphere to his works,and helped his works return to simplicity. His latestpaintings are mainly about landscapes, flowers and birds, which expressa peaceful communication with the nature and instinctwith minimalism and unworldliness.
 
Afterhe settled down in Shanghai, Xia Yangstarted created the biggermetal sculptures.He converted those “fuzzy people” figures into three-dimensional sculptures and used metal pieces to express the liquidityof time. Itis an interesting attempt that he gave up the pursuit of quality ofwestern metal sculpture;instead he used thin metal pieces to express the relationship betweenlines and planes. It has embodied the charms of Chinese traditional art of paper cutting. The figures’ clothes or animals’ furs are like wandering in the wind. He used the traditional Chinese painting skillsof “margin leaving” to deal with the relationship between objects and planes, which reflects the sense of the vacant in Chinese calligraphy and the fun of abstract expressionism. Xia Yang bestowed softness, sense of tension and dynamics uponthose hard metal pieces.
 
Ultimately, in Xia Yang’s works he uses the western media to depict thescholarshipofChineseink paintingsand folk art, and then incorporates the two naturally. Therefore, his works harmonizes traditional culture and modern sense. He adopted Chinese traditional art and folklore,thus his works seemsoriental and Chinese, yet alongwith international and modern significances. The modern art mostly expresses anxiety, tension and drift away. However, in Xia Yang’s Chinese works, we canfind peace and harmony.      
 
Xia Yang was always on the move during his past years. Art critic Shang Hui has categorized Xia Yang’s works into five periods, in which his changing painting style is related to his move. “Move is his way topursuit of art as well as his spiritual return to home. At the same time, itinspires his constant change of artistic creation, which contributes to his different styles in each periodof his artistic life.” In fact, we can put this way, itis not move that encourages his change of style, instead he moves for the sake of art. And we are not sure if Xia Yang, who is in his late 70s and still interested in artistic innovation, will move again in the name of art. Today, wherever Xia Yang is, heisalways looking for possibilities of promoting and harmonizing the Chinese and western cultures. He firmly believes the“genuine art exchange” is that domestic artists reach out toexotic experiences and nourishment, yet their artistic creation shall take root in their motherland. In Xia Yang’s works, we havealready found the essential of this.